INTERBEING by AnimalConcepts

Having a background in marine mammal training, Tim Sullivan reflects on the impact his different mentors and the thorough coaching that he received has had on his career in caring for marine mammals. Tim reflects on his experience and discusses how the practice of animal training has changed over the years and whether it is logical to ask animals to carry out behaviours that do not come naturally to them.

Tim is a co-founder of the Animal Behaviour Management Alliance and he explains how the organisation got started alongside the benefits it has for collaborative working when training animals. Tim also shares anecdotes on how he has found exposing animals to change early on can help build up their resilience and reduce stress when variations in their routine may be unavoidable. Having a lot of experience in animal training, Tim shares the value of being proactive in animal behaviour management to avoid problematic behaviours, such as stereotypies, from occurring.

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This podcast is dedicated to Else Poulsen (1955 to 2016)

“Bears just do things for Bear reasons”

Jay Pratte is the Director of Animal Care, Conservation and Education at the Utica Zoo in the state of New York, USA.

Jay shares with us how his interest in animal behaviour initiated in Waterton Park whilst on a high school camping trip. While exploring the environment, Jay walked upon a doe. He approached her slowly with grass, observing her body language and adjusting himself to reduce the chance of her running. Although his father found it confusing, Jay thought this way of behaving was normal and thus carried it with him with his training.

Jays’ family expected him to be a lawyer due to his high grades. Consequently, he studied environmental law at Alberta University. He explained that by chance a friend told him about big cats which were housed outside the city in a roadside zoo, whereby Jay proceeded to volunteer there, shortly followed by employment. During his employment, he further observed that human behaviours cause animals to adjust their behaviours accordingly. As such, Jay changed his studies to behavioural psychology and zoology. From this Jay trained animals for the film industry, then moved to Dallas Zoo working in the ExxonMobil Tiger habitat managing their training programmes. What Jay learnt here, he transferred to his job working with Giant Pandas at Zoo Atlanta, China.

Jay talks about his current effort in shutting down facilities with poor animal welfare alongside groups such as USDA, PETA and HSUS. This starts with a request to change but frequently ends with litigation. Jay references a couple of facilities in which he helped shut down including Wildlife in Need after observations of bear cub abuse.

Jay explained how he entered the zoo world. He described how initially he thought being a vet was the only option. However, following a shadow day at a vet whilst in high school, he determined experiencing the emotional pain of euthanising animals was not a viable career choice for him. Yet, volunteering at the roadside zoo enlightened him on other possibilities. Jay highlights this as a career choice of passion, with not much money. He recommends volunteering to discover if certain careers are for you.

Jay explains his role at Utica Zoo makes him feel valued and make an impact in the lives of both humans and animals by taking the zoo to the next step. Additionally, he appreciates the zoo's position within the local community and how valued it is, in return, Jay helped the local community through many activities including helping students.

Jay then described how he and Else Polsen met at Zoo Atlantica, however, when he moved on, they lost contact. A few years later Else reached out, asking for Jay to do a training session at her conference. During which, they discussed an idea, developing a non-profit group to protect bears and improve their welfare- this is the birth of the Bear Care Group.

Jay remembers Else, describing her as a mentor, good friend and crucial member of the team. He depicted her as a force to be reckoned with. Else was known to help anyway, no matter what their background or situation is, if they wanted to help the bears, she was there. It was this that taught Jay to be open in his work to promote positive change. Jay and Sabrina then discuss the importance of a complementary team, which each bring their skillset and perspectives to reduce confirmation bias and promote change. He described learning so much from her, however, their time was cut short when Else got cancer and passed away. Jay continues to run the Bear Care Group in the way Else would. Jay highlighted how people can support the group, whether it’s a donation, interacting with the social media page or attending a talk. If you want to help bears, any input is critical.

Jay concludes by quoting “Oh, you made contact!” a line spoken by Jamie Lee Curtis in a movie called Fierce Creatures. Jay says that line makes him think of connection, it is this connection that keeps his passion going. Jay then reminisces about a training session he did at Romania Zoo, whereby he trained a previously untrained Brown bear he nicknamed “Borscht”. Jay said that the fact that Borscht came out of hiding, taught to target, open his mouth on command and stand up fully, all within half an hour, thus demonstrating the power of positive reinforcement.

Learn about the Bear Care Group HERE

Learn more about you could support the Bear Care Group HERE

Find out more about Jay Pratte HERE

Learn more about Else Poulsen HERE

Become a member of PAWS HERE

Erna Walraven covers the progression of her career in the animal care sector, from caring for stray dogs to successfully becoming former Senior Curator at Taronga Zoo for twenty years. She strives to encourage members of the public and animal care professionals to be active for animals, the planet and the greater good.

As curator, Erna realised her region was lacking animal welfare positions. She created a position for Taronga Zoo which encompassed training the zoo’s staff about what the term ‘animal welfare’ actually means. This enables staff to create goals in what standards they want to achieve and how success can be measured. Part of this includes allowing animals to have negative experiences or “safe negatives”, whilst ensuring their welfare is not compromised, to give them a life that is as close to what the animal would experience in the wild, such as being outdoors in bad weather. This is so that the animals can make the decisions in their own care as they would outside of captivity. It is important to enrich these innate behaviours so that future generations of animals know how to be independent from humans when they have been released into a sustainable habitat.

In this podcast, Erna provides tips on how she landed her first job in a zoo and explains the inspiration behind her contributions to animal welfare. Her books ‘Wild Leadership’, ‘Wild Fathers’ and ‘Care of Australian Wildlife: For Gardeners, Landholders and Wildlife Carers’ are just some examples of how Erna empowers members of the public to save animals in crises. She explains the importance of communication that leaders have with their employees and how this affects successful working relationships. Erna also discusses her exciting upcoming book which focuses on the power that female animals have in their social groups.

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Tune in for this Saturday's podcast to learn more about animal ethics, philosophy, our relationship to other animals, and empathetic engagement with the more than human world.

Lori Gruen is the William Griffin Professor of Philosophy and Professor of Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and Science in Society at Wesleyan University where she also coordinates Wesleyan Animal Studies. Her work lies at the intersection of ethical and political theory and practice, with a particular focus on issues that impact those often overlooked in traditional ethical investigations, e.g. women, people of color, incarcerated people, non-human animals. She is currently working to unpack carceral logics by thinking through a complex set of issues like dignity, self-respect, empathy, disposability, and hope and hopelessness.

Learn more about Lori Gruen HERE

Become a member of PAWS now HERE

David Neale has been the Director of Animals Asia Foundation since 2002.

David shares with us how when he was 14, he saw chimpanzees used as photo props whilst in Majorca, Spain, and how it ignited his passion for animal welfare. Sabrina shares similar memories of seeing Africa Greys, snakes, and a Tiger. She also mentions apps where the public can record these animals to influence change.

David says his study choices were limited, so studied Environmental Science and then a postgraduate in Conservation Biology. After graduating, David worked as an ecologist for a river restoration charity in England, which aimed to restore lost habitats. When David surveyed for European water voles (a species that declined due to pollution, habitat loss and the release of mink), he determined the mink would need to be culled. This introduces an animal welfare element. David did not want to contribute to this, so embarked on a trip to Asia and South America to determine an alternative career. 

Whilst travelling, he visited zoos and sanctuaries, reporting his observations to the Born Free Foundation. David shared with us a key moment in Vietnam, where he observed two caged bears, one of which was a cub. He learnt they were destined to be milked for bile at a bear farm. Horrified, he reported this to Born Free who referred him to the recently established Animals Asia Foundation by Jill Robinson. Through communications with Jill, David helped establish Animals Asia in the UK, spending approximately eight years giving talks to all manners of people.

Concurrently, David wanted to contribute to the welfare of farmed animals beyond being a vegan, so he volunteered as a Political Coordinator for the British Hen Welfare Trust. This trust rehomes laying hens after they have stopped being economically viable.

From here David, attended Asia for Animals, a conference of all organisations which occurs every two years to discuss relevant issues and increase collaborations, although this was rare between conferences. David wanted a more long-term collaboration between organisations so established Asia for Animals Coalition. It aims to allow the sharing of information to improve animal welfare. Within the coalition are species-specific working groups.

David introduces us to his blogs on preventing future pandemics through altering the way livestock animals are managed and the consumption of animals both domestic and exotic to be more sustainable. He shares how the covid pandemic has highlighted this to the public.

David continues by sharing his career progression through Animals Asia, by being more hands-on in China. Here he worked with the China Zoo Association to remove circuses within their businesses to improve animal welfare. This change occurred in 2011. Animals Asia then progressed to provide advice and knowledge to further improve welfare in Chinese zoos through workshops.

David shares with us the education programme to instruct the public on the wild behaviour and needs of species and why scenarios such as bear farms are bad for the species. He then mentions their work with the Chinese veterinary medical association, educating their students on how their care can impact their welfare. Animals Asia invested in outside veterinary experts to teach in universities which have resulted in overall improvements.

David then discusses the illegal wildlife trade in Vietnam and working with the Government to set up a sanctuary in Tam Dao National Park for formally farmed bears, and capacity building across centres to improve welfare and knowledge.

David then talks about replacing elephant riding with ethical elephant tourism in Vietnam. This entails guided tours that follow the elephants within their habitat, this benefits all stakeholders including the elephants and creates more income.

David concludes by telling us the story of a 60-year-old elephant, who was rescued by the team from her life of being used for rides. She lived four years within the reserve where she interacted with a wild male elephant and ventured outside the reserve.

Listen to our podcast with Jill Robinson HERE

Read the "eating animals at the zoo" paper HERE

Read about the Asia for Animals Coalition HERE

Read about the Animals Asia HERE

Content warning: This podcast includes descriptive content related to laboratory animals which some listeners may find distressing.

Sally Thompson-Iritani is the Asst. Vice Provost, Animal Care, Outreach & 3Rs and Clinical Associate Professor at the University of Washington. Additionally, she is a Certified Compassion Fatigue Professional and a Human-Animal Bond Practitioner.

Sally shares with us how her love of animals developed from her love of cats. Despite not being allowed one as a child due to living in a small apartment, she found interacting with them comforting. Through this, Sally’s mum nurtured her understanding of ensuring an animal is provided with all their needs. Sally developed an interest in the care provided to research animals due to her childhood friend's father completing research on mice at a university. This was further developed when she read an article on a neuroscience study that used non-human primates, whereby Sally questioned herself on the methods used to care for these primates. Her mum suggested it could be a possible career choice for Sally.

Sally studied a PhD focusing on how the environment can affect foetal development, primarily concentrating on the effects of methylmercury. She conducted this study using the mouse, as foetal development can only be studied in situ.  When Sally finished her studies, she worked in a biotechnology company on therapeutics to develop medications and therapies.

Sally informs us that many measures put in place to protect animals in research are globally universal. This not only ensures the animals are well cared for, but the study outcomes are reliably repeatable. This is regulated and updated through organisations such as ALAC International.

Sabrina and Sally discuss the importance of laboratory animals in developing treatments, and how the resulting outcomes have saved lives. They agree how they are both grateful so aim to improve the welfare of these animals. Sally expands that without laboratory animals, many animals such as those in zoos and in agriculture have received better care due to the development of surgeries, medicines and vaccines.

Sally informs us how animal care during the covid pandemic has been tough for everyone. She quotes the most difficult bit being the lack of social interaction between caregivers during the workday, which was counteracted by using Zoom during lunchtimes.

Sally explains about her work at the Northwest Association for Biomedical Research, and how the organisation is committed to support the biomedical community and inform others of its importance.

Sally talks about human wellbeing and her work as a Certified Compassion Fatigue Professional. She explains how compassion fatigue originated in nursing and spread out across all caring roles including laboratory animal caregivers.  She describes how the role is mentally and emotionally difficult as carers forge bonds with animals that can be euthanized during a study. Her role involves guiding people through these emotions, providing them coping mechanism tools. Sally then introduces us to research she collaborated with Teresa Schlanser and Peter Rabinowitz on compassion fatigue in satisfaction in US army laboratory animal medicine personnel. It showed the importance of a good support network for improved resilience.

Sally concludes by explaining the benefits of positive reinforcement training across all animal disciplines. She references how it has been used to train non-human primates within neuroscience to move from their enclosure to the study area. She also mentioned recent work to 'litter train' dairy cattle to excrete in one area to improve waste management.

Learn more about Sally Thompson-Iritani HERE

Link the collaborative research HERE

Watch how non-human primates have been trained HERE

Watch how dairy cattle have been trained HERE

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Elisabetta Palagi is an Associate Professor at the University of Pisa, whose research focuses on social and sexual behaviour, and mechanisms underlining empathy such as rapid facial mimicry and emotional contagion.

Elisabetta shares a short story of growing up on a farm, of chickens and other animals, her early interest in animal behaviour, and a wise lesson by her grandmother.

She shares her start in academia, being a student at the University of Pisa, and completing her PhD in evolutionary biology. After her studies she continued at the University of Pisa, in the role of mammal curator at the museum of natural history, expanding her views on animal behaviour through zoology.

She shares her collaboration with the Pistoia Zoo where she studied lemurs. After great apes, wolves, hyenas, sea lions, and others, both in the wild and under human care.

Elisabetta discusses aspects of her and collaborative research on animal friendships, focusing on individuals, agonistic support, relationship quality, body contact, and cohesiveness.

Elisabetta discusses the importance of comparative research, considering different approaches focussing on social similarities and phylogeny, homologous traits, or evolutionary convergence.

She discusses peace and reconciliation in different species, with specific examples on consolation, concern, comforting each other, egoism, and altruism, in different species.
Elisabetta also shares a great story on breaking the ice and grooming, using a very Italian custom of ‘aperitivo’.

Social play, explanations of immediate and delayed play, rough and tumble play, social tolerance, and adult play, as well as managing xenophobia by playing, and when play is a family business: adult play, hierarchy, and possible stress reduction in common marmosets are covered.

…to celebrate the arrival of food, about 20 minutes before food arrival, chimpanzees increase their grooming behaviour, and in bonobos we found a peak in play behaviour…leaving the animals more relaxed before the food arrives, reducing levels of aggression and solving levels of distrust.”

Elisabetta discusses her collaborative book “The Missing Lemur Link: an Ancestral Step in Human Evolution” and concludes the podcast with a story of her travel to Madagascar and hearing the singing of an Indri and the deep experience of being in this marvellous environment.

University of Pisa

Google Scholar

PLAY AND THE EVOLUTION OF CREATIVE SOCIETIES

Song of the Indri lemur

Becca Hanson is a Founding Principal of Studio Hanson | Roberts. She is a landscape architect with over 44 years of experience.

Becca shares with us how her love of nature started in Cincinnati, Ohio, during her childhood in the woodland behind her home. Here she could interact with nature first-hand by climbing trees, handling animals etc.

Becca started her university career intending to be an architect. However, she realised it was not for her, so took a nine-year sabbatical where she had a child and lived in Europe. During a trip to the Royal Horticultural Society Gardens in Wisley in the UK, she saw the rockery. This inspired Becca to finish her degree to construct similar works. Becca then enrolled in the University of Washington to get a BLA in Landscape Architecture and a minor in plant community ecology.

From here Becca got a job with Jones & Jones, who were working to design landscapes for the Woodland Park Zoo, Seattle. The more she worked with zoos, the more she fell in love with the zoo environment and the people within them as they all want to make the world a better place. She also discovered how she loved designing with the web of life in mind; incorporating both the needs of animals, plants and people to ensure everyone’s lives are rich and fulfilling. Becca and Sabrina then discuss how the 24/7 approach is critical in enclosure design as animals could inhabit it for the rest of their lives. Becca then highlights how much expertise is required to ensure everybody’s needs are met within the environment as well as reverberate the message of conservation to leave an impact on visitors.

Becca explains how she and her husband David Roberts set up SH | R in 2003, to devote their professional lives to zoos and aquariums. She explained how SH | R gained traction quickly, becoming international. Becca shared her adoration of learning from different people during her travels, which could be utilised in future designs. Becca goes on to explain the impact of COVID-19 on the studios, and how all projects had to continue online using services such as Zoom. 

Becca then provides examples of ‘conservation by design’. She references how Houston Zoo aims to convert basic enclosures to ones focused on welfare and demonstrates the conservation themes of the zoo. Becca mentions the under-construction Galapagos exhibit which aims to highlight to visitors the Galapagos landscapes and unique animals and what can be done to conserve them. Becca further highlights that sustainability is key in conservation by design, by which resources and techniques utilised must reduce the overall footprint. She references as an example, the water in the Hippopotamus exhibit at Werribee Open Range Zoo, Melbourne. Incorporated within the enclosure is one hectare of wetlands which acts as a biofilter. Cleaning the water. Simultaneously, increasing biodiversity through attracting birds, insects, crustaceans etc. She also references how enclosures must be designed to last.

“Designing an enclosure for the flexibility to be able to change things, about keeping staff involved in the lives of animals, and making it a rich and fulfilling life for everyone. So that everybody looks forward to a new day dawning."

Becca then explains her passions lie in how children engage with the zoo environment, with the aim to induce empathy with them and their families as well as encouraging natural play. She states the zoo is more likely to make an impact if they can physically interact rather than just observe. She mentions her love of the Science North, Northern Ontario, Nature Exchange, whereby children exchange items from nature along with knowledge for other natural items. 

Becca and Sabrina then discuss the importance of team diversity and budgeting when it comes to landscape design to ensure all plans come to fruition.

Becca then explains the criteria needed to become a Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects. 

Becca concludes by telling us how a Javan Rice Finch named Fred, who once lived in a cage in a children’s museum, became a big part of office life. 

Learn more about the Studio Hanson | Roberts HERE

Learn more about Becca Hanon HERE

Become a member of PAWS HERE

Today on iBuzz we welcome Dr Gordon Bauer, Professor Emeritus of Psychology at New College of Florida. Gordon has investigated animal senses, cognition and behaviour in a wide variety of species such as manatees, bottlenose dolphins, humpback whales and sea turtles.

Gordon opens with one of his first interactions with humpback whales and explains how he became interested in studying animals at a young age with frequent trips to his local zoo. He reflects on how he explored a number of possible career paths before returning to work with animals at the age of 30, a decade after graduating from his B.A. in Psychology.

He describes his work at the University of Hawaii, working in dolphin communication and cognition. He talks about how collaboration with researchers from other fields allowed him to pursue biomagnetism in species including bottlenose dolphins, porpoises and humpback whales. This culminated in his first published article, kickstarting his ongoing and influential career in cetacean research.

Dr Bauer goes on to share his experiences working in the field of conservation with free-living manatees. He explains how it began as a project with one of his students, which aimed to discover whether manatees could be trained to comply with husbandry procedures. What began as a student project eventually grew into a larger initiative, including research into manatees that are struck by boats and how they use their senses to understand their surroundings. It is highlighted that by understanding how manatees experience their world, it will be possible to understand how better to care for and protect these animals in our care and in the wild.

Gordon shares his experiences with training animals, and how training does not always go to plan. He describes an experience of training manatees to open an eye on signal, and hold it open for a veterinary ophthalmologist to examine; he recalls how, after several months of training, it had turned out that the manatees had instead learned to close their eyes and keep them closed. He highlights the importance of understanding how animals behave in creating effective training results; for example, if he had understood that manatees close their eyes when eating, he might have adjusted the reward protocol.

Following on from discussing his own research career, he goes on to reflect on the research work carried out by his own students. This included work on lateralisation in marine mammals, indicating that different individual manatees would have different flipper preferences much like how humans will have a preference for a left or right dominant hand. Gordon stresses the importance of communicating the findings of research to a variety of audiences to ensure science can be put into practice.

Gordon continues with a discussion on animal cognition and acknowledging the learning principles and complex processes that animals display during research. He cites the importance of understanding how the marine environment shapes cognition in marine mammals as we move forward in investigating specific questions for specific species.
We finish with a story about care, and of people engaging with species that are not typically seen as playful - such as sea turtles - and watching animals having fun.

“We had this naive trainer, who had made this major breakthrough with the manatee … the discovery that auditory stimulation kept them relaxed and on their backs.”

Become a member of PAWS now HERE

On today’s podcast, we welcome Terry Maple onto iBuzz to talk to us about his new book, The Life of Willie B., and his impressive lifelong career as a behavioural researcher, wildlife conservationist, professor, author, and zoo director. 

Terry tells us of the inspirations behind his latest book, citing the positive changes for animals - particularly great apes - that have occurred in the zoo industry during his career. He talks about his life’s journey to Zoo Atlanta, starting out  as an animal social psychologist, and his interest in what made a zoo great. Inspired by his local zoo growing up, San Diego Zoo, he began a 30-year career revitalising and reforming the then-discredited Zoo Atlanta. Through his management, he - alongside a team of “reformers” -  was a key driver in turning Zoo Atlanta into the respected facility it is today. 

Terry talks about how gorilla management has changed since he started his work with the apes. He explains how, as research into great ape behaviour in the field developed, he set out to utilise this knowledge to reform the management of gorillas under human care. In particular, he celebrates the shift from housing single gorillas by themselves to keeping species-appropriate groups which mimic the family dynamics of groups living in the wild. 

Willie B. is remembered by Terry as a remarkable animal, and a demonstration of the importance of providing an environment that replicates the experience they would have in the wild - one that is mentally challenging, but peaceful, with the ability to socialise with their own kind. He tells us of the positive changes he saw in Willie B. after the gorilla, who had lived in a concrete enclosure for two decades, moved to a naturalistic African rainforest inspired exhibit. He celebrates all of the people in the community who came together to stand behind him as he, new to working as a zoo director at the time, spearheaded the construction of what was then considered revolutionary. 

Terry also tells us about his involvement with Ivan, a gorilla which was taken from the wild at a young age and kept as a household pet for the first years of his life. Terry explains how disturbing this critical period of Ivan’s social life went on to impact him when he eventually came to live at Zoo Atlanta. Terry explains how the 27 years Ivan spent in isolation, living in a department store in Georgia, led to him struggling to adjust to the company of other gorillas. 

Terry concludes the podcast with a reflection on how Willie B. impacted the lives of everyone who met him. Sabrina reads one of the testimonials on the podcast, sharing just one of the many tributes found in the book. Terry shares his personal reflections on his experiences with Willie B., reflecting on how happy he was to be part of something important and helping to change the world for gorillas living in human care. 

Terry Maple’s latest book, Atlanta’s Iconic Ape, is available on Amazon HERE 

Take a look at the other books authored by Terry Maple HERE 

Become a member of PAWS now HERE