The Wildlife Center of Virginia
Education: children and adults gain a connection with animals
on a personal level. Engages and inspires them.
Enrichment: gets the animal thinking in their environment.
Stimulates something new every week and allows them to earn a
“living”. Challenges them to make decisions and shape their
actions.
“Our quality of work is their quality of life.” by Meryle Nelson
Relationship: builds a strong relationship with trainer
Medical: Health checks on the glove
Alymeries – leather anklets
around a birds leg.
Jesses – leather straps that
go through the alymeries
with a slit at the bottom.
Mostly used for safety and
control.
Swivel – made of metal with two
rings on each end. Jesses are pulled
through one end, a leash is pulled
through the other.
Leash – allows a trainer or educator
to safely take a manned bird out of
his enclosure without flying away.
*All leather equipment is oiled each
week to keep clean and soft and
more comfortable for the birds.
Animals are constantly learning in their environment
There are two ways animals learn:
Classical Conditioning – train by using a neutral stimulus that brings
about a behavioral response. (example: dog, bell and food or clicker).
Forms an association between two stimuli.
Operant Conditioning – A process of learning in which behaviors are
altered by their consequences. They learn to perform or not perform a
behavior based on positive/negative reinforcement.
Important to remember with this type of training, the animal chooses
whether or not they will participate and have the power over their
environment.
Trainers at the Wildlife Center focus on operant conditioning, where
our main goal is to shape the behavior for the desired outcome.
Operant Conditioning: ABC’S
Antecedents (cues) : Set the occasion for particular behavior (they
don’t cause the behavior, they set the stage)
Example: Raise your gloved hand to perch near the hawk (command:
step up)
Behavior
is a function of its consequences
Consequences (reward)
Event that occurs after the behavior that increases a behavior
A trainer uses anything to encourage them to do the behavior (visual, audible or
gesture).
Example: hawk receives food reward
Our future behavior – the hawk will continue to step onto glove
Reinforcement
Anything that increases a behavior
Positive reinforcement – increasing a behavior by using a desired
stimulus ( kid gets dessert for eating its vegetables)
Negative reinforcement – increasing a behavior by using an aversive
stimulus. (horse slows down by pulling on reins)
•Reinforcing is not absolute…what works for one might not work for
the other.
Through positive reinforcement the animals motivation will be higher
and will be more attentive towards each training session.
Punishment
Anything that decreases a behavior
Positive Punishment – applying an aversive stimulus that decreases a behavior.
(you sneeze after petting the dog, so you don’t pet the dog).
Negative punishment – is when it loses something it wants due to decreasing
behavior.
Side effects of positive punishment
Increased aggression
Loss of interest in the training session
Avoidance behavior
When trainers start with a behavior, reinforcing the behavior is
continuous. Over time, as the behavior is performed 90% of the time
trainers will start to reinforce intermittently. When a new behavior
is introduced reinforcing is continuous again. *Important in reading
and observing the behavior and animal’s hesitation level.
Reinforcing intermittently is really important so the behavior
doesn’t go extinct. If it is always continuous the behavior has a
higher chance of failing.
*Element of surprise! Trainers must be careful not to get trapped
into mundane sessions.
Capturing – catch the animal performing the behavior and
reinforce. Quick and simple, but less effective and can
bankrupt your relationship.
Modeling – watching another animal
Bating- used at the beginning of training, but phased out
Physically assisting – getting a dog to give you his paw
Flooding- surround the animal with aversions to tame
it…they learn forced helplessness.
Shaping –differentially reinforce by breaking down
behaviors into small steps that lead to a final behavior
overtime.
Give the bird a window of opportunity to perform the desired
behavior. This should only be a short period of time.
Example: holding your glove up for a long time, the bird will
learn that they can take as long as they want and still get a
reward.
This also occurs in their natural environment. (rabbit went
into a hole, snake went under a rock, fish swam away)
Individual and natural history of the bird:
•Food – Bald Eagles in the wild eat mostly fish as well as rats and
small rodents
•Social behavior – know the species and the individual. Bald
Eagles tend to be more aggressive than other raptors. Footing and
biting are defense behaviors. Many raptors put their hackles up
when aggressive. Generally it is not advised to train adult bald
eagles – high strung and nervous.
•Body condition/weight
•Habitat – live near large bodies of water.
•Injury
•Physical limits – Buddy’s beak needs to be coped every
month…This partly can affect training. Trainer notices behavioral
changes around the time he is coped.
What our trainers do
•Trainers have a plan with steps to shape the behavior…baby steps lead
to the final behavior. Each step needs to be small enough that the bird
has a realistic chance of reaching it.
•Trainer must be flexible and allow for change
•Records are logged for every training session – time/amount of
food/description of the session
•Every raptor that is in training is worked with everyday the trainer
works.
•Each trainer has a specific amount of food weighed out in order to
train.
Motivation
Know your bird, so you can figure out what motivates it and what
doesn’t
-trust with trainer
-past experiences
-Animal’s confidence
-Natural changes – don’t like the rain or wind, etc…
-Hunger – this is why it’s important to manage their food. If they
are not hungry then food won’t work well as a motivator. Have to
figure out the balance so they can perform the behavior.
Think in terms of the animals perspective– what is in it for them?
Trust – build a strong positive relationship with the bird. Similar
to a bank account (Steve Martin). A good trainer gains trust
with the bird allowing them to control their environment.
Deposits – positive experiences +
Withdrawals – negative experiences • A behavior is shaped by experiences
Steve Martin describes – the secret to training birds in the word!
Science, Empowerment, Communication, Respect, Enrichment, Trust
Continued…
•Communicate
•have confidence
• be consistent
• have patience, never force the bird to do something it is not ready to do
•be elastic
•Be observant and read their reactions
•Timing is important
•Timing: be careful on how fast you train or how slow you train….if they
don’t get it back up a step, if they are trained too slowly or not pushing
them forward then they will learn to stand still and that makes it harder
for them to move to the next step.
Example: Rubber Band