Volume 38, Number 2 ~ Second Quarter 2013

Magazine of the International Marine Animal Trainers’ Association

IN THIS ISSUE:

BEYOND BASICS: TRAINING DOLPHINS (Tursiops truncatus) AND SEA LIONS (Zalophus californianus) THE ‘CONCEPT BEHAVIORS’ INNOVATE, REPEAT, COMBOS, AND AD-LIBS

DeDicateD to aDvancing the humane care anD hanDling of marine animals by fostering communication between professionals that serve marine animal science through training, public Display, research, husbanDry, conservation, anD eDucation.

Soundings is published four times a year by the International Marine Animal Trainers Association (IMATA) as a service to its members. Submissions of manuscripts, photographs, and illustrations are welcomed and encouraged, but will be returned only if accompanied by a return envelope and adequate postage. Any material accepted is subject to such revision as is necessary in our sole discretion to meet the requirements of publication. Soundings is produced using Microsoft Word; the style manual followed is the fifth edition (2002) Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. Electronic submissions are preferred and can be sent to IMATA Soundings Chief Editor, Heather Keenan, at: info@imata.org. (Typed submissions will also be accepted and should be double spaced on 8.5” x 11” paper.) Include the name, address, FAX number, and phone number of the author on the title page. Slides and hard copy or photographs can be color or black and white; photographs should be at least 3” x 5”. Digital photographs are welcomed and should have adequate resolution when viewed on a computer screen. For all images, include captions, identify all recognizable persons, and include a photo credit. The act of submitting an article, photograph, or illustration constitutes an agreement that (1) the materials are free of copyright restrictions, (2) photo releases have been obtained, and (3) the material may be published by IMATA in Soundings or other IMATA publications. Deadlines for submission are 15 November, 15 February, 15 May, and 15 August. Submissions should be addressed to Heather Keenan, Soundings Chief Editor, email info@imata.org or mailed to IMATA, 1200 South Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, Illinois, USA, or faxed to (312) 939-2216. Address changes should be sent to IMATA’s Secretary, Jennifer Leach, at the same address. Address changes can also be made online at IMATA’s web site, www.imata.org.

©Copyright 2013. All of the articles contained within Soundings are the personal views of the respective authors and do not necessarily represent the views of IMATA or its Board of Directors.

contact us1200 S. Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, Illinois 60605 USAPHONE (312) 692-3193 • FAX (312) 939-2216Info@imata.org or visit our website at www.imata.org

Design & proDuctionLunar Cow137 S. Main Street, STE 202 • Akron, OH 44308(330) 253-9000 • www.lunarcow.com

regional reporter contact informationAssociate Editor: Martha Hill marthahill.imata@gmail.comAsia: Philip Wong philip.wong@oceanpark.com.hkAustralia/New Zealand: Ryan Tate rtate@zoo.nsw.gov.auCanada: Brian Sheehan brian.sheehan@vanaqua.orgCaribbean Islands: Bernard Collie bernard.collie@atlantisparadise.comEurope North Central: Christiane Thiere chriddel2@aol.com Europe Northeast: Sunna Edberg sunna.edberg@kolmarden.comEurope Northwest: John-Rex Mitchell johnrex15@att.netEurope South Central: Pablo Joury pablowebs@yahoo.frEurope Southwest: Monika Lechermeier monika.lechermeier@marine-mammal-cognition.deJapan: Haruhiko Kato dolphin@marinepia.or.jpMexico Alex Mata amata@mail.dolphindiscovery.comMiddle East: Tommy Wilken tommy_wilken@yahoo.comPacific Islands: Stephanie Vlachos acacia@aloha.netRussia/Ukraine: Monika Lechermeier monika.lechermeier@marine-mammal-cognition.de South Africa: Gabby Harris gabby@seaworld.org.zaSouth America Miguel Marques mg_marques@yahoo.comU.S. Midwest: Stacey Lonski lonski28@hotmail.comU.S. North Central: John-Rex Mitchell jrmitchell@sheddaquarium.orgU.S. Northeast: Beth Manning fintrainer@yahoo.comU.S. Northwest: Cinthia Alia-Mitchell dogonfun@teleport.comU.S. South Central: Shannon Ray scharles-ray@okczoo.comU.S. Southeast: Sarah Graff sgraff@msq.ccU.S. Southwest: Brittany Harris brittany.harris@seaworld.com

imata boarD of Directors

committee chairs

chief eDitors

presiDentERIC GAGLIONEGeorgia Aquarium

first vice presiDentMICHELE SOUSAAquarium of the Pacific

seconD vice presiDentKELLY FLAHERTY CLARKSeaWorld Orlando

thirD vice presiDentTERI CORBETTAtlantis Paradise Island

presiDent-electBILL WOLDENDolphin Quest

accreDitationBILLY HURLEYGeorgia Aquarium

animal training aDvisoryDENNIS CHRISTENGeorgia Aquarium

central officeKEN RAMIREZJohn G. Shedd Aquarium

conservation anD researchDEBI COLBERTAssociation of Zoos and Aquariums

eDucation servicesMADELYNN HETTIGERJohn G. Shedd Aquarium

financeTRACI BELTINGSeattle Aquarium

historianCHERYL MESSINGERDolphin Connection

honors anD awarDsNICOLE O’DONNELLNavy Marine Mammal Program

legislation, information, anD policyMICHAEL OSBORNMystic Aquarium

proceeDingsLAURA YEATESNational Marine Mammal Foundation

sounDingsHEATHER KEENANMiami Seaquarium

past presiDentSHELLEY WOODABC Animal Training/Dolphin Discovery

treasurerROBERT ROOZENDAALSix Flags Discovery Kingdom

secretaryJENNIFER LEACHSeaWorld San Diego

past treasurerPATTY SCHILLINGNew England Aquarium

liaison DAVE ROBERTSSeaWorld San Diego

membership servicesSUNNA EDBERGKolmarden

SHELLEY WOODABC Animal Training/Dolphin Discovery

merchanDiseANN HOEDTGeorgia Aquarium

nominations anD electionsSHELLEY WOODABC Animal Training/Dolphin Discovery

public relations anD promotionsMICHAEL HUNTGeorgia Aquarium

publications PATRICK BERRYGulfarium Marine Adventure Park

regional workshopsSHELLEY WOODABC Animal Training/Dolphin Discovery

sponsorshipCHRIS SCULLIONSAIC BioSolutions

web siteBEAU RICHTERLong Marine Laboratory and Aquarium

Front Cover Photo Credit: Miami Seaquarium

chief eDitor HEATHER KEENAN – Miami Seaquarium

eDitorial Director

ERIC GAGLIONE – Georgia Aquarium

associate eDitorSUZANNE SMITH – Louisiana Marine Mammal &

Sea Turtle Resue Program BACK TO BASICS – Benjamin Schreiner

ENRICHING ENVIRONMENTS – Ronnie Smith OFF THE SHELF – John Widick

PRODUCT PROFILE – Chris ScullionTRAINER’S FORUM – Sarah Sayre

associate eDitor

MARTHA HILL – Sea Life Park HawaiiREGIONAL REPORTS

associate eDitorERIKA STUEBING – Georgia Aquarium

WHAT’S UP DOC – Jen DeGroot CONSERVATION BRIEFS – Shelly Samm

EDUCATION FORUM – Jason JonesINNERviews – Kevin Roberts

NOTICES & ANNOUNCEMENTS – Haley Merritt RESEARCH BRIEFS – Beau Richter

associate eDitor

NICOLE O’DONNELL – Navy Marine Mammal Program CONFERENCE COUNTDOWN – Michelle SousaCONFERENCE SITE SELECTION – Shelley Wood

LIP SYNC – Mike OsbornMEMBERSHIP UPDATES – Jennifer Leach

MERCHANDISE – Ann HoedtNOMINATIONS & ELECTIONS – Shelley Wood

PRESIDENT’S CORNER – Eric GaglioneREGIONAL WORKSHOP REPORTS – Shelley Wood

associate eDitor

NEDRA HECKERFEATURE ARTICLES

Michael Belshaw, Marineland Antibes Traci Belting, Seattle AquariumLinda Beverly, Indianapolis Zoo

Margaret Black, Mystic Aquarium Sarah Brignac, Dolphin Research Center

Carmen Colitz DVM, Animal Eye Specialty ClinicScott Hjerling, Coral World

Andy Johnson, Monterey Bay AquariumCatherine ‘CJ’ Johnson, Knoxville ZooNina Lambert, Dolphin Quest Hawaii

Lauren McKenna, Dolphin Quest Hawaii Patrick W. B. Moore, National Marine Mammal Foundation

Ken Ramirez, John G. Shedd AquariumGrey Stafford, Wildlife World Zoo

John Widick, Clearwater Marine AquariumErin Weber, New England Aquarium

historian

CHERYL MESSINGER – The Dolphin Connection

photo archivistMARK TODD – SAIC BioSolutions

fillers anD factoiDs

ERIKA STUEBING – Georgia Aquarium

publications chairPATRICK BERRY – Gulfarium Marine Adventure Park

AsiaAustralia

CanadaCaribbean Islands

Europe North CentralEurope Northeast

Europe NorthwestEurope South Central

Europe SouthwestJapan

MexicoMiddle East

Pacific IslandsRussia/Ukraine

South AfricaSouth AmericaU.S. Midwest

U.S. North CentralU.S. Northeast

U.S. NorthwestU.S. South Central

U.S. SoutheastU.S. Southwest

Philip WongRyan TateBrian SheehanBernard CollieChristiane ThiereSunna EdbergJohn-Rex MitchellPablo JouryMonika LechermeierHaruhiko Kato Alex MataTommy Wilken Stephanie VlachosMonika LechermeierGabby HarrisMiguel MarquesStacey LonskiJohn-Rex MitchellBeth ManningCinthia Alia-MitchellShannon RaySarah GraffBrittany Harris

VoluMe 38, NuMber 2 - SecoNd QuArTer 2013

MAgAzINe of The INTerNATIoNAl MArINe ANIMAl TrAINerS’ ASSocIATIoN

16

1410

SouNdINgS publication

feATureS10 trying to control a complex

behavioral problem solving a life-threatening regurgitation problem in a california sea lion through training and satiation

16 Dolphins Demonstrate the unDerstanDing of an abstract iDea beyond basics: training dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) and sea lions (Zalophus californianus) the 'concept behaviors' innovate, repeat, combos and ad-libs

IMATA buSINeSS4 presiDent's corner

the continued growth of imata in 2013

6 nominations anD electionscandidates for the 2014 board of Directors

14 conference countDownstart planning now for las vegas 2014

dePArTMeNTS5 conservation briefs

features conservation tidbits from around the world

9 back to basicsCreating the first-of-a-kind snow penguin encounter

13 enriching environmentsA toy that dolphins work themselves

18 what’s up Doc?what are zoonoses and should you be worried about them?

20 regional reports keep up on news from imata members around the world

26 lip syncthe latest legislative and regulatory activity

27 off the shelf100 Heartbeats: The Race to Save Earth’s Most Endangered Species by Jeff corwin

28 trainer’s forumhaving problems with animals gating inconsistently?

31 notices & announcementsinformation on upcoming workshops, conferences, and more

3SOUNDINGS 2013 Volume 38, Number 22 Volume 38, Number 2 SOUNDINGS 2013

Greetings IMATA! It is hard to believe the first half of 2013 is behind us. Since my last President's Corner update, IMATA's Board and Committee Chairs have been busy on many fronts. Most notably we’ve made some significant advances in conference planning and enhancements to the publication of Soundings.

In early March, the Board approved a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Association of

Zoos & Aquariums (AZA) for the first joint IMATA/AZA conference, which will be held during September 2014, in Orlando, Florida, USA. AZA is a similarly focused, nonprofit organization dedicated to the advancement of accredited zoos and aquariums. With over 220 accredited member institutions, AZA attracts, on average, 2000 zoo and aquarium professionals to their annual conference each year. IMATA’s annual conference will run concurrently with the AZA meeting - providing a larger, dynamic networking opportunity. IMATA will have an exclusive general session room where our standard conference format will be held. AZA sessions, including behavioral advances in the zoo industry as well as other zoo and aquarium topics, will run concurrently in separate meeting rooms. Attendees will incur one registration fee and then have the opportunity to choose the IMATA general session presentations or any AZA sessions of their interest. Many breaks and social events will be combined to further enhance the experience, and expand attendee networking opportunities. This ‘super conference’ was the vision of our Liaison Committee Chairperson, Dave Roberts, who made the initial contact with AZA over two years ago. Most recently, President Elect Bill Wolden, 2nd Vice President Kelly Flaherty Clark, and I worked closely with AZA to finalize our agreement leading to the signing of the MOU. We, along with AZA, are very excited about this collaborative opportunity! Kelly Flaherty Clark will continue the work as she further develops the conference program and social networking events with AZA. You can look forward to updates and greater details from Kelly in the near future.

Meanwhile, 1st Vice President Michele Sousa has been very busy preparing this year’s conference - which is

sure to be a fun and exciting event in Las Vegas. I don’t want to steal Michele’s thunder but the board recently held our mid-year meeting in Las Vegas providing a sneak preview of what this conference has to offer. We are very excited to visit our host, Siegfried & Roy’s Secret Garden and Dolphin Habitat

at the Mirage. The combination of site visits, conference presentations, and Las Vegas night life is sure to provide an enjoyable and entertaining week! See Michele’s Conference

Countdown in this issue of Soundings for more details, and make your plans early to get in the fun.

Lastly, our Soundings editorial team, led by Heather Keenan, has been extremely busy producing our new, enhanced, digital version of our quarterly magazine. This long-awaited transition is now underway and with the printing of this issue we’ve launched the digital version of Soundings now available at our online portal at www.imata.org. Please take the time to enjoy the electronic version and all it has to offer. In addition to being a strong conservation initiative, the next generation of Soundings will better serve our organization by providing a platform for greater use of digital photos and video, and will allow for stronger translation services as we strive to better serve our global membership.

NEW! Soundings website.

I have just scratched the surface of the many happenings among our Board of Directors and Committee Chairs. I cannot say enough about the dedication of the many individuals that serve our organization. As I reflect on the history of IMATA, it amazes me how progressive we have been as an organization over the past 40-plus years. Each year we advance, and new techniques for stronger animal training and care permeate into marine animal programs throughout the world. What an exciting thing to be a part of, and a reason for us to continue to march forward with pride. It is through the efforts of the many volunteers that serve that we are able to continue advancing and growing the organization. I am very much enjoying the opportunity to serve as IMATA’s President, and look forward to the second half of 2013 as we have much to look forward to in coming months.

Have a great summer season everyone!

McDonald’s Food Chain Goes Sustainable McDonald’s has become

the first United States national food chain to serve certified-sustainable seafood in all of its locations. This process began in 2005 when McDonald’s fish was first certified, and ever since the company has been performing audits of its suppliers to ensure sustainability and traceability. The blue ecolabel of the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) will be found on the packaging of all fish dishes at McDonald’s 14,000 U.S. locations as early as February 2013. The fish sandwiches and bites are currently made from MSC-certified, wild-caught Alaska pollock (Theragra chalcogramma). For the sustainability community this is a huge success as McDonald’s is one of the single largest buyers of fish in the U.S. Other countries have gone sustainable already. As of October 2011 the 7,000 McDonald’s stores in Europe have been serving MSC-certified fish. The MSC is an independent nonprofit organization that sets standards for sustainable fishing based on fish stock health, impacts of the fishery on its ecosystem, and the fisheries management system. (The Huffington Post)

Only Have Eyes For One: Hawksbill Sea Turtles Are Monogamous

Researchers from the University of East Anglia, Norwich, United Kingdom, found that the hawksbill sea turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata) is mainly monogamous. The process of “sperm storage” is found in some species of birds and reptiles, including some turtles, tortoises and terrapins. This means that females are able

to store viable sperm from multiple males for long periods of time; therefore, there is a possibility that the egg clutches could be fertilized by more than one father. With the hawksbill sea turtle, however, a DNA study of hatchlings on Cousine Island in the Seychelles showed a monogamous mating system in which most egg clutches were sired by just one male, and that no males fertilized more than one female during the 75 day season. The female turtle can lay about five clutches of eggs during a season. The number of males contributing to the next generation is important for species survival because it results in higher levels of genetic variation, which means a species can respond to new threats like diseases. Deemed critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, the hawksbill turtle had been hunted for its shell. The practice of decorative tortoiseshell trade is now illegal. (BBC Nature)

Four New Ancient Whale Species DiscoveredCalifornian construction crews

near Los Angeles inadvertently aided researchers in the discovery of four new species of ancient whales while working on a new road through Laguna Canyon in 2000. The crew exposed an outcrop littered with whale fossils dating back approximately 17 to 19 million years ago. Paleontologists accompanying the southern California crew eventually uncovered hundreds of whale bones and over 30 whale skulls in a five year period. In total,

fossils from 11 whale species were classified, four of which were new discoveries that are ancestors of modern baleen whales, including the ancient forbears of blue whales (Balaenoptera musculus) and humpbacks (Megaptera novaeangliae). But unlike current baleen whales, these four ancient whale species had teeth. They appear to represent the transitional step and are related to the animals that would eventually become the baleen whales of today. Prior to this discovery, it had been assumed that toothed baleen whales had become extinct five million years earlier than what is now believed. Three of the new species were fairly small, about the size of modern-day dolphins. The fourth species, larger at nearly nine meters (30 feet), is similar to another ancient whale species, Llanocetus denticrenatus, which was thought to have gone extinct 35 million years ago. Anatomical, fossil, developmental and genetic evidence has shown that baleen whales (Mysticetes) evolved from ancestors with teeth, and some fossilized baleen whales had both teeth and baleen at the same time. (National Geographic News)

CONSERVATION BRIEFS is compiled by Shelly Samm.

Alaska Pollock. Photo Credit: NOAA

Hawksbill sea turtle hatchlings. Photo Credit: Karl Phillips (University of East Anglia)

Hawksbill sea turtle. Photo Credit: Thinkstock

Fossilized whale teeth. Photo Credit: Cooper Archaeological and Paleontological Center

5SOUNDINGS 2013 Volume 38, Number 24 Volume 38, Number 2 SOUNDINGS 2013

Nominations &ElectionsCandidates for IMATA’s Board of Directors 2014!

It is my pleasure to present to the IMATA membership this year’s candidates for Director positions to the IMATA board. Each candidate has graciously committed their time, efforts, and leadership to support the advancement of the organization. Professional and active members are required to elect three professional members to the Board of Directors. The Board in turn will select officers for the three open slots on the Executive Committee at the conclusion of the next annual meeting in Las Vegas.

This year’s slate is made up of a variety of talented and dedicated professional members. The candidates are being presented in terms of the responsibilities they each aspire to on the Executive Committee. Voting is conducted online and closes 1 July 2013. Please take a moment to vote!

The offices and the responsibilities the candidates would undertake include:

The candidates are being presented in terms of the responsibilities they each aspire to on the Executive Committee. After being elected to the Board by IMATA’s voting membership, each term runs for three consecutive years. These candidates have all stepped forward to donate their time, talents, and effort to the service of our organization. So please, do your part and take a moment to vote.

Voting is being conducted online. Please vote noW at www.imata.org. VoTinG CloSeS on 1 July 2013.

President Elect

This position is a formal voting member of the Board and Executive Committee; provides input on policy decisions; assists the current president in his or her duties; assumes the office of President the following year and serves as Editorial Director of Soundings and all other IMATA publications. The President establishes the yearly agenda then serves as Past President and the Chairperson of Nominations and Elections Committee in the third year.

Secretary The Secretary keeps the minutes of all meetings of the Board of Directors and the annual meetings of the membership. He/she works closely with the treasurer to process memberships, send out membership information, and keeps membership database records. The Secretary performs direct correspondence with the membership as directed by the board. The position is served for two years as Secretary, with the third year as Director at Large, assisting the newly incoming board member in learning and transferring secretary duties.

Second VicePresident

This position is a formal voting member of the Board and Executive Committee; gives input on policy decisions; assists 1st Vice President in planning and organizing the annual IMATA conference with help of the Conference Committee; then succeeds to First Vice President and is responsible for all conference planning activities.

Third Vice President

This position is a formal voting member of the Board and Executive Committee; gives input on policy decisions; assists the 2nd and 1st Vice Presidents in planning and organizing the annual IMATA conference with help of the Conference Committee; succeeds to Second Vice President the following year while continuing to assist with conferences and planning; then succeeds to First Vice President the third year and is responsible for all conference planning activities.

By Shelley Wood, IMATA PAST PreSIdenT

The nominations and elections Committee is proud to present the following candidates for your consideration:

Linda swam with Mitzi, star of Flipper, as a child and from that moment dreamed of having a dolphin as a friend. As an adult, she became the first volunteer at Flipper’s Sea School and as the facility progressed to become Dolphin Research Center (DRC), Linda progressed right along with it. Now, 34 years later, she is a member of DRC’s Steering Committee, helping direct the company as Vice President of Animal Care and Training. She oversees not only the animals, but also the people who work with them, helping all develop to their full potential.

Linda has been instrumental in DRC’s growth and success. She developed the USA’s first structured dolphin swim program (Dolphin Encounter) and dolphin/human therapy program (Dolphin Child), in 1986. Her training experience also includes educational shows, interactive training, husbandry and open-water work. Her research accomplishments include multiple publications on cognition with bottlenose dolphins, including studies on numerosity and object permanence. She is a motivating

leader and public speaker, and frequently represents DRC in media interviews and programs. She is also Senior Professor at DRC’s recently established College of Marine Mammal Professions.

In 1978, Linda attended her first IMATA conference. Since that time she has been actively involved, organizing the 2012 Regional Workshop at DRC, presenting formal papers at many conferences and sharing her unique relationship-based training method. She mentored many current leaders in the marine mammal community and continues to work daily with both animals and trainers. Linda’s history within the industry and with IMATA provides her with a unique insight to continue the forward progress of our organization. The trainer/animal partnership is the foundation of all that we do, and IMATA is our conduit to share new ways to strengthen that partnership. She is excited by the opportunity to serve the members of IMATA.

At the age of 10 Alex decided he wanted to be a Marine Biologist to learn more about marine animals, and has never waivered in his passion. He earned his Marine Biology degree at Santiago de Compostela University in Spain. His career began at Parques Reunidos, Vilaseca with sea lions and dolphins, but he decided to journey to Mexico where he was hired at Dolphin Discovery in 2001. Over the next 12 years Alex gained experience in marine mammal interactive programs in both closed and open water facilities where he trained his favorite animal, the manatee. Alex is currently the Assistant Manager of Animal Training and Education with Dolphin Discovery where his position allows him to work with his true passion (apart from his wife, son and training manatees), the trainer development program, which helps keep the staff growing and learning.

Alex has been a professional member of IMATA since 2005, attending his first conference in Indianapolis in 2007. He has attended every year since and has presented formal, informal and poster presentations. Alex has been a member of IMATA leadership since 2010, as IMATA regional reporter for Mexico, and also as Membership Coordinator assisting in translations to foster communication between Spanish speaking members and IMATA. Most recently, Alex was the video editor for the conference opening video in Hong Kong. Alex would be proud and honored to continue serving IMATA as Secretary.

Nominee: Linda Erb Affiliation: Dolphin Research Center

Nominee: Alex mata Affiliation: Dolphin Discovery

CANDIDATES FOR DIRECTOR SLOT one

CANDIDATES FOR DIRECTOR SLOT Two

President Elect

Secretary

76 SOUNDINGS 2013 Volume 38, Number 2Volume 38, Number 2 SOUNDINGS 2013

Kelly Flaherty Clark is the Curator/Director of Animal Training for SeaWorld Orlando. Her responsibilities include overseeing the health, behavior modification, training and enrichment for the Orlando animal collection. She has multifaceted care, training and performing experience with marine species from otters and birds to killer whales. Kelly has been an integral part of the animal training and production for more than 20 shows at SeaWorld and Busch Gardens; Blue Horizons and One Ocean are guest favorites in Orlando and she is currently on the

creative team for a sea lion show to debut next spring. Kelly is a graduate of The Ohio State University, has been with SeaWorld for more than 26 years, and is a published recipient of several animal training and husbandry awards.

As IMATA’s 2nd Vice President, Kelly will contribute to the integrity associated with a professional organization’s reputation and hopes to facilitate the advancement of marine animal husbandry, behavioral research and training.

Nominee: Kelly Flaherty Clark Affiliation: SeaWorld Orlando

CANDIDATES FOR DIRECTOR SLOT Three

Suzanne attended Salem State College, while working at New England Aquarium, and received a B.A. in Psychology. After graduation, Suzanne moved to Gulfport, Mississippi to start her career as a dolphin, sea lion and bird trainer. While there, she developed her skills in animal training and husbandry working with some amazing animals and accomplished trainers. Suzanne wanted to expand her knowledge and experience by working with different programs and different species. She was fortunate enough to be hired as the training supervisor for a new facility in Lima, Peru training new staff, training the resident dolphins, creating dolphin interactive programs and developing educational programs.

When she returned to the United States, Suzanne began working for the Audubon Zoo as Senior Trainer in the sea lion department. It was here that she first trained other species of animals such as komodo dragons, African wildcats, caracals and tapirs among others. She was also a part of the team who helped develop the Louisiana Marine Mammal & Sea Turtle Rescue Program (LMMSTRP).

From 2006-2011, Suzanne was extremely proud to work as a trainer with SAIC training marine mammals for the U.S. Navy. She gained valuable experience there working on various projects including open water with sea lions and dolphins. Suzanne has since returned to New Orleans to work for the Audubon Aquarium of the Americas as the first time permanent Stranding & Rescue Coordinator for LMMSTRP.

Suzanne has been a member of IMATA since 1994. As a member of the Soundings team, she served as the Trainers Forum coordinator from 1996-2006. She was then asked to take on the role as Associate Editor. Suzanne has attended many IMATA conferences over the past 20 years, including international locations. In 2002, she organized an IMATA regional conference for the Southeast and has given several formal and poster presentations. Suzanne would be honored to serve IMATA as 3rd Vice President.

Nominee: Suzanne Smith

Affiliation: Audubon Aquarium of the Americas

CANDIDATES FOR DIRECTOR SLOT Four

Third vice President

Second vice President

Third vice President

A merican author David Berreby surmised in his “It Takes a Tribe” essay “that humans

automatically and subconsciously, want and try to become a part of something larger than them.” This philosophy is what the team creating the first-of-a-kind penguin encounter in Dubai had in common. Each one of them wanted to be a part of something larger than themselves by encouraging environmental stewardship within the United Arab Emirates.

It all started in December of 2011 when I traveled to Dubai on business. I went to Ski Dubai in the Mall of the Emirates and it was then that I had one of those Ah-ha! moments. The snow park inside Ski Dubai has amazing ice caves full of nooks-and-crannies with snowy surprises around every corner. Outside the snow cave there are vast terrain changes with sledding, ski slopes, snow mounds and ice sculptures…the perfect playground for penguins!

Once I found out the temperature is maintained at a chili negative four degrees Celsius and the snow is more clean and pristine than any snow in the world, it hit me: The pure quality of the snow and the air inside the snow dome made it an ideal environment for Antarctica penguins to thrive.

I had worked around penguins when I started my career at SeaWorld in San Diego and more extensively with a variety of penguins when I moved to Durban, South Africa, to transition the Durban Dolphinarium to uShaka Sea World. Having had that experience, there is one thing I know without a doubt: You simply cannot NOT smile when you see a penguin. Try it!

In researching the background of Ski Dubai, I learned about the vision of the company behind the attraction and its founder, Mr. Majid Al Futtaim. Mr. Majid Al Futtaim had created a world-class organization including shopping malls, hotels, and leisure and entertainment outlets. I believed that the company’s attitude toward delivering superior, can’t-be-missed experiences, would lend itself perfectly to a snow penguin colony at Ski Dubai.

On my trip to Dubai in 2011, I met with the CEO of Majid Al Futtaim Ventures’ Leisure & Entertainment, armed to share my proposal of having Snow Penguins at Ski Dubai. I was excited when he looked me straight in the eyes, shook his head and said, “Yes, we must have the best penguin encounter in the world!” I soon realized that the principles of innovation and taking a risk on something new and original are values that permeate throughout the organization and have been established by Mr. Majid Al Futtaim himself. Twelve months later on New Year’s Eve, ten king and ten gentoo penguins arrived in Dubai from SeaWorld San Antonio, Texas! And six weeks later,

Snow Penguins at Ski Dubai was opened to the public.

It truly took a “tribe” with a common goal to pull off a world-class penguin

encounter in this short timeline. Majid

Al Futtaim Ventures, operator of Ski Dubai, is part of the largest developers in the Middle East, and the team there was determined to deliver this experience with skill, speed, and professionalism. The Operations Director for Majid Al Futtaim Leisure & Entertainment was charged with helping lead the team through the complex process of developing a high-quality penguin facility and encounter area inside a snow dome. With such strong commitment from Senior Management, it was a joy to see the speed and ease with which we were able to navigate existing corporate policies and procedures to turn Snow Penguins at Ski Dubai into a reality.

Drawing on my experience and that of Majid Al Futtaim Ventures while working with a dedicated team of passionate individuals who had been hand-picked to help realize this project, my husband Bill Fleming and I were able to collaborate on the business model for Snow Penguins at Ski Dubai. There were now five members in our ‘tribe’ who were working around the clock to make the Snow Penguins at Ski Dubai a reality. Our team

consisted of people who had experience working with animals, those from a purely operations and finance background, thus making for a unique and interesting learning curve, that was inter-woven by a common thread: our passion for this unique project.

As part of our research for the project, we took an extensive United States site tour to visit world-class animal facilities and ended up at last year’s International Marine Animal Trainers' Association (IMATA) conference in Miami. During the conference, we were able to add on to our international “tribe” as we interviewed trainers and animal caregivers from all around the world and recruited two seasoned trainers and animal caregivers.

We were successful in finding 14 of the best animal and penguin caregivers from around the globe (including the two women we met at IMATA), and also brought on board, industry legend Peter Dickinson as our Penguin Curator, who founded Zoo News Digest: the longest established and most widely read listing of current zoo related news on the internet. Peter and the trainers all moved to Dubai to prepare for the New Year’s Eve arrival of ten gentoo penguins and ten king penguins from SeaWorld San Antonio.

As we celebrate the initiative’s first anniversary, hundreds of thousands of people have visited the Snow Penguins at Ski Dubai, appreciating these comical birds up close. During this past year we couldn’t help but wonder if many of the guests that experienced the penguins also want to be a part of something larger than them, and do their part in taking better care of the earth.

BACK TO BASICS is compiled by Benjamin Schreiner.

“It Took a Tribe” to Create the First-

of-a-kind Penguin Encounter in Dubai

By Judy Petersen-Fleming

9SOUNDINGS 2013 Volume 38, Number 28 Volume 38, Number 2 SOUNDINGS 2013

In 2005, Amneville Zoo (France) opened the biggest pinniped facility in Europe called La Baie des Lions de Mer (P1) with two outside fresh water pools of 2 million liters (528,344 gal), three inside saltwater pools and 400m2 (14,125 sq ft) of dry area. It presents two different species of pinnipeds (Zalophus californianus and Otaria byronia) in the same area and performing in shows together. From the beginning, the show was a great success. However, in July 2009, one of the animals started exhibiting a strange behavior catching the attention of all the training team.

Gipsy (P2) is a male California sea lion born under human care, who arrived in Amneville Zoo in June 2004. Because he’s sharing the environment with two other full-grown males it was decided to castrate him. He was generally a very high performance show animal until the summer of 2009. In July of that year, the staff realized that he had started to play with fish and was anticipating the end of the sessions. His diet was adjusted and we also modified his show participation. However, by August of that year, he was actually leaving all sessions to regurgitate (P3)!

We quickly realized that he was only regurgitating when he was in the water, as he seemed to need a specific head movement to expel the fish. By then we knew we were facing a regurgitation problem. As a quick reminder, and to differentiate between vomiting and regurgitation, vomiting is something that is completely involuntary (the animal has NO control of

it), whereas, during regurgitation, the animal controls the process; it’s a voluntary behavior.

During that summer Gipsy lost a lot of weight (from 119 Kg down to 95 Kg (262 to 209 lbs) and then, on 15 August, he had what looked like an epileptic seizure. This seizure was very traumatic for the training team, but at the end of August he had a second much more severe seizure. During this second seizure he forcefully vomited, had very strong diarrhea, and then suddenly dropped, stiffened, and appeared dead. Gipsy, apparently suffered cardiac arrest

and was declared dead by the zoo veterinarians. While transporting him in a stretcher towards backstage, he unexpectedly resuscitated.

Because, or may be just thanks to this event, we decided to do everything in our power to help him and

thereby save his life.The highest probability for a seizure would be of neurological origin. The vet

department worked through the different diagnoses that could lead to such a problem. We thought of lead poisoning or a consequence of Parvovirus infection (there were a lot of animals infected in the zoo at that time); we considered toxins, brain tumor, tuberculosis, and possibly hypoglycemia as a consequence of starvation through regurgitation. Therefore, it was first decided to perform a CT scan with this animal (P4). The CT scan showed that his stomach and brain were normal, which ruled out some of the possible physical causes for his regurgitation.

Solving a life-threatening

regurgitation problem in a

California sea lion through

training and satiation.

Pablo Joury1, Alexandre Le Blanc1, Emilie Treviglio1, Christilla Bouchet1, Candice Jourdan1, Claudia Mahtali1, Alexis Maillot1, Vanessa Alerte1, and Geraldine Lacave2

1 Amneville Zoo, France2 Marine Mammal Veterinary Services, Brugge, Belgium

P1

P2

P3

Photo Credits: Pablo Joury

Approach #1;

Diet and Drugs

So, based on these results, the staff decided to implement some new approaches. To keep him alive, our first objective was to increase his weight and to stabilize it. That meant trying to reduce the regurgitation or even dreaming of stopping it, ending with the ability to place him back into the shows. For this, we decided to have all sessions on dry land first (because he was only regurgitating when he was in the water).

Very quickly we realized that even one hour away from water access, after a feeding session, was not enough time to stop regurgitation. Since he kept on regurgitating the moment he had access to water, we decided to go to four hours after a session with no water access to make sure he could not possibly regurgitate.

However, the regurgitation continued. When his weight dropped down to 86 Kg (189.5 lb) in November, it became often necessary to keep him the whole day away from the water, to make sure he received the necessary nutrients.

Around that time he had a third seizure. The conclusion was now that the seizures were actually due to hypoglycemia. However, our veterinarians did not reject the possibility of an epileptic seizure. As a trial, our vets decided to give him anti-epileptic drugs, to see if it would have an effect. Gipsy went three weeks without a seizure but he continued to regurgitate. So they decided to do a connective study to check the concentration of the drugs in his blood to determine efficacy. The results showed that he was not absorbing the drugs at all (everything was just regurgitated back). Because there had been no seizures, there was no use to continue with this kind of treatment. To prevent his weight from dropping, we decided to hold him two entire weeks with no access to water, just to help him retain his food and not regurgitate. But, as one can imagine, this was not the best solution.

Approach #2; Training

Because you can’t keep an animal permanently on dry land, we decided to start a second approach based this time on training. Apparently, Gipsy’s problem was not as much medical as behavioral and probably much more related to his activity level or his social situation. We decided to train a lot of new behaviors and spent a lot of time with him during extra sessions.

In our institution we have 12 animals in total and we have a team of five trainers with generally only three trainers working per day. We decided to dedicate two staff persons, full-time, alternatively during the day, to the training of Gipsy. Our goal was to try to have a 3 to 7 minute training session every 10 minutes. The final goal was to keep Gipsy as stimulated as possible. At the time we were still keeping him a lot on dry land and, to keep

his mind occupied, we trained a lot of new behaviors, going beyond show and medical behaviors (P5), where he had learned so many new things and had become so proficient, to behaviors that were absolutely unnecessary. The goal was just to keep him occupied in training: for example, and among others, playing tennis, finding objects, or playing with forms (P6). We even defined the number of new behaviors he had to learn per week, or per so many days, to keep both the staff and Gypsy moving forward.

We also started to reintroduce access to water, letting him go two or three seconds in the water, without control, after a finish SD, and then calling him back and reinforcing him heavily when he had not regurgitated. However, very quickly, we saw that the animal anticipated this. And every time he did go to the water, or most of the time, he would regurgitate. We were also extremely strict in our use of operant conditioning. If he was leaving his trainer to go to the water, we would stop the session and interaction for the rest of the day. We wanted the animal to learn that he had no reward if he was leaving his trainer. He has to stay with his trainer to keep interacting and to be reinforced. We also decided to keep him two full days per week with no access to water at all to make sure that he would receive enough food.

We knew we had reached our main goal, using this approach, because we were able to increase his weight and maintain it. Neither did he have any more epileptic-like seizures (so it was indeed probably not epilepsy, but more due to hypoglycemia). At this point, we can say we had saved his life. However, we were still not successful in reducing the regurgitation because each time he had access to the water, or when he knew he could gain access to it, he would enter it and start regurgitating right away. We also noticed that socially, this was not something good because the animal was completely separated from the rest of the sea lion group in order to have access to the trainers all the time.

Thoughts

As an answer to our hypothesis, we cannot say that lack of stimulation was really the ONLY problem. Because he was kept very, very busy, but more that his regurgitation was becoming more and more self-reinforcing, and more interesting to him than training with us.

But we still had a lot of other tasks to do in our park, and it was very difficult to dedicate two full persons (out of a staff of three per day) the whole day to only one animal, constantly. As we realized this was a permanent problem, we decided to work on a third approach.

Approach #3; Observations

and Satiation

We were definitely convinced that regurgitation was the consequence of an extremely highly self-reinforcing behavior. Based on a paper that was presented years ago by Tish Flynn during an IMATA conference, on the treatment of a regurgitation problem in a walrus by satiation, and recommended by our consultant Dr. Geraldine Lacave, we decided to use satiation to try to fix the problem.

We wanted the trainers to go back to their original tasks because we still had the other animals to take care of. We also wanted to let the animal go back with the rest of the group and have access to the water again. Therefore, we decided to hire interns to observe Gipsy non-stop when he was with the other animals, when he was alone, when he was working

P6

P4 P5

11SOUNDINGS 2013 Volume 38, Number 210 Volume 38, Number 2 SOUNDINGS 2013

with us, when he was on dry land, during shows, during resting time, in the main pool, backstage, etc., literally all the time. Interns recorded those observations on charts, in an attempt to determine if there was a trend in his regurgitation problem.

After the first month of observations, and preliminary results, we decided to implement our third approach. Meanwhile, we had kept on doing all those extra training sessions as before, however now we would offer him a huge container of fish, up to 20 Kg (44 lb) at once, everyday (P7, P8). Since we wanted to offer him much, much more fish than before, we also developed many, many more secondary reinforcements or ways for him to have access to food through toys, games, and enrichments. With these observations, we gathered a huge amount of data, kilometers and kilometers (miles and miles) of data.

The first month of observations confirmed that there was no correlation between trainers, time of the day, nor pool, but that he was indeed regurgitating when going to the water and this amounted to 42% of the time. It also showed that other nearby animals were, actually, very beneficial in the situation. Two females in particular who were always trying to go behind him to have access to his regurgitated fish. When they were with him, he regurgitated less, because he did not want them to have his fish. Using this group setup was, for example, one of our means to diminish regurgitation frequency. Those observation charts further helped us to objectively quantify his regurgitation frequency. Within one month of implementation of the satiation protocol, his regurgitating time in the water dropped from 42% to 12%. For the first time since the summer of 2009, Gipsy spent several days without regurgitating.

But we also made some mistakes along the way, and learned from them. First mistake, the animal was receiving his full-fish-container backstage. At the beginning, we used to give this huge container on a daily basis. However, the animal quickly figured this out and started to refuse to go out, even after long working sessions with a lot of primary reinforcement,

if he did not receive his full-fish-container afterwards. We then started to randomly give the container and recaptured our control of the animal’s leaving the area.

In two years time his weight increased incredibly going from 86 Kg to 150 Kg (189.5 to 330.7 lbs) (P9). But

our second mistake during the summer of 2010 was to reduce the number of ‘jackpot’-fish-containers over time as we thought we had fixed the problem. As a result, the animal started to regurgitate more again and lose weight gradually. We realized it is very important and necessary to maintain those satiation containers on a regular basis to maintain his weight.

As a conclusion of our third approach, we can say that the satiation program worked very well with this particular animal. All our objectives

were reached; Gipsy is alive and healthy. The protocol helped in controlling his weight loss. Gipsy, who is a very important animal for our shows, resumed participating in these, started interacting more with the other animals, and gained back his place in our social group (P10). However, this is not a win-win situation, but a give and take. Often

after a huge fish container the animal would be so full he would not come over for a session but would rather just go out to a rock and stay in the sun for hours. And for us this is acceptable because, indeed, at that time, he is not regurgitating.

What about now?

Gipsy is now stable, and even reached 160 Kg (352.7 lb) this summer. We continue to teach him a lot of new behaviors to occupy his mind. He now seldom leaves the show or a training session to regurgitate. But we are still very watchful with him and continue to note all that happens. At this point, he often likes to play with the last fish of his session but he is far from regurgitating like he was doing before.

General conclusion

Regurgitation is a complex behavior to control. We might, or will, probably never eliminate completely the regurgitation behavior in an animal. It’s important to try to diminish it as much as possible and to make sure that the animal is not losing more calories than he is absorbing. Observations and team communication are extremely important to assess the gravity of the problem objectively. The satiation approach worked very well in our case. However, we found out that it is a permanent treatment. It should never be stopped. It became apparent to us that an animal with such a problem needs to have a higher percentage of his time filled with occupational activities, training, and enrichment to diminish the self-reinforcing behavior of regurgitating. And finally, never give up. In our situation we really thought Gipsy was dead and we really thought we had lost him!

References

Flynn, T. (1987). Conditions and treatment of an eating disorder in a Pacific walrus – an anecdotal report. Proceeding of the 15th annual IMATA conference, New Orleans (pp, 39-46).

editor's note: This paper received the following award during the 35th IMATA conference at Indianapolis, IN: the 2nd place Husbandry Training Award.

The author is willing to correspond with interested trainers. You can contact Pablo Joury at either team-otaries@zoo-amneville.com or pabloweb@yahoo.fr.

P7 P8

P9

P10

Shower Power! A SimPle toy to enAble dolPhinS to tAke Action with their enrichment.

Hisako Ikeda, Masayuki Komaba, Nobuhito Osada, Hitoshi Nakano, Kumiko Komaba, Akihiro KawakuboKujukushima Aquarium, Japan

After acquiring two bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) and one Risso’s dolphin (Grampus griseus) four years ago, staff at the Kujukushima Aquarium created a diverse enrichment program to stimulate our animals. The dolphins were very interested in interacting with toys, listening to music and watching TV, but we wanted to give them the option to get what they want by taking action themselves. So staff members went to the drawing table to create a manageable, flexible toy that allowed the dolphins to choose enrichment they could activate when they wanted, without human manipulation.

We decided to create a toy that dispenses water at the press of a button. The mechanics of our animal-activated shower prototype was inspired by the traditional Japanese hot spring facilities, using their plumbing ideas to prevent using excess hot water and wasting energy. The device itself is quite simple: all plumbing and mechanical parts are hidden inside the device platform and the activation button is the only thing exposed in the front. The “button” the dolphins push on the front of the device is actually a self-closing push tap that can be set to allow water out for varying periods of time. We used large adhesive discs to attach the whole system to the deck and windows of our pool.

In the beginning, the toy was placed on the deck next to the pool and we set the system to provide a spray of water for approximately 10 seconds. We waited excitedly for the dolphins to interact with the toy, but they rarely did. We trained one of our dolphins to interact with the toy, but even she was not too interested. Back to the drawing board!

Realizing that perhaps a toy on deck was not the most appealing item to marine animals, we decided to position the button underwater to encourage the animals to explore the toy more. Although other toys were in the pool, we observed a big increase in interaction with the shower toy when the button was underwater. The dolphins began using the toy more often, rubbing their head or body on the button and exposing various parts of their body to the spray. Success!

We found that the dolphins lost interest in the shower toy over time, so we spiced things up a bit by

changing the spray type on the hose nozzle. The animals chose to play with the shower toy more often and for longer periods of time when the shower type was set to the “jet” stream, so we now only use that setting.

Today, the dolphins continue to utilize the shower toy often as part of a rotating enrichment program. Even if the water is not running, the dolphins will still push the button often, so it seems that the toy is enriching even outside of its original purpose.

We are very excited that we were able to let our dolphins get what they want through their own will and actions, but we know they will benefit from constantly changing up how they interact with the device. Future plans for the shower toy include increasing the spray variety and number of showerheads, as well as adapting this idea to other toys.

ENRICHING ENVIRONMENTS is compiled by Ronnie Smith.

1

3

4

2

5

61: Window Play 2: Toy Behind3: Head Push4: Body Push5: Jet Spray6: Spray Tail

Photo Credits - Kujukushima Aquarium

1312 SOUNDINGS 2013 Volume 38, Number 2Volume 38, Number 2 SOUNDINGS 2013

Conference DatesConference start date – 8 September 2013Conference end date – 13 September 2013

Conference HotelThe Mirage Hotel & Casino• 3400 Las Vegas Blvd South, Las Vegas, NV 89109• Room Rates $139 (this includes resort fee)• Book your room early, conference may sell out!

Transportation• Fly into McCarran International Airport• Take taxi to hotel = North Strip $16.00 - $21.00• To Strip hotels = $7.00 one way; $13.00 round trip• Parking at the hotel is FREE!!

Host FacilitySiegfried & Roy’s Secret Garden and

Dolphin HabitatThe wildest part of Las Vegas isn't necessarily

the nightlife. Right on the Las Vegas Strip is an attraction that defines wild in Vegas in a whole new way. Welcome to Siegfried and Roy's Secret Garden and Dolphin Habitat at The Mirage Hotel & Casino where white tigers and lions, leopards

and dolphins enjoy the Vegas sun and a posh resort like the millions of human tourists who visit the city each year.

Roommate Finding ServiceIf you need help finding a roommate for

the conference to help lower your room rate please use our “Find a Roommate” service located on the IMATA conference website at http://lasvegas2013.imata.org

Animal Training SeminarKen Ramirez will be conducting two different

training courses to be held on 8 September 2013.9:00 am - 12:30 pm; Introduction to Animal

Training - A basic look at animal training with a focus on both the science and the practical applications. The seminar is designed for the beginner of student who wants to learn about the basics, or the experienced trainer who wants to brush up on the science or look for new ways to teach it.

2:00 pm - 5:00 pm; Non-Food Reinforcers - An advanced seminar that looks at how to systematically train and maintain non-food reinforcers. The seminar will explore novel stimuli like clapping as well as reinforcers such as tactile and play and how to evaluate whether or not the animal truly finds these things reinforcing.

Opening VideoThis year's theme is “Working Together”Check the website for further details.All footage must be received by 1 August 2013. Join IMATA’s 2013 Judging Team• We are looking for a diverse group of IMATA

members to form a comprehensive panel of judges.

• Criteria needed to be met to be selected as a judge:• Be an Active or Professional IMATA

member in GOOD standing • NOT presenting or authoring a paper or

poster this year • Have NOT been a judge in the past 3 years • Able to attend ALL formal presentations

and view all posters • Able to keep your identity as a judge a

SECRET for entire conference • Attended a minimum of two annual

IMATA Conferences• If you meet these criteria, please contact

Nicole O’Donnell at HonorsAwards@IMATA.org immediately!

• All judges will receive 50% discounted conference registration and a GIFT OF THANKS.

2013 Conference Countdown By Michele Sousa, IMATA's First Vice President Once again we are going to Las Vegas for the 41st annual IMATA conference. We are hard at work making this an amazing conference for everyone. It’s time to get organized and plan your trip! SAIC Biosolutions Art Contest

• Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) is once again sponsoring this year’s Art Contest.

• Criteria and instructions are available on-line at http://lasvegas2013.imata.org/art_contest

• Criteria snapshot - All art submitted in one of three categories:• Humor• Art• Photography

• To enter the IMATA Art Contest, simply bring your art to the conference where we will be collecting and displaying all submissions.

• Winners will receive monetary awards: $200 (USD) for 1st Place and $100 (USD) for 2nd Place and $100 for Overall Winner.

Editor’s Choice Award• Given to expanded abstract that most

effectively and accurately follows the formatting guidelines for Proceedings and requires the least amount of editing.

• All submitted abstracts are automatically eligible for this award.

• Abstract criteria and award rules are available on-line at http://lasvegas2013.imata.org

• Winner will receive monetary award of $300 (USD) sponsored by Dolphin Connection

Outernet Technologies Award• Recognizes the best or most innovative use of

science and technology in training sessions, husbandry, conference presentations, or record keeping for any formal, informal, or poster presentation.

• All presentations are automatically eligible for this award.

• Criteria for this award available on-line at http://lasvegas2013.imata.org/awards

• Winners will receive monetary awards: $200 (USD) for 1st Place and $100 (USD) for 2nd Place

Sonny Allen Professional Achievement AwardNominations due by 30 August 2013 • Honors an individual who has demonstrated

a dedication to the field of marine mammal science, training, and service to IMATA

• Criteria for nominations available on-line at http://lasvegas2013.imata.org/awards

• Nominations submitted to our current IMATA President, Eric Gaglione at President@IMATA.org

Essay Contest• All essays due by 1 August 2013• Write an essay that answers the following

questions: “What does IMATA mean to you? How has IMATA helped or changed the lives of your animals or yourself?”

• Submit essay on-line at http://lasvegas2013.imata.org/essay_contest

• Criteria snapshot:• 500 words or less• Current IMATA member in good standing• Attending 2013 IMATA Conference in Las Vegas

• Winner will receive FREE CONFERENCE REGISTRATION and will present their essay during the Opening Ceremonies of the conference.

Live Art AuctionBill & Billy are back to emcee a hilarious

live auction. Career Nights x2• Career Night #1 = Resume Review and

Interview Skill Workshops• Sign up for the Resume Review event now as

space is limited.• Career Night #2 = Deluxe Job Fair and Job

Interview Room Sponsorship Opportunities• We are actively collecting sponsorships for this

year’s conference which allows us to provide a lower conference registration rate, which allows us to off-set the costs associated with running the meeting.

• If you are interested in becoming a $2,500 Facility Sponsor – please contact Michele Sousa at msousa@lbaop.org

• For a complete list of sponsorship opportunities available, please review the Conference Sponsor and Exhibitor Packet at http://lasvegas2013.imata.org/sponsorship_opportunities

1514 SOUNDINGS 2013 Volume 38, Number 2Volume 38, Number 2 SOUNDINGS 2013

Dolphin Research Center (DRC), located in the Florida Keys, is home to 22 Atlantic Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) and three California Sea Lions (Zalophus californianus). At DRC, we have found that there is more to training dolphins and sea lions than just basic behaviors. DRC has been doing language-like training for over 30 years. It has passed from trainer to trainer as a fun and creative way to enrich our dolphins and sea lions while challenging our staff’s training skills. By teaching our dolphins and sea lions concept behaviors, such as Innovate and Repeat, we determined they could understand much more than simply performing a single behavior for one signal (Sd). We identify a concept behavior not as a specific, physical behavior, but rather as a RULE the animal can apply to its entire behavioral repertoire, thus demonstrating the understanding of an abstract idea. Additionally, by training an animal multiple concept behaviors, we have discovered that not only can they apply a single concept to their behavioral repertoire, but can also learn additional concepts to apply to the same behavioral repertoire – showing they discriminate between the concepts themselves. Many other researchers and trainers have done similar work, but this paper will focus on DRC’s approach to the concept behaviors of Innovate, Repeat, Combination Behaviors (Combos), and Ad-Libs, how we trained them, and the issues we had to resolve.

REPEATDRC’s criterion for the Repeat behavior is exactly as it sounds: the dolphin

or sea lion should repeat the last behavior requested by the trainer. When introducing this concept we begin by pairing the signal with a few behaviors that are completely different from each other. For example, we may select a vocalization, a stomach display, and a pectoral wave. The dolphin is given the signal for pectoral wave and bridged for a correct response. Then we immediately give the dolphin the Repeat signal, followed by the cue of showing the pectoral wave signal again. Then we gradually fade out the cue. We alternate between the three selected behaviors in the session, giving all of them equal attention. Once the dolphin or sea lion repeats these three behaviors consistently and appropriately on the Repeat signal, we introduce other behaviors from their repertoire. At some point during the training process, they begin to generalize the Repeat signal and apply it to

all the behaviors of their repertoire without any cues from trainers. This ‘Ah-Ha!’ or ‘light bulb’ moment, as we call it, can be different for each dolphin or sea lion, but typically occurs after they learn to repeat four to six behaviors.

When we first began teaching the Repeat concept, we were met with two main challenges. Initially, we thought it would be best to introduce this concept using just one behavior at a time. This was not very successful however, because the animal associated the Repeat signal with only that behavior, making it difficult to incorporate new ones. Now, whenever we train the Repeat concept, we use a minimum of two to three behaviors. This seems to help the dolphin or sea lion understand the concept faster. Another technique we tried in the early training was to only use behaviors that occurred right at the dock, such as vocalizations. We soon learned the dolphins trained with this method had difficulty repeating high-energy behaviors that occurred away from the dock. To overcome this challenge we started incorporating high-energy behaviors, such as forward dives, earlier in the training process and discovered it helped the dolphins reach their Ah-Ha! moment sooner.

INNOVATEThe Innovate concept is when the dolphin or sea lion offers a different

behavior each time they are shown the Innovate signal. They can offer either known behaviors from their repertoire or new behaviors not yet on a signal (i.e. not under behavioral control), so long as they perform a different behavior each time they see the Innovate signal repeated. For example, you give the Innovate signal and the dolphin waves – bridge and reward; you give the signal again and the dolphin jumps – bridge and reward; you give the signal again, and the dolphin spits water – bridge and reward. As long as you continue giving the signal in that sequence, the dolphin should offer a different behavior. As with the Repeat behavior, when teaching the Innovate concept the dolphins or sea lions are given clues as to what the signal means. In the early training, we gave the Innovate signal followed by a brief pause. If the dolphin or sea lion offered any behavior at all, we bridged and rewarded. Then we asked for Innovate again. Usually, the animal offered the previously bridged behavior. At this point, we gave the Innovate signal again, then immediately cued the dolphin or sea lion by showing them a signal for

TRAINING DOLPHINS (Tursiops truncatus) AND SEA LIONS (Zalophus californianus) THE ‘CONCEPT BEHAVIORS’ INNOVATE, REPEAT, COMBOS, AND AD-LIBSJamie P. Stevens, Sarah E. Brignac, and Loriel Keaton – Dolphin Research Center

BEYOND BASICS:

a completely different behavior. We repeated this technique until the animals understood the concept and offered either a different or a novel behavior each time they were given the Innovate signal.

We came across a couple of challenges during the training process for Innovate. First, the dolphins or sea lions developed a bias towards performing certain behaviors. In order to overcome this obstacle we became consistent with our reinforcement. Once we gave the same reward for every behavior, the bias quickly resolved itself. Another challenge was the animals’ desire to chain behaviors. For example, each time Aleta, a 27-year-old bottlenose dolphin, was given the Innovate signal, she would first do the raspberry vocalization, then spin in a circle, and finally move her head up and down. Once we realized her pattern of performing the same behaviors in the same order, we interrupted it by giving more cues, (i.e. signals for different behaviors). This technique proved successful in breaking the chain.

Once this concept is trained, the dolphin or sea lion will continue to offer different behaviors on each Innovate signal until the trainer interrupts the sequence. The number of times in a row that a trainer asks for Innovate varies, but we find that both our dolphins and sea lion offer long sequences of different behaviors with little difficulty. So, how do the animals know when a particular Innovate sequence is complete? DRC’s rule is that when a trainer gives any other signal besides the one for Innovate, the sequence is broken. Then, if the trainer decides to ask for Innovate later in the same session, the animal can repeat behaviors from the previous sequence if they choose. We find that our dolphins and sea lion understand this concept and distinguish the beginning and end of Innovate sequences multiple times in the same session with little difficulty.

COMBOSA combination concept, or Combo, is when the dolphin

or sea lion is asked to do two or more behaviors at the same time. We have found that a few of our dolphins are successful at combining up to four behaviors at once. Teaching the combination concept is different from the other concepts we teach at DRC in that the dolphins are not introduced to a new signal. Instead, they are given two or more signals in a row, then expected to perform these behaviors simultaneously. They are essentially receiving a ‘full sentence’ of information and then processing the request to complete a new single chain of behaviors. DRC has found success teaching this concept by using a simple, straightforward method. Combos are always requested in a specific order of lower energy behaviors to higher energy behaviors. For example, the cues for talk, pectoral waves, and dive are given in that order, and the response would be a dolphin jumping while vocalizing and waving their pectoral flippers. Trainers came up with this order through trial and error. We realized that when the high-energy signal was given first, the animal would not wait to receive more information. Therefore the last signal given (usually a high energy behavior, but not always) becomes the release that says, ‘Go for it!’

Once the Combination concept is taught, we can pair it with other concepts the dolphins may know. For example, dolphins that understand the Repeat concept can be asked to repeat Combo behaviors. Want to see that talking, pectoral-waving, dive again? Simply give the Repeat signal! We also sometimes pair dolphins together on Combo behaviors. For example, most of our dolphins know a ‘kiss’ behavior wherein they touch snouts together. We can combine that with many behaviors including spin, tummy, and – most spectacularly - we can ask a number of our dolphins to kiss while doing flying-forward-tail-walks. Even more incredible, they will repeat that kissing-flying-forward-tail-walk on the Repeat signal!

AD-LIBSFinally, Ad-libbing is where the dolphins can do any

behavior from their repertoire or create something new. Our signal for Ad-lib is to simply push our coolers back from the front of the dock. Then we reinforce the dolphins for any behavior they do. This can include everything from sitting at the front of the dock, to vocal behaviors, to high breaches out in the middle of the lagoon. Sometimes the dolphins are very creative and sometimes they choose to do the same behavior over and over again, but the main point of this concept is for the dolphins to do what they want to do. This varies from the Innovate concept in which the dolphin must do a different behavior each time. During these Ad-lib periods, the trainers can capture new behaviors and put them on a signal. In one example, our largest male dolphin, Sandy, invented a belly flop paired with his signature funny noise. He constantly offered this behavior during ‘Ad-Lib time’ and the trainers loved it, put it on signal, and now it is a favorite of Sandy’s in his sessions. When he sees the signal he bolts away from the dock, explodes into mid-air shaking his head and vocalizing, splashes his 272 kg (600 lb) body back into the water, then returns to the dock making his excited ‘honking’ noise, as if to say, “That was awesome, wanna see it again?” We do not experience relapses with these captured behaviors, possibly because they are the dolphins’ ideas, and trainers respond with such enthusiasm to their creativity!

At Dolphin Research Center, our dolphins and sea lions have embraced the creativity and challenge of learning concepts in a big way. Out of our current 25 animals, over 90% of them know one concept behavior, 80% of them know two concept behaviors, and two of our dolphins, Merina and Talon, know all four of the concept behaviors. It is interesting to note that our dolphins and sea lions can distinguish between these four concepts within the same training session, showing a true understanding of them.

There are many benefits to training concept behaviors. First, we find that the public is fascinated to see dolphins and sea lions demonstrating their cognitive abilities in a fun and creative way. Innovate and Ad-libs particularly demonstrate how ‘out-of-the-box’ animals can be when they are not constrained by standard approaches. These concepts allow our presentations and our relationships with our dolphins and sea lions to be more collaborative, exciting, and refreshing. We encourage you to try it. You and your animals will enjoy the challenges of these brainteasers!

1716 SOUNDINGS 2013 Volume 38, Number 2Volume 38, Number 2 SOUNDINGS 2013

There are many types of bacteria, fungus, viruses and parasites that can be transmitted between marine animals and their trainers. The diseases that they cause are called zoonoses (“zoh–oh-no-sees”), and the germs themselves are zoonotic agents. Although the number of potential zoonotic agents is too plentiful to list here, the good news is that most zoonoses can be prevented with basic hygiene practices including hand-washing (a full 20 seconds!), use of protective equipment (gloves, masks, and boots), and proper cleaning of dive equipment (wetsuits, drysuits, dive masks, and mouthpieces). Pregnant or immunosuppressed staff members will have specific concerns about contact with animal-origin infectious agents. Ask your facility’s dive safety officer, veterinarian or occupational health physician for recommendations unique to your situation, or go to the following website document for a good start: http://swfsc.noaa.gov/uploadedFiles/Divisions/PRD/Programs/Photogrammetry/Marine_Mammal_Zoonoses_Final_Report-2.pdf. There is also a much more recent marine mammal zoonoses review article written by Waltzek, Cortés-Hinojosa, Wellehan Jr., and Gray (2012) from the University of Florida that can be found at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22697432.

Many bacteria that are naturally-occurring in marine and freshwater environments can be disease-causing (pathogenic) in people, either by contact with an infected animal or with contaminated water from a marine or aquatic enclosure. In animal care staff, skin wounds are common, regardless of whether they are caused by our physically demanding jobs, a simple paper cut, or an actual animal bite. Mycobacteria such as Mycobacterium marinum, M. fortuitum and M. ulcerans are commonly present in the water our animals live in, and they can cause skin abscesses or deeper infections, especially when they contaminate abrasions or puncture wounds. “Fish handler’s disease” is a common name for a zoonotic mycobacterial infection. Mycobacterial infections require specific drugs for effective treatment, so make sure

your physician is aware of the possibility of mycobacteriosis if you are seeking care for a skin wound or abscess that doesn’t look like it is healing quickly enough. Other zoonotic skin infections include “seal finger” (caused by Mycoplasma spp. or Erysipelothrix), “beluga finger”, and others caused by Bisgaardia, poxvirus, calicivirus (San Miguel sea lion virus), herpes virus, Pseudomonas, Staphylococcus, Clostridium perfringens, Vibrio, Corynebacterium, Nocardia, Aeromonas, Klebsiella, Edwardsiella, Lacazia fungus (lobomycosis), and Candida fungus. There is no magic drug that

What’s Up Doc?

Dr. Lisa Harrenstien, DVM, DACZM Zoological Medical Consultant

Which animal-transmitted diseases should a marine animal trainer be aware of?

w/

Pregnancy puts keeper Sara Morgan at a higher risk for zoonoses. Wearing protective equipment, such as gloves, helps reduce the risk.

Photo Credit: Oregon Zoo

This is your chance to tell us... What does IMATA mean to you?

What role has IMATA played in improving your career?

How has IMATA improved the welfare of the animals in your care? Written submissions should be a maximum of 250 words. Photos and videos are encouraged. Submission deadline 1 July 2013 to Soundings@IMATA.org

Be a part of IMATA history! IMATA is preparing to celebrate its 40th Anniversary with a commemorative issue of Soundings and we want you to be involved.

will treat all of these possibilities, but if your physician is made aware of the infectious agents that might be making your wound worse, his or her treatment plan will be more effective. And remember, dilution is the key to resolving pollution; thorough washing of the wound (even with tap water, if that is all you have got) will go a long way toward preventing a more serious infection.

Skin disease is not the only thing to watch for related to marine animal origin zoonotic agents. Many types of symptoms and body organ systems can be involved with zoonotic disease, including respiratory signs, eyelid irritation (conjunctivitis), diarrhea, neurological disease, kidney failure, or general flu-like malaise symptoms. Some of these zoonotic agents include mycobacteria (including those that cause tuberculosis), Brucella, Leptospira, Erysipelothrix, Salmonella, Plesiomonas, Candida yeast, Aspergillus fungus, influenza virus, and the parasites Baylisascaris, Cryptosporidium and Strongyloides. When diving to clean an animal enclosure, your lips and ears are vulnerable to contamination with fecal-related bacteria, almost all of which can cause human illness. As with wounds, rinsing your mouth either with lots of tap water or dilute chlorhexidine mouthwash after a dive will help to reduce the potential for contamination and infection.

Prey meat (fish, poultry, beef, horsemeat) fed to marine animals can contain or be contaminated with zoonotic agents, which can transfer to the person preparing or feeding out these diet items. Gloves should be worn when preparing diets or during feeding sessions, to reduce your risk of zoonotic disease.

Not considered infectious diseases, but still of concern, are the toxins that can be encountered when working with marine mammal carcasses, for example, brevetoxins in the gastrointestinal tract (or even in the air of a surf zone where a large animal might be necropsied), or domoic acid in urine or feces. Take time to stock up on functional personal protective equipment for necropsies, including masks that still allow you to breathe, coveralls or tyvek suits that allow some ventilation (you can cut a large oval out along your back), and safety glasses or goggles that do not fog up. As with most diseases, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Of course, the risk of acquiring a zoonotic disease is low compared to the enjoyment and fulfillment that we get from working with marine animals. Being aware of disease transmission risks will hopefully keep both you and your animals healthier.

WHAT’S UP DOC? is compiled by Jen DeGroot

Celebrates IMATA's 40th!

1918 SOUNDINGS 2013 Volume 38, Number 2Volume 38, Number 2 SOUNDINGS 2013

ASIA REGIONPhilip Wong, Ocean Park – Hong Kong, China

Farglory Ocean Park – Hualien, TAIWANFarglory Ocean Park will celebrate one of the three

biggest festivals in the Chinese culture, the Dragon Boat Festival, held on 12 June 2013. The traditional story commemorates the death of Qu Yuan, a great Chinese poet, who killed himself by jumping into the Miluo River because the emperor distrusted him due to slanderous talk. The legend says that the local people dropped sticky rice triangles into the river to keep the fish from eating his body. To celebrate, a dragon boat race will take place in rivers across the country. Also, people will eat a triangular food, rice dumpling which is a representative dish in the festival. At Farglory Ocean Park, the staff will make a big gelatin dumpling for the dolphins to commemorate this great poet in China.

AUSTRALIA REGIONRyan Tate, Taronga Zoo – Sydney

Sea World – Gold Coast, AUSTRALIASea World has welcomed the birth of an Atlantic

bottlenose dolphin calf (Tursiops truncatus). The female calf was born 21 January in the park’s dolphin show department to first time parents Sunnie and Kiama. This birth represents a new generation within the park as both parents were also born at Sea World. The baby is suckling well and already shows signs of being very independent.

Babies are also thriving in the Antarctic penguin display, with four Gentoo penguin (Pygoscelis papua) chicks now on display. Sea Lion Theatre has had a busy breeding season with shows, interactive programs and testosterone driven animals. Elvis, the parks current breeding male Californian sea lion (Zalophus californianus) has taken a month off from programs to breed with two resident females.

Dolphin Marine Magic (formerly Pet Porpoise Pool) – Coffs Harbour, AUSTRALIA

In the past few months Dolphin Marine Magic has seen the completion of Dolphin Lagoon, the new animal interaction area and is now close to completing the construction of the new seal exhibit, Seal Shores, and four off exhibit holding enclosures. The staff has also been busy with the rescue and rehabilitation of a variety of animals including the recent stranding of a female pygmy sperm whale (Kogia breviceps) and her calf. Dolphin Marine Magic has commenced training with several of the Australian sea lions (Neophoca cinerea) for a research project through Macquaire University studying breath holding ability and dive physiology.

Taronga Zoo – Sydney, AUSTRALIAThe Taronga Zoo marine mammal team has been

working closely with the zoo’s conservation manager to develop a program about sustainable seafood. For the last few years, the seal show has focused on having a sustainable seafood message but it has now has been taken to the next level. Taronga Zoo has joined forces with the large supermarket chain, Woolworths, to further the sustainable seafood conservation campaign, in order to help customers make sustainable seafood choices. The marine mammal team also recently took part in a Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) workshop to better understand the issue of sustainable seafood.

Two Marine Mammal Keepers are also on their way to Antarctica to be guest lecturers on two separate Antarctic cruises. They will present on Antarctic seal species, as well as, the role of zoos in conservation.

Cooper, the 5-year-old California sea lion, has recently had a CT scan on his teeth which resulted in specialist surgery. He is recovering well from this.

CANADA REGIONBrian Sheehan, Vancouver Aquarium – Vancouver, British Columbia

Vancouver Aquarium – Vancouver, BRITISH COLUMBIA

Staff from the Vancouver Aquarium recently attended a workshop hosted by the Pacific Biodiversity Group, The Cascadia Research Collective and The Sea Doc Society in order to help develop collaborative research based relationships in regards to the harbor porpoise (Phocoena phocoena) in the Salish Sea. By giving researchers from the United States and Canada the opportunity to meet face-to-face, the result was a great exchange of high quality information. The data currently being collected was reviewed by researchers in both countries which enabled researchers to identify gaps in the research and places where additional data could most enhance the understanding of the harbor porpoise. The Vancouver Aquarium expressed the desire to involve its current harbor porpoise population in present research or to allow for new research opportunities to help fill in the gaps of harbor porpoise knowledge.

For the past several months, the aquarium staff has been aiding the Alaska Sea Life Centre (ASLC) with the care of a rehab northern sea otter pup (Enhydra lutris kenyonaii). Vancouver would like to take this opportunity to thank ASLC for their fantastic hospitality and all the great learning opportunities that have arisen as a result.

CARIBBEAN ISLANDS REGIONBernard Collie, Atlantis Paradise Island – Paradise Island, Bahamass

Dolphin Cay Atlantis – Nassau, BAHAMAS Georgie, a three-year-old West Indian manatee

(Trichechus manatus), is back at Dolphin Cay for the second time. Georgie was born to Rita in Spanish Wells, Bahamas in 2010. In October 2011, the pair were spotted in the busy Nassau harbor and relocated to Dolphin Cay by the Atlantis Animal Rescue Team. After being monitored for 6 months by the marine mammal staff, they were released to Great Harbour Cay (GHC), Berry Islands, Bahamas to join a resident manatee population. Satellite tags allowed them to be monitored and in June 2012, Rita and Georgie split. At that point Georgie moved from the Berry Islands to Abaco.

Recently concern was raised by BMMRO, who was monitoring her, about her general appearance. A decision was made by the Department of Marine Resources for the Dolphin Cay animal rescue team to relocate her to Atlantis. On 26 January 2013, Georgie was successfully rescued and relocated to Dolphin Cay. Georgie will undergo a series of general health evaluations and once Georgie is healthy, the team will relocate her back to GHC, Berry Islands with the hope that she rejoins the manatee population there.

The Dolphin Experience UNExSO – Freeport, BAHAMAS

It’s been a calm winter, affording The Dolphin Experience staff the opportunity to train another pair of dolphins for open ocean programs called Ocean Swim and Dolphin Dive. The staff is looking forward to spring and the season ahead.

Dolphin Explorer – Punta Cana, DOMINICAN REPUBLICDolphin Explorer is happy to announce the birth of

their first dolphin calf, a male named Jupiter, on 27 October 2012. Jupiter and his mother, Lea, are both doing well. The Curator of Marine Mammals and Elasmobranchs, Miguel Marquez, left the facility in January to take on other projects and the staff wishes him every success in the future.

Dolphin Quest Bermuda – Sandys, BERMUDAAt Dolphin Quest Bermuda, winter season means

show season. With the decrease in temperatures and tourism numbers in the winter months, DQB switches gears to keep the public involved. Each month, the show that is performed on Saturday has a different theme. In the holiday show presentation, the staff illustrate that the very things to love about the holidays are not too different from how to provide exciting stimulation to the dolphins throughout the year. These include elements of surprise through variable reinforcement, building relationships while spending time with loved ones, caring for the less fortunate through conservation and stewardship efforts, as well as, celebrating together. The show themes are creative and exciting and help to draw the local community to Dolphin Quest every week to see what’s new.

The following reports were submitted for publication on 28 February, 2013.

Photo Credit: Taronga Zoo

Taronga Zoo joins forces with Woolworths to promote a sustainable seafood conservation campaign.

Photo Credit: Dolphin ExplorerJupiter with mother, Lea, at Dolphin Explorer.

Photo Credit: Falgory Ocean Park

Chien Kuo-Chieh. Dolphins at Farglory Ocean Park celebrate the Dragon Boat Festival.

EUROPE NORTH CENTRAL REGIONChristiane Thiere, Tiergarten Nuremberg – Nuremberg, Germany

Delphinarium Muenster – Muenster, GERMANY

Delphinarium Muenster started the winter season preparing for the transport of all three Atlantic bottlenose dolphins for early 2013. Another big focus is reshaping and training new behaviors with the California sea lions, which will take over the main part of the newly designed show.

Allwetterzoo Muenster – Muenster, GERMANYThe flourishing penguin breeding program of the

Allwetterzoo Muenster has been well-known for many years. In some years, 20 to 25 Black-footed penguin (Speniscus demersus) grew up in the program. Only a few European zoological gardens have comparable breeding success. In summer 2012, 14 chicks were raised and 12 more hatched in December and January.

Considering the on-going threat for the survival of this species, the penguins’ reproduction rate in the Allwetterzoo Muenster is especially eminent. Hence, a huge amount of time and effort are invested in the breeding so as to bring up as many chicks as possible. The penguins are hatching their eggs and feeding the chicks on their own for approximately the first 60 days, but afterwards the chicks are leaving their rookery and the keepers have to teach them backstage how to eat dead fish independently. In the wild, the chicks would join a crèche with other juveniles and start hunting every moving and sparkling object. Unfortunately, the dead prey fish in the zoo are not moving at all. Thus the keepers have to convince the young birds, in several steps, that defrosted fish is an adequate prey.

EUROPE NORTH EAST REGIONSunna Edberg – Kolmarden, Sweden

Kolmarden – Kolmarden, SWEDEN

At Kolmarden, the female Baltic grey seal (Halichoerus grypus baltica), Liivi gave birth to her tenth pup on 20 February 2013 . The male pup and mother are doing fine.

EUROPE SOUTH CENTRAL REGIONPablo Joury, Amnéville Zoo – Amnéville, France

Amnéville Zoo – Amnéville, FRANCEAt the Amnéville Zoo, the sea lion bay team is

proud to welcome two female South American sea lions (Otaria flavescens) from Valencia, Spain. Lia and Greta arrived in January and are very well. They are performing in shows and are very calm and cool. The seven resident California and South American sea lions are welcoming and interacting with the two females.

Asterix delphinarium – Paris, FRANCEAfter a fantastic season followed by a winter full of

snow, the marine mammal team is ready to kick off the 2013 season full of energy. The staff has begun show rehearsals for the grand re-opening on 30 March. The sea lions are currently learning a larger repertoire of behaviors to debut in the new show.

Finally, the trainers and the animals would like to welcome their new trainer from the Netherlands, Fleur Besnyoi.

Zoo Marine – Rome, ITALYThe staff at the Zoo Marine dolphin facility have

begun introductions of the female Atlantic bottlenose dolphin calf, Thai, to the rest of the pod. Everything is going well and the staff can’t wait to present her to park visitors in the show.

MIDDLE EAST REGIONTommy Wilken – zoOceanarium GroupDubai, United Arab Emirates

Dubai Dolphinarium – Dubai, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

The female Black-sea bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncates ponticus), Ksyusha, gave birth to a male calf in May 2012 at the Dubai Dolphinarium. Both mother and calf are doing extremely well and are currently undergoing gate training into the show pool. The new pool extension is currently underway and should be completed by mid-year. A new northern fur seal (Callorhinus ursinus) display in also in the works, with three young pups joining the facility in May 2013.

Dolphin Bay, Atlantis the Palm – Dubai, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

2013 is set to be another exciting year for the dolphins and team at Dolphin Bay. The new Couples Retreat Interaction, as well as, the Behind-the-Scenes Tour is set to begin within the first quarter of 2013. The staff is also hard at work improving the Marine Mammal Eduventure, which was a great success with schools from Abu Dhabi and Dubai in 2013, as well as, welcoming back the Dubai Autism Center’s students who have been visiting since 2008. Team members are hard

at work preparing for their annual examinations and are engaging in some excellent training discussions on how to achieve their training goals for 2013. Congratulations to Dr. Luis Roque, Sheldon, and Rudelle Smuts, and Andrew Damon as the stork has been extremely busy over the last few months delivering new dolphin trainers and dolphin doctors.

Emirates Park Zoo – Abu Dhabi, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

The training of the South African fur seals (Actrocephalus pussilus) at Emirates Park Zoo is going well. The main focus is on medical behaviors in which all animals are achieving great results. The first scan for the pregnant female, Molly, is planned for March. Still, Swan and Sanga are now the stars of the first ever Sea Lion Interaction program in the UAE. Daily encounters with the resident animals are now available for all expatriates, locals and tourists of the UAE. The staff welcomes new trainers Ryan, Mark, Sandy and Jeffrey to the seal team and within the family. The facility also saw record numbers of guests over the December/January period.

Fakieh Aquarium – Jeddah, KINGDOM OF SAUDI ARABIA

The Fakieh Aquarium has opened its doors to the public on 23 January 2013. The aquarium includes 32 exhibits with a collection of more than 8,000 marine species. It also includes a Dolphinarium with six Pacific bottle-nosed dolphins (Tursiops truncatus gilli) that have adapted very well along with the three South American sea lions. The staff is looking forward to an amazing year in 2013.

Snow Penguins @ SKI DUBAI – Dubai, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

Snow Penguins @ SKI DUBAI is currently celebrating its 1 year anniversary since the launch of the program. The penguins are all coming along wonderfully. The training team has been working a great deal on advancing the behavioral development program for daily management, guest interactions and behavioral husbandry, and also recently revitalized the March of the Penguins public presentation for 2013.

Since the penguins arrived in Dubai on New Year’s Eve 2011, the staff has discovered that penguins are keen learners and they can take direction well, which helps the progression process. The penguins have exceeded expectations so far over the last year and the staff is excited to discover what they will learn in their second year. To watch a brief overview of the program, go to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9onvwEylYTM&feature=youtu.be

Snow Penguins @ SKI DUBAI would also like to take this opportunity to thank the IMATA & animal training community for all their support and warm wishes over the last year.

PACIFIC ISLANDS REGIONStephanie Vlachos – Waimanalo, Hawaii

Dolphin Quest Hawaii – Waikoloa, HAWAIIDolphin Quest Hawaii announces that the new

Atlantic bottlenose dolphin calves have names. Thanks to all that submitted ideas worldwide. The two boys, Malu which means peace and Nahele which means forest, are as close as their moms Pele and Kona. Keo’s first born, Lehua, means beautiful flower and she is as precious as her name describes. For this round of

Photo Credit: Allwetterzoo Muenster

Black-footed penguins (Speniscus demersus) at Allwetterzoo Muenster, Germany.

Photo Credit: Sunna Edberg

Baltic grey seal pup (Halichoerus grypus baltica) at Kolmarden, Sweden.

2120 SOUNDINGS 2013 Volume 38, Number 2Volume 38, Number 2 SOUNDINGS 2013

calves, Dolphin Quest has decided to share each little step of their development through social media posted on a weekly basis called Dolphin Calf Chronicles. These updates will focus on their fun, enjoyment and relationship building with trainers. Please feel free to become a fan and look for the calf updates on Facebook and Twitter. Additionally, to view the birth of Keo’s calf, Lehua, check out the You-Tube sensation.

Dolphin Quest Oahu – Honolulu, HAWAIIDolphin Quest Oahu (DQO) partnered with The

Hawai‘i Institute of Marine Biology to investigate how Atlantic bottlenose dolphins produce biosonar echolocation clicks.

To produce sound, dolphins push air through their nasal passages and past phonic lips, which triggers surrounding tissue to vibrate and make sound. Although scientists had previously believed that one phonic lip created clicks while a second phonic lip created whistles, Dr. Marc Lammers, one of the principle investigators, discovered that belugas use both lips simultaneously when echolocating. Because echolocation production and beam patterns can vary by species, Dr. Lammers wanted to know if Atlantic bottlenose dolphins also use both phonic lips as sound generators to produce clicks.

DQO trained their Atlantic bottlenose dolphins to sink to a specific depth, remain stationary and echolocate on objects while wearing suction cup hydrophones on their melon. Dr. Lammers is collaborating with Dr. Peter Madsen of Aarhus University in Denmark. They plan to publish a paper about sound production mechanisms in odontocetes, which will include the data from DQO’s recording sessions.

Sea Life Park, Hawaii – Waimanalo, HAWAIIThe Hawaii Ocean Theatre at Sea Life Park, Hawaii

is slated for renovations starting mid-March and should be completed within 8 weeks. The 2.0 Atlantic and 1.0 Pacific bottlenose dolphins will be moved to backstage holding pools during the renovation. The 0.3 California sea lions will be moved to Kalohe Kai with the 0.4 California sea lions that perform the theatrical sea lion shows and interactive programs.

The park wishes a fond farewell to Alley Rose and Samantha Fuentes and wishes them the best of luck in their future endeavors. The staff would also like to thank the winter interns for all their hard work and welcome the incoming spring interns.

Waikiki Aquarium – Honolulu, HAWAIIThe Waikiki Aquarium continues to train their

two resident Hawaiian monk seals (Monanchus schaunislandi), Maka Onaona and Hō'ailona, for voluntary husbandry behaviors, including weight training, blood draws, eye exams, oral exams, and ultrasounds. Maka is very healthy at 28 years of age and

Ho'a keeps growing at 4 years old, currently weighing in at 340 lbs (154 kg). The staff is also conducting social integration training sessions to prepare for the future integration of Maka and Ho'a.

U.S. MIDWEST REGIONStacey Lonski, Indianapolis Zoo – Indianapolis, IN

Brookfield Zoo – Brookfield, ILLINOISChicago Zoological Society’s Brookfield Zoo had a

very exciting summer in 2012. In addition to the debut of the summer games show, the staff also welcomed back Atlantic bottlenose dolphin Allie from the Minnesota Zoo. Allie had lived at CZS from 1995-2000 but then spent from 2000-2012 on breeding loans. The staff was very excited to have her back and reunite her with dolphin Tapeko after so many years. Rita Stacey and Melissa Zabojnik have been working all year on the IMATA research grant and are looking forward to presenting the results to IMATA in Las Vegas. Congratulations go to Jamie Kennedy on her promotion to Senior Keeper. The staff also wishes a fond farewell to seasonal keepers Miranda Bovy and Jackie Ulrich.

Como Zoo – St. Paul, MINNESOTABerlin, the Lake Superior Zoo polar bear (Ursus

maritimus) that was transported to Como Zoo in June due to flooding, has been transported to Kansas City Zoo on breeding recommendations. Berlin was trained to voluntarily enter a crate for her move.

The 0.2 harbor seals (Phoca vitulina) from the Lake Superior Zoo have been incorporated into the training program and have been introduced to the 1.1 harbor seals. They have already learned some new behaviors and continue to do well in their new environment.

Indianapolis Zoo – Indianapolis, INDIANADue to some changes within the Indianapolis Zoo,

the Marine Mammal Department now includes tigers (Panthera tigris altaica), muntjacs (Muntiacus reevesi) and red pandas (Ailurus fulgens). Staff has been cross-training and the joining of areas is going well. Last year, the zoo was blessed with the birth of an Atlantic bottlenose dolphin calf and the arrival of both a stranded California sea lion and an orphaned Pacific walrus calf (Odobenus rosmarus). Orin, the Atlantic bottlenose

dolphin calf, has started eating fish, but prefers ice as reinforcement. He is at the beginning stages of training and has learned to station and hand target. Ray, the juvenile sea lion, has been successfully introduced to the female sea lions and seals, and the staff is working on introductions with the adult male sea lion. Pakak, the walrus calf, is on exhibit with the adult female, Aurora. They have bonded well and enjoy swimming, playing, and sleeping together. Pakak took readily to fish and now eats several pounds of it along with his formula each day. Being a good eater, he is already about 480 lbs (218 kg).

St. Louis Zoo – St. Louis, MISSOURI The staff at Saint Louis Zoo’s Sea Lion Sound exhibit

completed a very busy and successful first summer. Visitors enjoyed daily sea lion shows in the Lichtenstein Sea Lion Arena where 2.3 California sea lions participated, offering daily interactions and showing off their natural talent. At the Enterprise Family Rent-A-Car Sea Lion Landing, guests of all ages watched the daily feeding and training sessions with 3.3 California sea lions and 0.1 harbor seal, as well as, enjoyed an incredible view as the animals swam over visitors’ heads in the underwater tunnel. Now that the show season is over, the staff is excited to introduce the show animals to the landing pool and the animals currently there. The staff would also like to thank seasonal trainers Lisa Maracic and Diana Vogel for a wonderful summer and wish them the best of luck in their future endeavors.

U. S. NORTHEAST REGIONBeth Manning – Baltimore, Maryland

Long Island Aquarium and Exhibition Center – Riverhead, Long Island, NEW YORK

The Long Island Aquarium and Exhibition Center was hit with a blizzard in February. Several staff members stayed overnight to care for the animals. The North American river otters (Lontra canadensis) sure seemed to enjoy sliding around and tunneling through all of the snow.

The renovations and construction on the true seal exhibit were completed and the four harbor seals and one grey seal (Halichoerus grypus) were successfully moved back to their habitat. The exhibit looks beautiful and both the trainers and the animals are enjoying their new digs.

Photo Credit: Dr. Marc Lammers

Dolphin wearing suction cup hydrophones on melon for biosonar study at Dolphin Quest Oahu.

Photo Credit: Indianapolis Zoo

Aurora and Pakak at the Indianapolis Zoo.

Over the last couple of years, the training staff has been collaborating with Kristy L. Biolsi, PhD, Assistant Professor of Psychology at St. Francis College in Queens, New York, on a research project to investigate object recognition with their two California sea lions. After years of training, the trainers were finally able to conduct preliminary trials to see if the sea lions could use pictures of objects to represent the objects themselves. The first trials showed that the sea lions successfully transferred their knowledge of the objects to the pictures of the objects. The trainers and Dr. Biolsi are very excited about the results and are eager to continue their collaboration.

Mystic Aquarium & Institute for Exploration –Mystic, CONNECTICUT

The Pacific Northwest team at Mystic Aquarium & Institute for Exploration welcomes three harbor seal pups to the collection. The trainers are working on hand feeding and bridge training. The team is happy to welcome trainer Christine Metzger.

Baranov, Mystic’s 16-year-old male Northern fur seal (Callorhinus ursinus), has returned from New England Aquarium. He is adjusting well. Jack and Sam, also adult male Northern fur seals, have joined the collection from New York Aquarium and are acclimating well.

The Arctic Coast team would like to welcome senior trainers Chris Harris and Courtney Collins.

The Penguin team would like to report that nesting season began in early December. The team expects SSP eggs to hatch at the end of January or early February.

The Stranding Program performed a successful amputation of the rear left flipper for a harbor seal pup with abnormal bone density and infection. Today, she is back to swimming in a full pool of water and continues to progress in her rehabilitation.

The aquarium would like to thank the interns for their hard work last semester: Noel Vezzi, Rebecca Petit, Kelsey Wood, Christina Lemnotis, Melissa Wands, Kelley Fogarty, Kaleigh Pavlik, Andrea Wagner, Caitlin Del Sesto, and Rachel Winsten.

New England Aquarium – Boston, MASSACHUSETTS

The New England Aquarium is pleased to report that Flaherty, the 6-month-old Northern fur seal, is doing well full-time on exhibit. He is weaned from his mom Ursula and is regularly participating in training sessions for the public. He spends much of his time wrestling or hanging out with his best friend, Leu.

This winter has been a record-breaking year for the Rescue and Rehabilitation department, which admitted 218 live turtles throughout the 3 month season. Of those, 100 were loggerheads (Caretta caretta) which is a huge increase from the normal season average of ten.

The Giant Ocean Tank (GOT) renovation continues on schedule to date; all of the breakdown and demolition has been completed and the rebuild is beginning. The projected opening for the GOT is July 2013.

Virginia Aquarium and Marine Science Center – Virginia Beach, VIRGINIA

The winter of 2013 is update time for the Harbor Seal Exhibit at the Virginia Aquarium and Marine Science Center. The exhibit was originally built in 1995 and opened in 1996. Since that time, there have been some renovations including the platform added in 2003 to carry out the Harbor Seal Splash program. Now it is time again to redo the floor, buff the acrylic, and spruce up the area in general.

While the exhibit is being updated, the harbor seals are wintering in Florida. The staff at Gulfarium Marine Adventure Park is graciously hosting the 5.0 harbor seals until they can return home. Some staff members from Virginia Aquarium have become snowbirds, as well, to take care of the seals. The rest of the staff anxiously awaits their return so they can get ready for the tenth season offering the Harbor Seal Splash Program. Thank you to Gulfarium Marine Adventure Park for taking such wonderful care of harbor seals and working side by side with the staff of the Virginia Aquarium.

U.S. NORTHWEST REGIONCinthia Alia-Mitchell – Tualatin, Oregon

Oregon Coast Aquarium – Newport, OREGONThe pinniped exhibit renovations are under way

at the Oregon Coast Aquarium. The 1.2 California sea lions and 0.6 Pacific harbor seals (Phoca vitulina richardsi) are adjusting to their various holding pools behind the scenes. The exhibit is due to be down for a month-and-a-half with a highly anticipated re-opening for spring break. There will be a significant increase in viewing for the guests as well as interactions with interpreters.

Aialik, the 14-year-old northern sea otter (Enhydra lutris lutris) that underwent bladder marsupialization surgery 2 years ago continues to do well. His voluntary stoma manipulation and injections, and free contact continue to go smoothly.

Schuster, the newest member of the sea otter crew, is progressing extremely well in his husbandry training. He has been with the facility for just under 1 year and went from a wild-naive animal to now offering cooperative behaviors such as full body contact, open mouth and paw presents.

The mammal department would like to bid a fond farewell to the fall interns and welcome to Cierra Miller and Kelly Morgan for the winter/spring term.

Oregon Zoo – Portland, OREGONThe Oregon Zoo will begin two research projects

with the polar bears this spring. The first requires 0.1 polar bear, Tasul, to wear an accelerometer collar. Training has already begun to desensitize her to wearing things around her neck. The second research project is diet determination using stable isotopes. 1.1 polar bears will be on experimental diets for 15 weeks, and will have regular blood and hair samples taken.

The 1.0 California sea otter (Enhydra lutris nereis), Eddie has recently been trained for voluntary urine collection. Urine samples are being monitored for healthy kidney and bladder function. The Oregon Zoo would like to share data with other facilities that are collecting urine from sea otters.

The Oregon Zoo’s Marine Life department will be hosting an IMATA Regional Workshop on 11 May 2013. Please contact jenny.degroot@oregonzoo.org for more information.

The Marine Life department welcomes new dive safety officer Gretchen Slack.

U.S. SOUTHEAST REGIONSarah Graff, Miami Seaquarium – Miami, Florida

Audubon Aquarium of the Americas – New Orleans, LOUISIANA

At Audubon Aquarium of the Americas, 1.1 California sea otters are progressing well with new husbandry behaviors, allowing the veterinarian to get a closer look at both animals. Emma has completed

her stethoscope behavior, allowing the vet to listen to her heart with full contact. This behavior has led to other behaviors such as abdomen palpation, eye drop desensitization, and will also give the staff the ability to conduct ultrasounds and voluntary X-rays. Buck is doing well with his stethoscope behavior using protective contact, allowing full view and access to his entire ventral side for many other husbandry behaviors.

At the Audubon Zoo, Katie, a 31-year-old sea lion was trained for a voluntary injection for sedation, rear flipper blood draw and underwent a CT scan at the local Children’s Hospital. All three sea lions have begun voluntary restraint training with the squeeze cage. The Sea Lion Team has also joined forces with the Asian Domain Team bringing California sea lions and Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) together for some unique and exciting enrichment and training opportunities. The Sea Lion staff would like to thank the Fall/Winter Interns: Mike Dray, Meg Marshall, Jonathan Hodge, and Halle Bertovich for their hard work and dedication this past season.

Dolphin Connection – Duck Key, FLORIDADolphin Connection was once again honored by a

visit from former President Jimmy Carter, former First Lady Rosalyn Carter, and their family, who celebrated the Christmas and New Year holidays at the facility.

Dolphin Connection’s website continues to expand with the addition of a new game designed to quiz people on the knowledge of dolphins, dolphin training, local wildlife and all things Florida Keys. Check it out at dolphinconnection.com/dolphin trivia and a big thank you to the design team, Lunar Cow. Dolphin Connection welcomes new Assistant Trainer Alexa Miller to the team.

Dolphins Plus – Key Largo, FLORIDADolphins Plus and Dolphin Cove would like to

welcome the newest members of the animal care and training team, J.P. Rivera and Marcus Reamer. Also, welcome to Joy Middleton as veterinary assistant to Dr. Robert Stevens. Both facilities would like to congratulate Melissa Lopes, Kate Lawrence and Joy Middleton for receiving their Masters of Professional Science degrees in the Marine Biology and Fisheries/Marine Mammal Science track from University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science.

Both training teams continue to work towards voluntary in-water restraint behaviors with the pregnant females. The goal is to achieve early voluntary restraint with newborn calves, allowing to acquire blood samples. This milestone will improve the facilities’ collective management of neonate health and behavior.

Additionally, Dolphin Cove’s staff is pleased to announce that Isaac, the 20-month-old male calf, has successfully added two vital husbandry behaviors to his repertoire. Isaac successfully gave a voluntary blood sample after approximately 8 weeks of training, allowing for insight into DNA comparison, as well as hematology and blood chemistry values. He is also now successful at voluntary hydrations. Currently, Isaac continues to expand his husbandry behavior repertoire and is learning how to beach on a scale for weekly weights.

Dolphin Research Center – Grassy Key, FLORIDA

Dolphin Research Center is proud to announce the newest addition to the family. On 3 December 2012, Santini delivered a healthy baby boy, named Reese in honor of his grandmother, Theresa. Reese is the third successful calf born at DRC through artificial insemination, thanks to the help of Holley Muraco. His

2322 SOUNDINGS 2013 Volume 38, Number 2Volume 38, Number 2 SOUNDINGS 2013

dad is 18-year-old Brisby, who calls Six Flags Discovery Kingdom home.

DRC continues to work with the country’s military, hosting the Wounded Warrior’s Project Odyssey, once again, in October. A dozen men were given the opportunity to play with the dolphins enjoying swims, training and enrichment sessions. In January, Wounded Warriors visited DRC with the Charles Evans Soldier Ride. Over 40 heroes were bicycling over the Keys and stopped to swim with the dolphins and enjoy lunch with the staff. Flags were waving and a wonderful time was had by all.

In September 2012, DRC hosted a Southeast Regional Workshop where 200 guests attended various training sessions with dolphins and sea lions. There were enrichment sessions, and workshops on a variety of topics, including sea lion training, dolphin assists, and a question and answer session about the new Marine Mammal College. DRC would like to thank all who attended, making the workshop a huge success.

Clearwater Marine Aquarium – Clearwater, FLORIDAClearwater Marine Aquarium has completed another

successful introduction. A bottlenose dolphin calf named Hope, now two years old, was introduced to Winter, a 7-year-old resident bottlenose dolphin without tail flukes. Despite the clear difference in their abilities at swimming, they have acclimated well. Normal displays of dolphin behavior have taken place between them and they regularly interact in a healthy way with

one another along with and an estimated 40-year-old bottlenose dolphin named, Panama.

Clearwater Marine Aquarium would also like to welcome new staff member Sue Young, Senior Trainer, and Hada Herring who is now Clearwater Marine Aquarium's first ever full-time stranding coordinator.

Gulfarium Marine Adventure Park – Fort Walton Beach, FLORIDA

During the off-season at Gulfarium, several facility updates took place including work on the African penguin (Spheniscus demersus) habitat to expand living space for a growing population and incorporate different ground textures. Gulfarium has also enjoyed being host to 5.0 harbor seals from the Virginia Aquarium.

In January, the Gulfarium was thrilled to host the inspection team for IMATA's Trainer Training program and Alliance facility accreditation and is now eagerly awaiting the results from the inspection. Gulfarium Marine Adventure Park invites everyone to visit their new website, www.gulfarium.com, featuring animal flash cards, an interactive park map, online ticket sales and encounter reservations. This includes two brand new programs to begin in the spring of 2013, Discover Otters and Sunset Camp.

The Gulfarium extends a grand welcome to Assistant Supervisor, Cat Rust.

Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute’s Marine Mammal Research and Conservation Program Fort Pierce, FLORIDA

Members from HBOI-MMRC attended the Hong Kong IMATA conference. MMRC presentations garnered recognition as co-authors on the 1st place Editor’s Choice Award, Farglory Park, Taiwan and 2nd place for Research Advancements. The highlight of the trip was meeting and sharing ideas with fellow marine mammal first responders.

On 17 December 2012 MMRC assisted Florida Fish and Wildlife by stabilizing an injured West Indian manatee at Ft. Pierce Inlet State Park, Florida. The adult manatee was transported by FWC to Miami for rehabilitation but unfortunately the animal succumbed to its injuries the following day.

In January 2013 MMRC staff and a Florida Atlantic University Post-doctoral fellow continue ongoing research entitled Acoustic Behavior and Analysis of Right Whale Social Vocalizations Used in Their Critical Florida Habitat. The work has recorded, documented, spectrally analyzed, and statistically categorized more than 1000 right whale calls. These calls types have been evaluated with respect to group composition and behavioral context and sequential affinities. The calls have been segregated into 8 different call types. The structure and stabilities of these call types have further evaluated machine learning programs, characterization and regression tree analysis. Since 18 December 2012, five new mother calf pairs have been recorded in Florida waters.

Marineland Dolphin Adventure – Marineland, FLORIDA

In celebration of the many generations of families who have visited the park in all of its many incarnations, Marine Studios, Marineland of Florida, and now Marineland Dolphin Adventure special activities, programs, and giveaways will highlight the park’s 75th

Photo Credit: Gulfarium

New penguin exhibit at the Gulfarium.

Photo Credit: Marineland Dolphin Adventure

Staff and guests of Marineland Dolphin Adventure celebrated the 60th birthday of Nellie on 27 February 2013. Nellie is currently the oldest known dolphin at any zoo or aquarium in the world.

Photo Credit: Dolphin Research Center

Santini with calf.

anniversary throughout 2013. Additionally, the MDA team welcomes Sarah Bryce as Supervisor of Animal Training.

Memphis Zoo – Memphis, TENNESSEEFor the last month the sea lion staff has been

introducing Teva, a California sea lion pup, to the main exhibit. She now spends most of her day on exhibit along with Chloe and Callie, two of the adults. When Teva is off exhibit, she is offered a variety of fish, from goldfish to pieces of herring and capelin, to help encourage weaning.

After months apart, the 1.1 polar bears are back together for the breeding season. Reintroductions are going well. The staff is happy to say that the 1.3 wolves (Canis Lupus) were hand injected with their vaccinations.

Miami Seaquarium – Miami, FLORIDAOn 1 February 2013 Miami Seaquarium opened a

one-of-a kind Seal Swim Program to paying participants. Trainers welcomed the guests into the water to experience a unique deep and shallow water interaction. The adventure begins by putting on masks and freely swimming alongside harbor seals and California sea lions. Trainers then personally introduce the guests to the animals for a fun and memorable experience.

The animal care and veterinary staff is proud to have released Wooden, a West Indian manatee. Wooden was an orphan suffering from cold stress when he was rescued and brought to Miami Seaquarium. He was released in Homosassa Springs, Florida on 4 February 2013. Also in November 2012 Deputy, a green sea turtle (Chelonia mydas), was released after a successful rehabilitation. When she arrived at Miami Seaquarium in June 2012 she was missing part of her shell and one of her front flippers.

The training department would also like to congratulate Amy Spaulding on her recent promotion to Assistant Supervisor of Animal Training.

SeaWorld – Orlando, FLORIDA1.2 juvenile Short-finned Pilot Whales (Globicephala

macrorhynchus) rescued from a mass stranding 4 months ago by Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute and SeaWorld Orlando has been deemed non-releasable by the National Marine Fisheries Services (NMFS). Estimated at less than a year of age at the time of their stranding, experts from NMFS suggested that the whales were dependent calves therefore unfit to survive on their own in the open ocean. SeaWorld’s experience with caring for rescued animals coupled with the fact that 0.1 rescued pilot whale is thriving, contributed to SeaWorld Orlando being selected as a permanent home for the three calves. While the goal is to return every animal that is rescued and rehabilitated to its natural habitat, SeaWorld accepts the responsibility of providing these animals with lifelong care.

In early January 2013 the whales were transported from a backstage quarantine area to the park’s Whale and Dolphin Theatre. SeaWorld’s animal trainers are continuing the foundation training the calves responded to while quarantined, with an emphasis on husbandry and moving between backstage pools. It is the hope that these three young animals will contribute to the knowledge base and affect the guests for many years to come.

THE SEAS®, Disney’s Animals, Science and the Environment – Orlando, FLORIDA

In a new project in collaboration with Dr. David Mann and PhD student Danielle Greenhow from the University of South Florida, members of The Seas Marine Mammal and Research Teams are examining how dolphins use their beam-steering capabilities during a free-swimming task. One Atlantic bottlenose dolphin at The Seas, Calvin, is performing a matching-to-sample task using echolocation in which the sample object that he inspects is placed in front of a grid containing 25 hydrophones and two video cameras. As Calvin inspects the object, the hydrophones will record every click so it can be determined exactly where the echolocation beam is pointing. Dolphins rely on their sense of echolocation, or bio-sonar, to navigate and explore their world. Echolocation clicks are made inside the dolphin’s blowhole by clapping two structures together. The fatty tissue inside the melon focuses the clapping sound into a narrow beam, much like shining light through the lens of a flashlight. Until recently, it was widely believed that the direction the echolocation beam pointed was fixed so the dolphin could only steer the beam by moving its head. However, it was recently discovered that it is possible for a dolphin to affect the direction of the beam even when holding its head still.

By comparing the direction of the beam to the direction that Calvin’s head is pointing, we will be able to determine how Calvin uses his beam steering capabilities in a real-world task. This may help us better understand how dolphins use this active sense to investigate things they encounter in their environment.

U.S. SOUTHWEST REGIONBrittany Harris, SeaWorld – San Diego, California

SeaWorld San Diego – San Diego, CALIFORNIA Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute and Dolphin

Quest sponsored an exciting conference from Animal Concepts on marine mammal welfare, cognition and behavior. During the 3 days, topics ranged from anatomy, physiology, sound, communication, veterinary

care, behavior, research training, acoustics, enrichment, and training. Seven speakers from different universities and organizations participated as well as trainers and students from around the country.

SeaWorld San Diego’s family of killer whales (Orcinus orca) has a new member. Shouka, a 19-year-old female from Six Flags Vallejo, came to SeaWorld this past August. Shouka has acclimated and adjusted really well to the other eight whales and has quickly won the hearts of many trainers.

Monterey Bay Aquarium – Monterey, CALIFORNIA The Sea Otter Staff at the Monterey Bay Aquarium

is sad to announce the loss of the sea otter Mae on 17 November 2012. As vital member of the sea otter family, surrogate mother for five SORAC pups, and a companion with many sea otters throughout the years, she will be missed. Although she was reluctant at times to raise pups; she was a rock star at training on exhibit, having a large and complex behavioral repertoire.

While the exhibit is still being remodeled, Abby and Rosa have been living behind-the-scenes. When Rosa is not in training and learning new behaviors, she can be found serving as a companion animal for otters slated for release. Abby, who had never been a surrogate mother, was recently placed with her first surrogate pup and is doing very well.

The Mirage – Las Vegas, NEVADA The Mirage Dolphin Habitat and the training team

are busy gearing up on preparations for hosting the IMATA Annual Conference in September. The staff is very excited to be hosting this event and cannot wait to see everyone in Las Vegas!

The Mirage Dolphin Habitat is also pleased to announce the creation of a new interactive program, Painting with the Dolphins, where guests have the chance to interact and collaborate with one of five of the Atlantic bottlenose dolphins to create a unique work of art. The training staff wished to create a new type of interactive program that differed from the current interactions offered, such as the Trainer for a Day program or the V.I.P. behind-the-scenes educational tours. Painting with the Dolphins is a creative avenue to mentally challenge and engage the animals, while allowing the guests to get up close to learn about the dolphins and threats to their species in the wild.

REGIONAL REPORTS is compiled by Martha Hill

Photo Credit: Memphis Zoo

Teva on exhibit at the Memphis Zoo.

Photo Credit: Miami Seaquarium

Guests strike a pose with Sandy during their Seal Swim at Miami Seaquarium.

Photo Credit: Mike Aguilera

Shouka, the newest addition to the family of killer whales (Orcinus orca) at SeaWorld San Diego.

2524 SOUNDINGS 2013 Volume 38, Number 2Volume 38, Number 2 SOUNDINGS 2013

Bolivia has enacted a law to protect endangered Amazon river dolphins. It bans fishing for the freshwater dolphins and encourages programs to protect them and their habitats, which have been damaged by erosion, pollution, and woodcutting in the river basins. www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20120918/lt-bolivia-dolphins/

The Born Free Foundation and the University of Bristol reviewed reports completed by government-appointed zoo inspectors following inspections of 192 licensed zoos in Britain and allege that only a quarter of the zoos met criteria regarding welfare, conservation, and education. Since 1981, zoos in the UK have been licensed under the Zoo Licensing Act, which requires them to meet certain standards of care. The British & Irish Association of Zoos & Aquariums said it was difficult to use the zoo licensing reports, on which the study was based, as an assessment of welfare in zoos as they contain limited information about a “complex subject.”

www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/article-2215044/British-zoos-failing-animal-welfare-says-new-Born-Free-report.html#ixzz2ILdzJnsHwww.bornfree.org.uk/index.php?id=34&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=1126&cHash=180ab48a31780090d9ff6b411aa2e77d

DNA evidence suggests that the mixing of the Northern Cuban dolphins is much more variable and widespread than in other areas, and aligns with Cuban government officials’ study observations that population numbers drop in certain months around the island when many of the animals are believed to mix with dolphins to the North in Bahamian waters. Cuban officials made a presentation at recent IMATA regional meeting in Cuba on population studies that are the basis for their collection of a limited number of dolphins annually. Cuba’s National Aquarium Web site lists both the completed population research undertaken from 2002 to 2010 as well a study that began last year and will be completed in 2015—“Population and clinical parameters of dolphins Tursiops truncatus in the coast north of the Archipelago Sabana-Camagüey.” www.acuarionacional.cu/ciencia-tecnologia/projects.html

The German Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture, and Consumer Protection’s revision of Germany’s guidelines for the public display of mammals is nearing an end. Representatives from Dolfinarium Harderwijk in Holland and the Nürnberg Zoo participated on the marine mammal working group and emphasized that any revised standards should be based on objective indicators of animal health and welfare that can be applied in a uniform and transparent manner.

The International Air Transport Association’s Live Animals and Perishables Board accepted changes to its Live Animal Regulations (LAR) recommened by the Alliance. The Allaince’s proposal for revisions to the LAR container requirements for marine mammals were submitted at IATA’s request.

At the 64th annual meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) in Panama from 11 June to 6 July, the IWC’s Scientific Committee warned about the grave state of Mexico’s vaquita porpoise and the Maui’s dolphin in New Zealand, recommending that the two countries ban all fishing gillnets from the critically endangered animals’ habitats to prevent entanglement deaths. www.boston.com/business/news/2012/07/06/whaling-meeting-ends-with-mixed-results/HGpuUnA7ibofJ6zt9OlNOK/story.html

The Animal Welfare Board of India has advised all state governments against granting permission for dolphin marine parks, alleging that the animals are collected through cruel methods like “drive captures,” separated from their families, and “subjected to a life of captivity and cruelty.” Reportedly, there have been no dolphins on public display in India since the 1990s. However, proposals to build facilities in a number of Indian states have been discussed recently. http://india.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/11/india-moves-to-block-dolphin-shows-citing-cruelty/

Taiwan has added new rules to its Wildlife Conservation Act to prohibit the import, export, and sale of marine mammals and their products without special permits from the governing agency. www.chinapost.com.tw/life/environment/2013/01/09/366764/New-rules.htm

The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service recently issued final rules that will require U.S. zoos and aquariums to add information to their current contingency plans and increase reporting on itineraries for animals taken off-site overnight for exhibition purposes. Links to fact sheets on the rules follow. www.aphis.usda.gov/animal_welfare/content/printable_version/contingency_ rule_faq.pdf • www.aphis.usda.gov/animal_welfare/content/printable_version/traveling_animal_faq.pdf

The Alliance of Marine Mammal Parks and Aquariums is an international association of marine life parks, aquariums, zoos, research facilities, and professional organizations dedicated to the highest standards of care for marine mammals and to their conservation in the wild through public education, scientific study, and wildlife presentations. The Alliance closely monitors legislative and regulatory activity around the globe that may impact member organizations like IMATA. The following briefs have been reprinted with permission of, or furnished by the Alliance for Soundings.

Two Americans have pleaded not guilty to charges that they participated in a decade-long international smuggling operation that, according to federal officials, brought narwhal tusks into the United States. www.nytimes.com/2013/01/12/us/2-linked-to-smuggling-narwhal-tusks-plead-not-guilty.html?_r=1&

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service held a meeting 13 December to discuss U.S. negotiating positions on various proposed resolutions, decisions, and amendments that will be on the agenda of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) meeting in Bangkok, Thailand, 3–14 March 2013. Last month, the agency published a Federal Register notice seeking comments on its proposals, which focus on sharks and many turtle species. The agency is also proposing to uplist polar bears from Appendix II to Appendix I. To obtain information on other FWS proposals, go to the agency’s Web site dedicated to the meeting. www.fws.gov/international/cites/cop16/ • www.federalregister.gov/articles/2012/11/28/2012-28897/conference-of-the-parties-to-the-convention-on-international-trade-in-endangered-species-of-wild • www.fws.gov/international/cites/cop16/cop16-polar-bear-proposal-factsheet.pdf

After publishing a proposed rule on 2 June 2011 that would revise critical habitat for the Hawaiian monk seal under the Endangered Species Act, NMFS is extending the deadline for the final revision to the rule for an additional six months to further analyze data and consider concerns. Comments on the proposal indicate disagreement on the “sufficiency and accuracy of the data and analyses.” www.federalregister.gov/articles/2012/06/25/2012-15441/endangered-and-threatened-wildlife-and-plants-proposed-rulemaking-to-revise-critical-habitat-for#p-3

Animals in Rhode Island can now have a human advocate in court when their welfare is at stake. The governor signed a law that allows a state veterinarian to act as an advocate for animals in abuse and neglect cases. The advocate would be responsible for making recommendations about what’s best for the animal. Representatives of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals may also serve as advocates. www.boston.com/news/local/rhode_island/articles/2012/06/15/ri_law_now_allows_for_animal_advocates_in_court/

Off the Shelf

In the book 100 Heartbeats: The Race to Save Earth’s Most Endangered Species, renowned naturalist and conservationist, Jeff Corwin, examines some of the numerous issues facing threatened and endangered species in the world today. He does well integrating personal anecdotes about each of the species he discusses with population statistics and conservation facts. Presented in a manner that is both informative and engaging, the reader is given an in-depth look into a variety of factors contributing to the population status of several different species. While reading this book, one literally joins Corwin on a world-wide tour to visit critically endangered animals across our planet. The book starts by introducing the “Hundred Heartbeat Club”, which is a group dedicated to any species that “literally has fewer than 100 hearts beating on our planet.” This is just the beginning of an array of extreme eye-opening facts that this book presents. Ranging from mountain gorillas and panthers to crested toads and honey-sucker birds, the reader learns about a wide variety of animals – some that many are well aware are struggling to survive, and some that one might have never even heard about, perhaps in part due to their dangerously small populations. This book is a great read for someone interested in taking an in-depth look at the problems with which many animals are being forced to deal, while still being able to enjoy an assortment of remarkable interactions with extremely unique animals. We get to look at a variety of issues risking the lives of these very animals. Some of these issues are caused by humans, while some are merely acts of nature; regardless, Corwin gives ample background on many major topics (loss of habitat, hunting, global warming, lack of genetic diversity, invasive species, etc.), as well as possible solutions for the future. We are able to read success stories, like the work done with locals in Madagascar to raise awareness of the status of Bamboo lemurs and help promote their well-being. These animals were previously threatened by habitat destruction due to the logging industry, and with a little effort and dedication, conservationists were able to educate people, which led to laws increasing protected areas for the lemurs to reside. Corwin also describes current conservation projects set in place, such as aversion conditioning to keep condors away from power lines when released, or using a “double-clutching” strategy for increasing birth rate and success in Mauritius kestrels, which all leave the reader with a vision of hope for many of these threatened species. The diversity of animals covered in this book allows readers to learn enough information about these critical species, as well as build a heart-warming connection to each and every story. I, for one, definitely recommend this book.

OFF THE SHELF is compiled by John Widick.

100 Heartbeats: The Race to Save earth’s Most endangered Speciesby Jeff Corwin, reviewed by Erin Weber

2726 SOUNDINGS 2013 Volume 38, Number 2Volume 38, Number 2 SOUNDINGS 2013

When training animals to gate, like many behaviors, it is very important to establish a good foundation. We view a good foundation as (1) making sure all animals involved are comfortable and attentive to their trainer while any animal is asked to go into another area and (2) all animals are comfortable when a gate is being closed while the group is together. Then we can build on that in order to close gates that may separate groups of animals. I think most trainers would agree that if you are experiencing behavioral breakdown of a certain behavior, go ahead and take a step backwards and re-work some basic aspects of that behavior.

Because you are having inconsistent gating that is being reinforced by participation in shows one of the first questions you might want to ask yourself is it absolutely necessary to gate animals during or before a show? Ideally you want to have sessions where you can take the necessary time to make some smaller approximations, just working on animals staying at station while slowly desensitizing the animals to the gate moving slightly at first, then more and more until you can open or close a gate while the animals remain at station. You might also want to practice having animals going in and out of other areas without closing or opening gates to provide variability. It is helpful to avoid closing a gate every time an animal enters another area. When you do gate, you need to vary when and how long the animals are gated for. Remember having an animal gate or shift reliably is one of the most important behaviors you utilize to manage your animals, and this behavior needs to be reinforced very well.

If you need to gate animals prior to a particular session or show, it is important to look at how each trainer is handling the incorrect response. All trainers need to be consistent. Although we all understand that sometimes “the show must go on,” it is important to develop a plan that minimizes the reinforcement of gate refusal. If an animal refuses to gate, ask a second time and if the animal refuses again, do not keep asking the same behavior. The animal is then practicing gating refusal; your session is no longer positive and the animal is practicing poor behavior. It may be a good idea to ask a few (2 to 3) simple behaviors, that you can bridge but do not reinforce, to put some time in between when the animal refused to gate and when they started receiving primary reinforcement again. Then try and make a small approximation, maybe stationing next to the gate or

even just moving toward the gate. The most important point is to get a game plan in place for how you’re going to move forward in a positive manner by lessening criteria or changing other factors (when they are asked in the session, changing animal groups etc.). It is also important to consider are social factors. For instance, are some animals reluctant to leave a group or reluctant to join certain groups? By looking at your group composition, and how each animal fits in with the rest of the group you may find some animals are more likely to gate with certain animals and you may increase your chance of success just by adjusting the group composition. Of course as trainers we strive to remain flexible, when one approach is not working, try another approach. I know it sounds corny but teamwork is vital to the success of your organization, make sure everyone understands the agreed upon plan of action and what their role is in accomplishing your goals.

Rita Stacey VondraCurator of Marine Mammals - Seven SeasChicago Zoological Society - Brookfield Zoo

After discussing this question with our training team at Clearwater Marine Aquarium, we have come to some potential solutions. Reading your question it sounds like starting gating much earlier would help. We’ve all been in a situation where we realize that an animal will find his or herself in a reinforcing situation despite the fact that they were poor behaviorally. That’s the time when we usually start kicking ourselves because we should have set the animals up better in the first place. If you begin your gating 15, even 30 minutes ahead of time, you’ll find that you have the opportunity to walk away if one or more of your animals fail. This way you avoid reinforcing undesired behavior while gating i.e. refusal to gate, displacement, rushing of the gate, and it gives you time to think about what you could do to solve the problem. If you do find yourself forced to perform a show despite a failed gating session, then do your best to minimize reinforcement for that animal in the session to follow. Save their reinforcement for gating later. You might even find that you have the chance to practice gating during show while the other animals are still performing. Either way you would want to dedicate as much of that days reinforcement as possible to correcting the problems that arose during gating. It would be nice if gating were like

ANSWER 1

ANSWER 2

Q U E S T I O N : We’ve recently run into a problem with gating our animals. They are gating inconsistently, by refusing or preventing other animals from gating, but are still reinforced if they choose to participate in a show or session. Is there a way to work through this issue so that both scenarios are rewarded appropriately?

other behaviors that can simply be put off to work another day, but it is often so critical to our operation in aquariums that this is not possible.

Finally, the most important solution is the proactive one. Increase the number of gating sessions your team does dramatically. Do ten times the gating you were doing before if possible. The reasons are manifold. Most of the time when animals refuse to gate, or attempt to control the outcome of a gating session, it is because the outcome has become predictable and some outcomes are more reinforcing than others. Bear in mind that gating will always become predictable, with the same animals winding up in the same places at the same times of day, if we only gate them at when we have to, because we usually follow a set schedule of shows or guest-interactions.

Please consider your balance of reinforcement. If you are a show facility, show pool is most likely where the animals receive the majority of their reinforcement. Ensure that your animals find other pools reinforcing, as well! Do more sessions in other pools, give play time in the back pools. Make leaving the show area just as reinforcing as staying and doing a show!

One of the ways we practice variable gating at Clearwater Marine Aquarium is to hold all 3 of our female bottlenose dolphins in one pool, and then send each of them one at a time to a station in the next pool. We close the gate every time, but then we quickly reopen it and send the dolphin back. We might send them in pairs as well. Then at the end we might leave all the gates open and let them have free reign, but whatever we do we try to make it different every time as this not only sets them up for success, it makes it more interesting. If you adopt these two techniques: starting earlier and increasing the sessions in which you practice variable gating scenarios, you may find that it solves your problem before shows, and if it does, you may find yourself easing off the practice after a little time has gone by. You need to keep it up, quite literally, forever! Never forget that maintaining behavior is harder than training it! Hope we were of help!

Clearwater Marine Mammal Training TeamClearwater Marine AquariumClearwater, Florida

Animal trainers face a multitude of challenges when training and maintaining behavior. At times the focus may shift to the higher priority goals and behavior; however emphasis and reinforcement must be placed on the fundamentals of animal training.

Remember gating is a behavior so the behavior needs to be reinforced appropriately. Set up your animals for success by starting with easy (less difficult) gates to build the reinforcement history and trust. Provide clear criteria of the gating behavior. Do not draw too much attention on the gate or the movement of the gate. If you’re reacting, the animals will react. Behavior should be calm and maintain position in pool regardless of the activity of the gate.

When training the gating behavior it is important that the bridge and reinforcement come as a result of the completion of the gate movement. Don’t associate the movement or sounds of the gate with reinforcement.

There are a many reasons gating can become inconsistent. There may be a lack of primary reinforcement or a variety of reinforcement. The social dynamics can also have an effect on gating, so trainers must pay close attention to reinforcing and maintaining healthy relationships among all animals. The animals that are having issues with one another should be reinforced while sitting calmly together in different scenarios (shows, sessions, and gating). The more dominant animal should receive its reinforcement as a consequence of a correct response; allowing the subdominant animal to receive reinforcement.

If your facility engages in shows or interactions one technique that may assist in increasing cooperation during gating is asking the behavior at least 15-30 minutes prior. If this is not feasible for your facility you may want to wait until show/interaction time and if you see failure, continue with the original plan with the animals that are cooperating and end the interaction with the animals that are choosing not to cooperate.

Having a clear gating plan and being proactive about making these types of sessions a priority seem to always benefit us. If we see the same animal having the same gating problems, we may limit who interacts with the animal for these sessions to maintain consistency.

As you start to see improvement in the behavior, you can start to challenge the animals by asking for more complex gates and separations during times that you know the animals are more likely to succeed. Having a clear plan, consistency and balance in your reinforcement will help maintain your success in gating.

Some questions to ask yourself: How is your balance of reinforcement? Are you seeing a problem only during non-show or non-session time? Have you devoted time and reinforcement to gating sessions? Do you have a clear plan? Has your plan been communicated? Have the scenarios in which you’ve seen issues been clearly communicated to the entire staff? Are you using VRRV (Variable ratio reinforcement variety) to maintain the gating behavior? Do you provide opportunities to gate as a session instead of a means to another type of session? Are you modifying your plan if an animal is successful during a difficult gating scenario (Instead of performing in a show/interaction, on a variable ratio they are able to return to a more desirable location and/or social structure? Are you drawing more attention to the correct or incorrect behavior? Have you looked into what is maintaining the incorrect behavior?

As trainers, we face many challenges, however by clearly communicating and providing a variable ratio of reinforcement variety, your animals will perform the basics of training in any situation.

SeaWorld San Diego Shamu TrainersSeaWorld San Diego

(continued on following page.)

ANSWER 3

2928 SOUNDINGS 2013 Volume 38, Number 2Volume 38, Number 2 SOUNDINGS 2013

The condition for successful gating is that you have the full attention from the animal/animals and that they will be following you wherever you go. The separation of the animal group should be a natural routine just like any other training so make sure you act that way yourself.

The animals should want to be with you because you are fun and interesting. They know that they will get your full attention and be well reinforced.

The most important thing is the full attention from and eye contact with the animal at all times. Therefore, if you have to move around the enclosures, it’s possible, just take no shortcuts and never run.

Question: What should you focus on?Answer: Attention from the animal and eye contact.That means that you should not think about:

• That the gate will close/open• That the gate will close• That another animal is swimming away from its trainer• What the other trainer is doing• That other people are moving around the enclosure

Don’t let go of eye contact if you need to talk to another trainer. If one of the animals swims away, give your attention to the ones that are doing it right. Don’t take any notice of the animal that swam away and just stick to the plan, even if you planned to close the gate. Do not wait for the animal that swam away but when it comes back, you will give it attention. Do not reinforce the animal for coming back, reinforce that it is staying with you.

Exception: Never close the gate if one individual is left alone in enclosures.

• If one animal shows aggression towards another one, you have failed. (because it is more interested in another animal). Think over the situation and do it better next time. You have to be 100 percent focused towards the animals to be able to get their attention back. See the animals as our mirror.

• If you are not sure about the reason why an animal swims away from you- reinforce no one.

• If you are not sure what animal caused another one to swim away- reinforce no one.

• If animal 1 shows aggression towards animal 2- reinforce all animals except animal 1. Animal 1 gets reinforced when it allows animal 2 to come back. (After reinforcing animal 2)

Gating session:1. Plan the gating session well. What animals are to be parted?

What trainer takes what animals? Who closes the gate? Is the gate to be closed? How long is the gate to be closed for? Where do we start? How do we finish the session and where? Read the journal about the last gating session. Follow the steps.

2. Go to the starting point. One trainer is gathering the animals.3. Go and “get” your animals from the trainer who is staying.

4. Walk a few meters apart. Check with each other that everything feels ok by saying “ok.”

5. If you need to get more attention from your animals, train one or two behaviors.

6. Start moving and wherever you go, make sure you keep close contact with the animals at all time. The animals should not swim a small lap and then come back. A good thing is to make short stops and reinforce. Just vary where and when from time to time.

7. When you reached your destination and you are ready to close the gate, say “ok” to the person who closes the gate.

8. Remain focused on your animals and reinforce them for a while after the gate is closed. You should never finish the session directly after the gate has been closed.

9. If an animal swims away and won’t come back to its trainer, close the gate anyway - reinforce the animals that are staying - open the gate again - reinforce your animals and then finish the session.

10. Gating is a training session like any other. If you have failed in a gating session with one animal, it does not mean that that animal cannot participate in the next training session. Sometimes we start a new training session after ten minutes.

Time to open the gate: 1. Plan where and how you will finish the session.2. Gather the animals at the same time and just like before, with

a lot of focus.3. When you have total focus from the animals, say “ok” to the

person at the gate.4. Reinforce the animals a lot because they have focus on you

during the time the gate opens and for a while after.5. Start moving as you did before, stop and reinforce if you need.6. When you are all in the same enclosure again, train a few

behaviors together to prevent aggression once the session ends.

7. When the session ends, stay awhile and study the animals.8. Do not train the animals at the same time you do the separation.

The animals, focus should be on you, but you also want them to beware of what is going on.

If a problem emerges:Have a discussion about it and decide a strategy and try it a few

times. If the problem remains, have a new discussion and decide a new strategy. Don’t change strategy too often. We have to give the animals some time to understand and accept, and that might take some time. To document and discuss gating is very important because there are no “already made” solutions. You should see gating as a “living” challenge and it might change from day to day. There will always be special circumstances like when females are in heat, changes in the social structure of the group and special gating plans regarding mother with calf. Sometimes we might have to add trainers participating in a gating session.

Jenny EasthamDolphinarium, SwedenNordenberg, Kolmarden

TRAINER'S FORUM is complied by Sarah Sayre

ANSWER 4

&Notices AnnouncementsASZK CONFERENCEThe Australasian Society of Zoo Keeping Inc. will be holding its 2013 conference in Auckland, Australia. Visit www.aszk.org.au as updates become available.

BIAZA ANNUAL CONFERENCEThe British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums will be holding its annual conference 13-16 June 2013, at the National Marine Aquarium in Plymouth, United Kingdom. Updates can be found at www.biaza.org.uk.

ZACC CONFERENCEZoos and Aquariums: Committing to Conservation will hold a conference in Des Moines, Iowa 8-12 July 2013. The conference will be hosted by the Blank Park Zoo. Visit www.zaccconference.com for more information.

ABS ANNUAL CONFERENCEThe 50th annual conference for the Animal Behavior Society will be held in Boulder, Colorado, during the dates of 28 July to 1 August 2013. Continue to visit http://animalbehaviorsociety.org for information.

AZA ANNUAL CONFERENCEThe American Zoological Association annual conference is being held 7-12 September 2013 in Kansas City, Missouri. The event will be hosted by the Kansas City Zoo. Please visit ww.aza.org for updates.

FIELD COURSE WITH THE DOLPHIN COMMUNICATION PROJECTA special course is being made available for marine mammal trainers who are interested in field work with the Dolphin Communication Project in the Bahamas. This week long course is scheduled for 15-22 September 2013. Please contact Kathleen Dudzinksi at Kathleen@dcpmail.org or Kelly Melillo Sweeting at Kelly@dcpmail.org, or visit www.dolphincommunicationproject.org for more information.

AZAD REGIOINAL CONFERENCEThe Association of Zoo and Aquarium Docents is holding a regional conference at the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle, Washington. The tentative dates of 19-22 September 2013 have been announced but are subject to change. Continue to check http://azadocents.org for updates.

AAZK NATIONAL CONFERENCEThe American Association of Zoo Keepers conference will take place in Greensboro, North Carolina, 22-26 September 2013. Continue to visit http://aazk.org for information.

EAZA ANNUAL CONFERENCEThe European Association of Zoos and Aquaria will hold the 2013 conference in Edinburgh, United Kingdom, on 24-28 September 2013. Updates can be found at www.eaza.net.

CAZA ANNUAL CONFERENCEThe Canadian Association of Zoos and Aquariums will hold its annual conference during the dates of 25-28 September 2013. This event will take place in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, and be hosted by the Saskatoon Forestry Farm Park and Zoo. Visit www.caza.ca for updates.

AAZV ANNUAL CONFERENCEThe American Association of Zoo Veterinarians annual conference will take place 28 September – 4 October 2013 in Salt Lake City, Utah. Updates can be found at www.aazv.org.

AZFA 2013 CONFERENCEThe Aquarium and Zoo Facilities Association conference will take place 6-9 October 2013. This event will be hosted by the El Paso Zoo in El Paso, Texas. Visit www.azfa.org for updates.

WAZA ANNUAL CONFERENCEThe World Association of Zoos and Aquariums annual conference will be hosted by Disney’s Animal Kingdom in Orlando, Florida, on 13-17 October 2013. Continue to visit www.waza.org for more information.

ICEE CONFERENCEThe 11th International Conference on Environmental Enrichment dates and venue have changed. The conference will now be hosted by the National Zoological Gardens of South Africa from 15-18 October 2013 at the Kwalata Game Ranch. Visit www.enrichment.org for more changes and updates.

ZAA ANNUAL CONFERENCEThe Zoological Association of America will hold its 9th annual conference 10-14 November 2013 in Phoenix, Arizona. This event will be hosted by the Wildlife World Zoo and Aquarium and Bearizona. Continue to visit www.zaa.org.

SMM BIENNIAL CONFERENCEThe Society for Marine Mammalogy will be holding the 2013 biennial conference in Dunedin, New Zealand 9-13 December 2013. The conference is being hosted by the University of Otago. Please visit www.marinemammalscience.org for more information.

PHOTOS NEEDEDAll IMATA members are invited to submit photographs and/or slides for use in Soundings magazine. Good quality digital images are encouraged, 300 dpi is preferred, width of 12.7cm (5 inches), minimum 6.35 cm (2.5 inches) wide, no stipulation on height. Please identify the photographer for credit and mail your photos to “IMATA Photo Archivist” as well as “Soundings Chief Editor” at the IMATA Central Office, info@imata.org.

IMATA LIBRARYAre you looking for an article from a past conference or an old issue of Soundings? IMATA’s library is available online to Associate, Active, and Professional members! Go to imata.org and click Publications. Our searchable index is also found there.

CHANGING ADDRESSES, JOB TITLES, OR EMAIL?Keep your information current on IMATA’s website. You have the ability to update your information. It’s as easy as 1, 2, and 3.

1. Log onto the member’s section of the IMATA website with your username and password.

2. Click on edit profile and update your current information.

3. After updating your information, click on submit at the bottom of the page and recheck the information you just entered.

That’s all you have to do. Your changes are immediately entered into the website. If you have any problems, click on feedback, and write your questions in the comment section.

WEBSITE Visit us online at www.imata.org.

NOTICES & ANNOUNCEMENTS is compiled by Haley Merritt.

3130 SOUNDINGS 2013 Volume 38, Number 2Volume 38, Number 2 SOUNDINGS 2013

SoundingS FAQQ: When will Soundings be completely digital-only? A: Starting with the first quarterly issue of 2014, Soundings will be announced via email and delivered to all IMATA members exclusively through our website at www.imata.org.

Q: What has been the membership’s response to the upcoming enhancements? A: Our members have told us that they search out online publications, news portals, and web sites because they bring forth current information faster than most print publications. In fact, in 2012, more than half of Soundings readers opted out of receiving the hard-copy edition and transitioned to the electronic product.

Q: How often will Soundings be produced? A: Soundings will continue to be produced quarterly. As a digital product, Soundings will be able to deliver information sooner than it did as a print publication; long lead times will be a thing of the past. Printed versions require a long lead time as well as a long delivery time, up to eight weeks for members living outside the USA.

Q: What will be biggest difference between the old and new Soundings formats? A: The enhanced Soundings will surpass the print version in presentation, editorial quality, and photography. For the first time, IMATA will be able to harness the power of streaming videos that will be embedded with columns, articles, and Regional Reports.

Q: Will the enhanced Soundings be available for translation? A: Upgrades will further ease translating Soundings content into languages other than English. Digital magazine technology has developed significantly over the past several years and will continue to bring increased value to IMATA’s global membership,

Q: Why didn’t IMATA just keep the old magazine? A: The simple fact is that over the past four years, the costs associated with the manufacture and mailing of Soundings have risen dramatically. Continuing to produce a printed magazine would have certainly led to an increase in annual membership dues. By having Soundings delivered electronically, IMATA has been able to keep the cost of annual membership dues low, while enhancing the value and benefits that members have come to expect.

Q: How long will I continue receiving the hard-copy magazine? A: Those with memberships that were activated before 3 February 2013 may receive hard-copy delivery of Soundings until their individual expiration dates approach and their membership is renewed.

Q: If I am entitled to a hard-copy magazine, can I opt-out of the mailing and chose to “go green?” A: Yes. Members can login to www.imata.org and edit their member profile to support the paperless Soundings option.

Q: What if my membership was activated after 3 February 2013? A: Those IMATA members who joined the organization or renewed their membership on or after 4 February 2013 have already transitioned to the new electronic-only format and will receive the premier issue of the enhanced digital Soundings with 2013's second quarter edition.