<em>By
Stacy Johnson, Animal Keeper
Disney’s Animal Kingdom®, Lake Buena Vista, Florida</em>

<em></em>

<strong>Abstract</strong>

“Waterfowl” is a collective term given to the order Anseriformes, consisting mostly of ducks, geese and swans.  There are currently over 150 species represented on every continent except Antarctica.  Most ducks fall in to the categories of dabblers, divers and perchers.

Several species of ducks and swans are represented within the Oasis area of Disney’s Animal Kingdom®.  The largest pond houses red shovelers (<em>Anas platalea</em>), red-crested pochards (<em>Netta rufina</em>), common white-eye (<em>Aythya nyroca</em>), rosybill (<em>Netta peposaca</em>), yellow-billed duck (<em>Anas undulata</em>), black-necked swans (C<em>ygnus melanocorphyus</em>), tufted ducks (<em>Aythya fuligula</em>) and plumed whistling duck (<em>Dendrocygna eytoni</em>).  Despite the size of this large pond, keepers need to get within close proximity to the ducks to conduct health checks and administer medications when needed.  The pond is also an open exhibit, allowing native wildlife (e.g., white ibis and mallard ducks) easy access causing competition for food.  To meet these challenges, we implemented four training behaviors: “come”, hand feeding, scale and chute. To further enhance waterfowl management, the waterfowl enrichment program was also expanded to include sinking feeders, floating feeders and variations of food presentation.  The investment in waterfowl training and enrichment has also allowed us to obtain weights, reduce capture stress, and engage visitors in our daily husbandry.

<strong>Training</strong>

All of the waterfowl in the current collection are captive bred, but like most species, they remained elusive to keepers upon our arrival.  Therefore, our initial training goal was to desensitize all 22 individuals to the close proximity of keepers.  This would help with better management of daily feedings, as well as facilitate physical and behavioral observations. We began the process by pairing the sound of a clicker (in rapid succession) with food.  Birds were cued to come to where the keeper was standing in a designated shallow part of the pond.  Initially, any movement in the keeper’s direction was reinforced.  As the criterion was tightened, closer proximity to the keeper was reinforced and we were able to get close enough to do quick visual assessments of individual ducks.  All of the birds quickly learned that the sound of the cue signaled the availability of food and, within a matter of weeks, all ducks were responding to the come cue (the clicker).  We hoped that, over time, the birds would be comfortable enough around us to remain in the immediate area for longer periods while eating.  Within a few weeks, “Calum” (red crested pochard), “Mallomar” (black-necked swan), “Mr. Snoops” (yellow-billed duck), “Bianca” (rosy-billed pochard), “Tank” and “Titan” (tufted ducks) and “Siren” (red shoveler) all remained in the vicinity of the keeper to eat during the entire feed session.  Little did we know that some would become so comfortable with us, they would start pecking at our boots if we did not get food to them fast enough!

The birds’ high level of food motivation prompted us to move on to our next goal of hand feeding.  Once the ducks were cued to the designated feeding area, the keeper used favorite food items (e.g., Romaine lettuce, krill, finch seed, millet, crickets) to entice birds to approach and take the item from the keeper’s hand.  The waterfowl in the collection were fed three times per day.  Hand feeding was attempted at each feed.  Not surprisingly, many of the ducks either swam away or remained just out of reach.  After a few weeks, the most gregarious waterfowl (yellow-billed ducks, black-necked swans, and a rosybill) began to feed from a keeper’s hand. In another two weeks most of the waterfowl in the pond came close enough to quickly grab a bite from the keepers and swim away.  After working on this for another month, most of the waterfowl began to establish preferred feeding locations near the keeper.  However, there were still some extremely shy waterfowl species in the collection, like the common white-eyes, that never attempted to hand feed.  An added benefit to this training was that some individuals began to defend their “feed area” from native birds, facilitating the hand feeding sessions.  The success of hand feeding enabled us to more closely monitor individual food consumption and allowed medication to be administered to specific individuals.

With the group well acclimated to the proximity of keepers and hand feeding, our next goal was to start scale and chute training.  We wanted to get monthly weights on all of the ducks to ensure they weren’t being out-competed by native waterfowl in the area.   In addition, we wanted to introduce an exclusionary device: a chute that could minimize the intrusion of native birds in the feed area.  The chute is a very simple design made of box wire (L 96cm x W 43cm x H 42cm) with one hinged side.  The chute allowed collection animals to swim in, get their food, and swim back out.  If a native bird tried to get in, the side could be closed, excluding them from the area.

An initial challenge to implementing both scale and chute training was finding a suitable location in the exhibit where both the scale and chute could be introduced.  The original feed area was not ideal due to limited space.  Once we found a level area near the shoreline for the scale with enough water area for the chute, we introduced another sound cue, a castanet, as the training cue for the start of the sessions.

Scale and chute training began with two keepers on the bank, near the shoreline with the small scale (L 32cm x W 28cm x H 3.8cm) and chute (Figure 1).  These training sessions were conducted at least once per week.  The castanet cue was paired with crickets being tossed into the water.  In the first week, none of the waterfowl came closer than five feet from the bank.  We reinforced any orientation to the new designated area.  It didn’t take long for several of the ducks to begin participating in sessions.

Most of the ducks were easily baited to the scale (Fig. 2).  Acclimation to the chute worked much the same way, using crickets as reinforcement for any movement toward the chute opening.   The swans preferred romaine lettuce to all other items, so this was used for them.  Progress to the completed behavior of stepping on the scale and entering the chute was slow. After a period of five months (with 1 to 2 sessions per week), we were able to get voluntary weights on 10 of the 22 birds (including the swans) (Fig. 3-4).  All of the collection birds in this enclosure would then eat off of the scale, and many more put at least a foot on the scale.  Also, all birds (excluding the swans due to their size) entered the chute and ate within it on the shoreline or hand fed within the chute (Fig. 5-6).  Since the chute added some distance between keepers and the ducks, it allowed more elusive species, like the common white-eyes, to participate in sessions.
<div><img class="alignnone size-large wp-image-2543" title="yellow_billed_duck" src="http://aecetia.net/gws/aazk/wp-content/uploads/yellow_billed_duck-1024x679.jpg" alt="yellow_billed_duck" width="614" height="407" /></div>
<div>
<div>Yellow-billed duck “Mr. Snoops” hand feeding from trainer while stationing on the scale.  <em>Photo courtesy of Disney’s Animal Kingdom.</em></div>
<div></div>
<div></div>
<div><strong><em><span>For this and much more every month, see Animal Keepers’ Forum.  AKF is available only by being a member of AAZK. </span><a href="http://aecetia.net/gws/aazk/join/">JOIN NOW!</a></em></strong></div>
<div></div>
</div>