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<em>By Eunice Hui, Lead Keeper, and Molly Feldman, Keeper Apprentice, CuriOdyssey, San Mateo, CA</em>

Aggression.  Fear.  Distrust.  These are not the qualities keepers like to see in the animals for which they care; nor are they the qualities that make captive animal management easy.  So when it was decided in the summer of 2009 that Mina, a North American badger (<em>Taxidea taxus</em>), would be started on a training program, this is what we were dealing with.  After four years as a resident of CuriOdyssey (formerly known as Coyote Point Museum), she still showed an extreme lack of habituation which was expressed through a series of aggressive behaviors: hissing, grunting and shaking when the keepers entered the service area, she hid in her den both on exhibit and in her night quarters, quickly running outside in the morning, and sometimes refusing to come in at night.  Needless to say, it was evident that something had to change.  Given the many benefits of operant conditioning, a formal training plan was written for Mina with the following goals in mind: 1) Target training, 2) Desensitization to two trainers in the room, 3) Crate Training and 4) Injection training.  But how do you train an animal that lacks the two most basic requirements for success: a willingness to approach a human being and a motivation to work, even for food?  The answer, we discovered, is slowly, patiently, and to never underestimate what is possible when you give your time to even the most uncooperative of animals.  This paper will discuss the challenges encountered and behavioral changes observed once training commenced, reinforcing the value of a positive keeper-animal relationship and its effect on captive animal welfare.

<strong>History</strong>

Mina, the North American Badger arrived at Coyote Point Museum in April 2005.  Her transition was far from smooth once introduced to the exhibit.  Each day she buried herself under the dirt, forcing the keepers to dig her out every evening before shifting her into the night quarters.  She also managed to break through the fake rockwork and climb into a cement crevice inside of her den, making it impossible to gain access to her.  Since she would not willingly come out during the day, Keepers had to devise a way to get her back into the night house overnight and trap her in there so that the hole could be repaired.  Many days of troubleshooting like this went by before Mina was able to enter her exhibit each day without any major problems.  However, she continually appeared lethargic and spent most of the day hiding. Alloy [1979] states that inactivity displayed by an animal may be caused by learned helplessness, if the subject has the experience that there is no possibility to escape an environment perceived as negative. For a captive born animal, Mina appeared to have trouble coping with changes to her surroundings or daily routine and remained continually fearful, aggressive and uncooperative.  Additionally, she was easily startled by loud noises (e.g. door slamming or the arrival of a garbage truck) and usually refused to come inside at night, leaving the keepers with no alternative but to use a herding board to coax her in. For these reasons, a training program was implemented with the hopes of improving Mina’s quality of life and making management easier on both her and the keepers.

<strong>Preparation</strong>

There were many obstacles to overcome in the initial stages of Mina’s training.  The first was to find a food item for which she would be motivated to train.  A variety of treats were offered to her each day but she showed no interest in anything except her normal diet, particularly the meat.  The second obstacle was that due to her temperament, direct contact was impossible and training would have to take place via protected contact in her night quarters (Photo 1).

This limited the ways in which we could get close enough to her or get her attention if she chose not to approach us herself.  Further complicating matters was a third obstacle: she wouldn’t approach anyone, ever.  However all of this changed with the introduction of something that was not initially considered to be of importance: a new keeper.

It was decided early on that Molly Feldman, the Keeper Apprentice, would be put in charge of Mina’s training.  Molly had only been working at the museum for a few weeks and along with the other keepers, had been given the opportunity of trying to get Mina accustomed to hand feeding (using tongs) through the fence in her night quarters (Photo 2). Everyone had tried coaxing her out of her den each day but she wouldn’t move, even for a piece of mouse or chicken.  Instead she remained as hidden as possible, hissing and snarling at anyone who tried talking to her or came within her line of vision.  It was therefore a surprise when one day she cautiously made her way over to Molly, snatched the meat from the tongs and quickly retreated to her “safe place.”  After seeing Mina respond to a new keeper with whom she had no previous associations, it was realized that this was the way to get her training program started.  It was also decided that Mina would be trained with the meat from her diet since it seemed to be the only thing she ate consistently and would not be at risk of becoming overweight from the use of extra treats.  With the initial obstacles seemingly overcome, the process of building a trusting relationship between badger and human began.

<strong>Training</strong>

Gaining Mina’s trust was critical to the success of her training plan. The first month was devoted to getting her comfortable enough with her trainer’s presence and allowing her to hand feed.  This meant sitting on the ground outside of her run, offering pieces of food through the fence and waiting for a response. The environment had to be as secure as possible with few external noises and limited movement by the trainer.  Sudden movements would quickly send her back into her den, hissing and shaking.  After a few weeks of patiently encouraging her to eat from the tongs, Mina was already displaying less aggression and approached the trainer more readily.  She had progressed from quickly taking the meat and leaving, to staying to chew one piece; then two, then three.  Once she was consistently eating all the meat without retreating, it was decided that their relationship had a secure enough foundation to move forward and introduce the verbal bridge, “good”. At this point Mina was still very reactive to everything, voices being no exception, so the trainer began by whispering the bridge as Mina simultaneously took a piece of meat from the tongs.  Her initial response was to hiss and retreat, come back for another piece and repeat.  However after only a few sessions the trainer was able to speak louder and louder until Mina was accustomed to the regular volume of her voice.

The next stage was to desensitize Mina to movement, as any change in the trainer’s seated position would cause displays of disapproval.  This began by slowly making small movements such as leaning to the side or stretching out a leg, all the while continuing to strengthen the bridge.  This progressed to the trainer being able to stand up and sit back down, while reinforcing Mina for remaining calm throughout.  By the end of the second month it seemed she was understanding the bridge and had even begun exhibiting signs of positive emotions associated with improved coping behavior, as pointed out by Boissy et al. (2007): “A number of signs can indicate positive experience in animals – for example, successful coping, reward and wanting, resulting in goal-directed behavior.”  Mina was demonstrating less fear and aggression and was willingly participating in most training sessions.  She seemed eager to approach the trainer and continually appeared interested and motivated.  Thus with the bridge checked off the list and her trust in the trainer clearly established, Mina was ready to move on to learning other behaviors that would hopefully allow her transformation to continue.

The following eight months of training progressed very quickly.  Training sessions were conducted five days per week, twice a day if time allowed.  They initially took place in the morning and evening, but this was changed to a variable schedule as she was not always motivated during these times of the day.  In the end, the unpredictability made her much easier to shift as she would eagerly come inside at any time, expecting a session to take place (Photo 3).

Unpredictability was also beneficial in eradicating the potential for superstitious behaviors.  In the beginning, Mina was very sensitive to change.  However once her behaviors became stronger, the trainer began to make changes such as re-arranging the furniture in her run, training occasionally with the guillotine door open, or leaving the radio turned up.   While she was still sometimes spooked by an unforeseen noise, she very rarely ended her participation because of it. Each session began in the same place, the front left corner of the run, which became an unofficial station.  She had developed a “calm position” during our desensitization stage where she would stick her nose through the fence and wait (Photo 4).  The trainer took advantage of this and started by gently touching her on the nose with the target pole (the end of a broomstick which was padded for safety) and saying the word “Target”. This progressed to holding it against her nose for longer and longer periods of time before bridging. Eventually it was moved over a few inches, then a few feet, until she would consistently move to wherever it was placed. Later in the year, the trainer was able to use this behavior to train another: climbing the fence.  By asking her to target above her head, she would pull herself up exposing her abdomen, and could be asked to climb higher or climb down simply by moving the target pole around.  The pole was phased out and was replaced with hand cues in conjunction with a hold behavior so she did not climb down before being asked (Photo 5).  These behaviors were all precursors to the goal of injection training, which would also require the essential element of touch. As Mina’s behavior was changing throughout the year, so was her personality.  Mina began exhibiting signs of positive emotions with improved coping behavior and demonstrating less fear and aggression. Once a timid badger, she was now bold enough to reach her arm through the fence with her paw if the trainer was not going fast enough.  The trainer took advantage of this by capturing the behavior known as “Paw,” in which Mina reached through the fence and placed her paw in the trainer’s open palm.  This became her strongest behavior and a consistent way to reward her if she was struggling with something else.  It also introduced the concept of touch, which was extended to scratching her belly during a climb, and eventually to being poked on the flank with a capped pen in the beginning stages of injection training.

By this time, Molly’s apprenticeship was coming to an end.  It became necessary to begin introducing a secondary trainer and hopefully transfer the behaviors Mina had learned over the past eight months.  As with everything else, this process required patience and persistence.  Rather than being asked for behaviors, Mina was simply rewarded for staying calm and coming out of her den in the presence of a second person.  Mina was not quite ready to train but was comfortable enough to take food from another person when her new trainer, Eunice Hui, was finally introduced.  It was therefore decided that Eunice would begin building her own trusting relationship with Mina, by simply hand feeding her until Mina was prepared to move on.

Thanks to Molly’s many months of hard work in establishing a baseline for training behaviors, Eunice was able to take over with minimal setbacks.  She was introduced to Mina as a secondary trainer in February 2010 and became the primary in June 2010.  The goals for Mina at that time were to tighten the criteria for some of her established behaviors, continue with injection training and begin crate training (Mina was to willingly enter her transport crate and allow the door to be closed and locked).  This was no easy task as Mina had strong, negative associations with the crate due to years of forced entry for veterinary check-ups, weighing and other management needs. Mina’s den in the night house was replaced with her crate.  The trainer captured the behavior by saying “crate” every time she entered the crate.  It took her about one month to enter the crate on command after the behavior was captured. It took almost a year of practice, including closing, locking and opening the door while she was inside, before the behavior was learned in full. Injection training was a less complicated process, although there were some minor issues to deal with along the way.  The first thing that needed to be done was to improve the climbing behavior so that Mina was positioned with her left rear leg pressed against the fence.  Having her climb in the corner of the run was the only way to accomplish this, so the trainer began rewarding her only when she was fully situated there. The day she realized what the trainer was doing, it was as if a light bulb turned on in her head!  It was amazing to see her understand what the trainer wanted from her; she climbed up onto the chain link and scooted her body against the corner of the cage.  It was truly a breakthrough as from this moment forward she consistently performed the behavior correctly and allowed the trainer to begin working on desensitization to the feel of an injection.  Using the end of a pen, the trainer began by lightly touching Mina on the left flank.  While she had no particular response to this, her “Hold” behavior was inconsistent and she began sliding down the fence prematurely. The trainer decided to extinguish that behavior and replace it with a cue for her to climb “down” on command.  This worked magnificently and allowed the trainer to continue desensitizing her to the feel of a pen, syringe tip, blunt needle and finally a sharp needle (Photo 6).  It took a total of six months but on the 11th of August 2011 she was successfully hand injected with a rabies vaccine, using a 19 gauge needle!

<strong>Challenges and Changes</strong>

It took two years of training before Mina consistently performed the injection and crating behaviors, and there were many setbacks along the way.  During the late fall, she went through a natural period of inactivity for approximately two months in which she spent most of the day sleeping.  Her decreased appetite at this time left her with no interest in training. We also experienced problems if we challenged her too much or moved too quickly.  Her frustration was expressed by aggressive vocalizations or refusing to engage in training.  Initially this meant regressing to a more simple behavior and moving forward again in smaller steps, even if this took weeks.  Setbacks like this made it seem as though she was not progressing, especially in the beginning.  However, slowly but surely, we began to see changes in her overall behavior. She started to anticipate training sessions and anytime she heard the door close in the service area, she would immediately wake up and wait for us to let her in for training.  She also began to willingly come inside her night house without the keepers having to use a herding board and her interest in enrichment increased dramatically. Her improved temperament has also helped her in recovering from fearful experiences more quickly.

Before training began, any sudden or loud noise would send her frantically into a hiding place, hissing and grunting as she went.  In the initial stages of training this was enough for her to end a session and steps had to be taken to ensure there were as few “surprises” as possible.  Today, though she may still react to an unexpected event, she is able to recover within a matter of seconds and continue with what she was doing. <img class="alignright size-large wp-image-2771" title="mina" src="http://aecetia.net/gws/aazk/wp-content/uploads/mina-1024x722.jpg" alt="mina" width="1024" height="722" />

<strong>Conclusion</strong>

Mina went from fearful, aggressive and reclusive to a confident…
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