<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="size-full wp-image-1475 aligncenter" title="training_tales3" src="http://aecetia.net/gws/aazk/wp-content/uploads/training_tales3.jpg" alt="training_tales3" width="476" height="102" /></p>

<p style="text-align: left;"><em>By Barbara Heidenreich, Animal Training and Consulting Services, Good Bird Inc.,</em>
<em>Erik Corredor, Dallas Zoo and Nathan Compton, Dallas Zoo</em>
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<p style="text-align: left;"><strong>Introduction</strong>
The Wings of Wonder section of the Dallas Zoo is home to a variety of raptor and new world vulture species. The recently refurbished exhibit is primarily designed to give zoo guests the opportunity to view these impressive birds of prey in their large, attractive and naturalistic enclosures. There is an additional goal of obtaining reproductive success with a number of the species on display. To date a pair of King Vultures (Sarcoramphus papa) has successfully reproduced while housed at the refurbished Wings of Wonder.
<p style="text-align: left;">In the past caring for exhibit and birds in reproduction programs has usually involved a “less is more approach.” The idea being that the fewer disturbances a keeper makes in a bird’s life, the more likely the bird is to show behaviors indicating comfort and therefore potentially breed. However, with the addition of an animal training consultant and zoo keeping staff members with experience and interest in training, it was decided a different approach could prove successful.</p>
<p style="text-align: left;">In 2007 it was decided a proactive approach to training would be implemented for the birds in Wings of Wonder. The goal was to train as many birds as possible for behaviors that would facilitate husbandry and daily care.  Initially several of the vulture species were identified as excellent training candidates. The criteria used to determine this was the level of comfort in close proximity to keepers and their willingness to accept food from keepers.  A female Andean Condor (Vultur gryphus) was involved in the training program until her transfer to another facility. The King Vultures were successfully trained to target, shift, enter a kennel, present a foot, and allow tactile to the chest. They also bred and raised offspring and participated in training throughout the process. The offspring also learned to target and stand on a scale.</p>
<p style="text-align: left;">As training proved to produce positive results it was decided to consider adding other candidates to the training roster. Another bird that demonstrated a high level of comfort in the presence of the keepers was a female Harpy Eagle (Harpia harpyja) named Killa (pronounced kee ya).</p>

<p style="text-align: left;"><strong>The Training Candidate</strong>
The Harpy Eagle is one of the largest species of eagle. They can weigh from ten to 20 pounds and have a six-and-a-half-foot wingspan. Their talons are comparable in size to the claws of a grizzly bear.  They feed primarily on animals that live in the trees, like sloths, monkeys, opossums, and some reptiles and birds. Harpy Eagles are highly maneuverable fliers and strike their prey after a rapid pursuit through the trees.
<p style="text-align: left;">Killa was hatched in 2002 at the Avian Propagation Center at the San Diego Zoo. Hatched in an incubator, she was then hand-raised using techniques to avoid imprinting on humans. While in the brooder she was covered with a towel, set behind a curtain, and a CD of rainforest sounds was used to drown out the sounds of human voices. During feeding keepers placed a sheet over their heads and used a Harpy Eagle puppet to deliver food.</p>
<p style="text-align: left;">Because of her large size and power, birds such as Killa have traditionally been regarded as potentially dangerous. For safety purposes the Dallas Zoo policy requires that a keeper is only allowed to enter her enclosure if another keeper is present. However what keepers observed was a bird that appeared quite comfortable in the presence of people. She had never been observed to present aggressive behavior. Nor did she demonstrate a fear response. This in part may be the result of her experiences as a chick with humans at the Avian Propagation Center. Other individual birds in Wings of Wonder such as the much smaller Ornate Hawk Eagle (<em>Spizaetus ornatus</em>) would show overt aggressive behavior, flying directly at keepers. The Spectacled Owls (<em>Pulsatrix perspicillata</em>) showed extreme fear responses and escape behavior when keepers were present. Compared to these individuals Killa appeared to be a training candidate with excellent potential.</p>
<p style="text-align: left;">With the permission of the curator Killa became the next training subject for the Wings of Wonder team.</p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-2170" title="harpy_eagle" src="http://aecetia.net/gws/aazk/wp-content/uploads/harpy_eagle.jpg" alt="harpy_eagle" width="800" height="601" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Harpy Eagle at Dallas Zoo</strong> <em> (Photo: ZooChat.com)</em></p>

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<div><strong>Initial Training</strong></div>
<div>Traditional raptor training practices often involve capturing and restraining a bird to get a bird on a scale to determine a “starting” weight for training. However, the process of grabbing and restraining a bird against its will is contradictory to the goals of a positive reinforcement training program. Furthermore knowing the weight of an animal is not necessarily important to reaching training goals. While the information can be of interest for evaluating health, it is not required to train an animal.  Instead keepers tried to ascertain based on observations, the amount of food Killa typically ate in a day.  They also observed her responsiveness to food when she was relaxed and comfortable. More or less food could be added or removed from the diet based on her response during a training session to maintain an adequate level of interest in training. This amount changed in correlation with the time of year. Colder temperatures meant an increase in diet. Warmer weather meant a decrease.</div><br>
<div>Because Killa showed a high level of comfort around people she readily took food from keepers in the first training session. Per zoo policy the food was offered from hemostats as opposed to hands. Training was initiated with keepers outside of the enclosure. The first behavior Killa learned was to target. The target was a blue plastic circle attached to a dog clip. The target could be hung on the outside of the cage near the eagle. At first food was held near the target. Killa learned to touch the blue target with her beak to earn the food reinforcer. In the early stages of training, the target became a useful tool to call Killa to the front of the cage for keeper talks. This offered zoo guests a great opportunity to see the impressive wingspan of a Harpy Eagle as she flew to the front of the enclosure.</div>
<div>The target was also used to call her to the back of the cage to work on training other behaviors. To initiate introduction of a kennel, the target was used as a means to pair reinforcers with the kennel. The kennel was placed outside of the enclosure and Killa was reinforced for targeting nearby.</div><br>
<div><strong>Success Leads to More Training Goals</strong></div>
<div>As hoped, Killa learned quickly and was an eager participant. In addition her continued calm demeanor helped increase the teams’ confidence that the presentation of aggressive behavior would be very unlikely. Because of this keepers moved from training outside of the enclosure to training inside.</div><br>
<div>Very quickly Killa learned to…….</div><br>
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