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Roger Williams Park Zoo

A Season of Fun at the Zoo Behind the Scenes at the Zoo

September 25, 2014
A Season of Fun at the Zoo

Many people are finally winding down from the summer, and switching into their fall schedule, Roger Williams Park Zoo is doing the same. The seasonal offerings Zoo visitors enjoyed all summer, including the rock wall, butterfly exhibit, and camel rides, are closed.

Close Encounters of the Wild Kind, where guests can feed either a Masai giraffe or a harbor seal, are now on Saturdays and Sundays through the end of September. Purchase tickets for these encounters online, though they will also be offered at Zoo admissions if they aren’t sold out in advance. And, of course, the Alex and Ani Farmyard that opened in July will continue to be open daily, with the Contact Yard closing for the season on September 30th.

Behind the Scenes at the Zoo: Animal Training

Recently, a former Zoo keeper, PJ Jones, returned to Roger Williams Park Zoo after several years in Texas to step into the Animal Care Manager position. When asked what she wishes people knew about Little Rhody’s zoo, she replied “I think people don’t realize how much goes on behind the scenes to assure a high quality of life and safety for our animal charges. In addition to the enrichment activities we provide every day to foster natural behaviors, there is much more happening on a daily basis.”

With hundreds of animals in residence, a number of them require direct contact with human caregivers for routine health assessments, attention to illness or injuries, or simply to move them from one location to another. These situations can be highly stressful for the animals.

Years ago, animals would need to be sedated for the most minor of reasons, and the process of capturing an animal in order to administer an anesthetic could be traumatic. Now, keepers provide behavior training to help animals receive these services without stress. For example, animals can be taught to stand next to a fence and allow keepers and vet staff to approach and do assessments, and even receive an injection without fear. As an example, female marsupials, like kangaroos and wallabies, can be trained to allow keepers to gently open their pouch to see if a new joey has been born.

Behavior training needs to be planned carefully. Each desired behavior must be broken down into small, sequential steps. As the keeper asks for the desired action, any progress toward that action is rewarded, until eventually the animal is calmly participating in the needed behavior. It’s important for the reward to be valuable from the animal’s point of view, of course. For most animals, tidbits of favorite foods will do the trick (imagine 5 ton elephants cooperating in exchange for a tiny piece of carrot!). In other cases, like the red river hogs, some delightful tummy scratches are the best reward. To each his own!

Roger Williams Park Zoo is a Macaroni Kid Cranston/Kent County sponsor.