To Punch Or Not To Punish

When I was a child, a day at the zoo was a great treat! I learned so much about animals from zoos. I learned where they came from and what they ate, as well as what their predators and prey were. Mostly though what I loved was seeing their beauty up close. I always wanted to connect with them and touch them. My favorites were always the big cats and the elephants. Last weekend, I was able to touch some big cats that most people would never have the opportunity to touch. That was a treat, but at what cost?

I’d heard about a wildlife park/petting zoo that allowed you to pet baby lions, tigers and bears. Oh my! I know this sounds crazy but it’s true. I wondered how they ever got insurance for such a venture. I mean, I can’t even bring domestic dogs into a classroom, even if they’re Canine Good Citizens! I learned from the park website that they currently had lion cubs and leopard cubs available for petting. The cubs are hand-raised and very young. I just had to go see them for myself. Each cub is kept on a choke chain and leash and handled by show staff or a park attendant when presented to the public. The lion cubs and leopard cubs were, of course, tremendously cute! The safety rules were that you could pet the cubs anywhere behind the choke collar, but not on the face - as the cubs, much like puppies, are chewers and hands and fingers can easily be mistaken for chew toys. Surprisingly, we were not required to sign any waivers prior to this petting experience!

My husband and I were allowed to go into a more private area and meet a leopard cub. I was so excited by this opportunity. The handler was leading the cub around with a rolled-up rawhide. Eager to learn, I told the park attendant that I was a dog trainer and asked if he could show me some training techniques. The first thing he said was, “It’s not like dog training, but, like training a puppy, you ‘correct’ him when he mouths you, but otherwise, you let him be a cat.” He then showed me how to correct a baby leopard by punching him on the nose with a closed fist and taking the rawhide away. Being a positive reinforcement dog trainer, I was stunned. The leopard was too. I’m not entirely certain that the cub had even mouthed him before he got punched; the handler may have just been demonstrating the correction technique for me. The leopard responded first by retreating from the man, looking fearful, then he came back at the man with a hard stare and twitching lips, looking kind of fierce. The cat paced back and forth, alternately looking afraid and feisty. After a couple of round trips, both the cat and I frustrated, I looked to the handler and asked about the rawhide chew, “What does he have to do to earn it back?” He told me they don’t do “any reinforcement stuff”. Obviously! He told me they can’t with the cats.  I was pretty speechless and felt sorry for the cat. I believe in fairness, firmness and consistency in training animals, but they must learn something from the techniques and it shouldn’t be to fear or fight their handlers. Good luck ‘correcting’ an adult leopard.  I don’t know what kind of puppy training this park attendant thought I might do, but he imagined it entirely wrong.

You see, reinforcement means rewarding behavior you like to see with something the animal likes. By giving the leopard back his chew toy for no specific reason, the cub learned that if he bites, or maybe, even if he doesn’t, he gets punched in the nose, paces a few times and then gets a reward for either being afraid or being aggressive. So, even though the handler said they don’t do any of that silly reinforcement stuff, he just had. Only he reinforced the wrong behavior. While I’m by no means an expert in training exotic animals in captivity, or training big cats or baby leopards, I do know a thing or two about animal behavior and motivation. Any species will repeat a behavior that is reinforcing for them. It’s the ‘magic’ we trainers use to get dogs, cats, birds or elephants to do the things we want them to do.

Last fall, I was fortunate enough to attend the Association of Pet Dog Trainers’ educational conference in San Diego. Some of our speakers were trainers from the world-renowned San Diego Zoo and were proud to tell us that they use exclusively positive reinforcement at the San Diego Zoo. Did you know that some of the same principles for training dogs are used in training other species? They explained how it is not possible to get a mountain gorilla or an elephant to move by force and manage to be safe. It is much more effective and humane to influence animals by giving them something they want in order to get them to do something that you want. That is positive reinforcement training. Now you may wonder what kind of training zoo animals need. It’s not like they are circus performers, right? Well, it turns out that training is very helpful in performing the needed medical procedures (called husbandry) of the animals. Before positive reinforcement training there were many injuries and deaths to the zookeepers. Elephant trainers used to use an ankus, a pole with a hook on the end, to stick the elephant in order to make him move. They literally stabbed the elephants to get them to move. With positive reinforcement methods, they can now lure an elephant with apples and train them to lift a foot for nail trims or train a mountain gorilla to offer a shoulder for a blood draw by offering a banana.

So, while I’ve loved my many experiences at many zoos and wildlife parks, I was disappointed by what I learned about the treatment of these particular hand-raised exotics, that they use intimidation and force and not positive reinforcement. Oh, how I would love to see the difference in the animals’ behavior if they merely started rewarding their good behaviors. I imagine I will if the 'show staff' at this remote wildlife park ever catches on to the science and efficacy behind rewarding good behaviors as well as the unproductive and often dangerous results of punishment.