This week Steve has mostly been in the lynx enclosure working on the electric fence. Thanks to all the help he got last week he’s been able to get a lot more done this week and has started putting the wires up. This has all been a lot more complex than you might imagine. Steve, being a bit of a perfectionist, wants all the wires to be as hidden as possible and all absolutely level. This is not easy, as the enclosure is on a slight slope and in the parts where natural tree trunks have been used, they do not line up exactly. So, we did some maths on the back of an envelope, taking into account gradient, the fact that some of the square posts are slightly out of line, bought a lot of string and a spirit-level and after ascending one of the delightful ladders mentioned last week, managed to get the holders for the wire perfectly horizontal.
I’ve been doing a lot of elephant work again this week. Every morning I’ve continued my training programme for him, and its going quite well. He’s getting used to seeing me every day, doing what I ask and getting his rewards. One of the behaviours he needs to learn as part of the overall process is called “targeting”. I have a target stick (long stick made from part of a tree branch) and when asked, Boy needs to come to the stick and touch the appropriate part of his body to the stick and get his reward. This is all very new to him, but is a common technique in non-contact animal training. We’ve started with a head target, I say to him “head” and touch him on the forehead with the stick, and if he lets me do this he gets a reward. He’s getting very tolerant of this, so this week I tried putting the stick up to head height but not touching him, asking for “head” and seeing if he would put his head onto the stick. He’s been able to do that twice so far which is fantastic progress and indicates that he is starting to understand how this all works. However, the third time I asked him to do it, curiosity got the better of him and he reached up with his trunk, stole the stick and ate it. Not a huge problem as it was only a piece of tree branch and he gets to eat branches and leaves regularly, and I also have a good supply of spare sticks as I suspected he might eat some of them! What was makes this all ok is that whilst he was eating the target stick I asked him to come to the other end of the wall to stand; he dropped the stick, came and stood where I wanted him to be and he got his reward. Excellent elephant!
When Steve and I first started working at Kyiv, I did a big study on the elephant, looking at how he spends his day and how he uses the enclosure. The results enabled me to start changes to his management. This week I spent a day doing a follow up study to assess the progress. I haven’t analysed the results yet, I think they will show some positive changes but with room for further improvement.
It’s actually been a bit of an “elephanty” week. On Thursday, Steve and I were asked if we would meet with some Germans after work, take them for a meal and make sure their animals were ok. Of course we agreed to do this as we always like to meet new people when they come to Kyiv, but these were a bit special. They were an animal transport company who were moving some animals as part of an International animal breeding programme and in their care were three young elephants travelling from a zoo in Germany to a zoo in Russia and they all needed an overnight break in Kyiv Zoo where they could clean the transporter, fill up with water and get some fresh food for the elephants. They arrived late in the evening, spent a while parking their mammoth sized elephant transport lorries in the yard and checked their charges, and gave them food and water. We all went for a meal, checked the elephants again and bedded down for the night. Same in the morning, checked, cleaned and fed the elephants and then off out the zoo on their way to Russia. It was a great experience for us, meeting the little elephants and chatting with the transporters. We haven’t met them before, but all know some of the same people so it was really interesting to talk with them.
On Friday we went on a trip to another zoo – Cherkassy, which is about three hours drive outside Kyiv. It was their 30th anniversary and so they were holding an event for colleagues from other zoos, Steve, I and a few others were the official delegation from Kyiv Zoo. Steve and I have met a few people from Cherkassy Zoo before at the last Eastern European Zoo Conference and also when one of them came to visit Kyiv Zoo. So, it was nice to catch up with them again and to see their zoo. We spent some time talking with the zoo director about the changes he had made to the zoo since he became director. Cherkassy is quite a small zoo, located in one of the city parks in Cherkassy. The animal collection is quite small and the zoo feels quite open and un-crowded which is very nice, the general atmosphere is very relaxed. It is themed quite naturally, with open lakes, mature trees, areas of grassland and wooden sculptures. They are just starting a big renovation of the zoo – remodelling old enclosures and completely knocking down others. They are also incorporating a lot of environmental technology as they make the changes, such as solar heated hot water, which apparently works even during the Ukrainian winters. They have recently started an enrichment programme for all the animals in the zoo, apparently inspired by Steve and I, after one of their zoologists spent the day with us at Kyiv when we hung ropes in the primate enclosures. She spent at least two hours feeding Steve with cognac and telling us how amazing we were and that it was all due to us! Very nice, but also quite embarrassing! Overall, we had a lovely day, got a guided tour, met the deputy mayor of Cherkassy, Steve was interviewed on TV, ate far too much at the banquet they laid on for everyone and survived the manic mini-bus drive back home (overtaking on bumpy narrow roads in the dark at high speed with lots of rapid decelerations).
Steve and I celebrated our third wedding anniversary on Thursday. Thank you everyone for the cards, e-cards and greetings, particularly Grandma for present you sent us. We had planned a meal out on Thursday, but had to postpone due to the elephant hotel situation, on Friday we didn’t get back from Cherkassy early enough to go out. We finally managed to go out for a wonderful meal at a Ukrainian restaurant last night and had a great evening.
I’ve been doing a lot of elephant work again this week. Every morning I’ve continued my training programme for him, and its going quite well. He’s getting used to seeing me every day, doing what I ask and getting his rewards. One of the behaviours he needs to learn as part of the overall process is called “targeting”. I have a target stick (long stick made from part of a tree branch) and when asked, Boy needs to come to the stick and touch the appropriate part of his body to the stick and get his reward. This is all very new to him, but is a common technique in non-contact animal training. We’ve started with a head target, I say to him “head” and touch him on the forehead with the stick, and if he lets me do this he gets a reward. He’s getting very tolerant of this, so this week I tried putting the stick up to head height but not touching him, asking for “head” and seeing if he would put his head onto the stick. He’s been able to do that twice so far which is fantastic progress and indicates that he is starting to understand how this all works. However, the third time I asked him to do it, curiosity got the better of him and he reached up with his trunk, stole the stick and ate it. Not a huge problem as it was only a piece of tree branch and he gets to eat branches and leaves regularly, and I also have a good supply of spare sticks as I suspected he might eat some of them! What was makes this all ok is that whilst he was eating the target stick I asked him to come to the other end of the wall to stand; he dropped the stick, came and stood where I wanted him to be and he got his reward. Excellent elephant!
When Steve and I first started working at Kyiv, I did a big study on the elephant, looking at how he spends his day and how he uses the enclosure. The results enabled me to start changes to his management. This week I spent a day doing a follow up study to assess the progress. I haven’t analysed the results yet, I think they will show some positive changes but with room for further improvement.
It’s actually been a bit of an “elephanty” week. On Thursday, Steve and I were asked if we would meet with some Germans after work, take them for a meal and make sure their animals were ok. Of course we agreed to do this as we always like to meet new people when they come to Kyiv, but these were a bit special. They were an animal transport company who were moving some animals as part of an International animal breeding programme and in their care were three young elephants travelling from a zoo in Germany to a zoo in Russia and they all needed an overnight break in Kyiv Zoo where they could clean the transporter, fill up with water and get some fresh food for the elephants. They arrived late in the evening, spent a while parking their mammoth sized elephant transport lorries in the yard and checked their charges, and gave them food and water. We all went for a meal, checked the elephants again and bedded down for the night. Same in the morning, checked, cleaned and fed the elephants and then off out the zoo on their way to Russia. It was a great experience for us, meeting the little elephants and chatting with the transporters. We haven’t met them before, but all know some of the same people so it was really interesting to talk with them.
On Friday we went on a trip to another zoo – Cherkassy, which is about three hours drive outside Kyiv. It was their 30th anniversary and so they were holding an event for colleagues from other zoos, Steve, I and a few others were the official delegation from Kyiv Zoo. Steve and I have met a few people from Cherkassy Zoo before at the last Eastern European Zoo Conference and also when one of them came to visit Kyiv Zoo. So, it was nice to catch up with them again and to see their zoo. We spent some time talking with the zoo director about the changes he had made to the zoo since he became director. Cherkassy is quite a small zoo, located in one of the city parks in Cherkassy. The animal collection is quite small and the zoo feels quite open and un-crowded which is very nice, the general atmosphere is very relaxed. It is themed quite naturally, with open lakes, mature trees, areas of grassland and wooden sculptures. They are just starting a big renovation of the zoo – remodelling old enclosures and completely knocking down others. They are also incorporating a lot of environmental technology as they make the changes, such as solar heated hot water, which apparently works even during the Ukrainian winters. They have recently started an enrichment programme for all the animals in the zoo, apparently inspired by Steve and I, after one of their zoologists spent the day with us at Kyiv when we hung ropes in the primate enclosures. She spent at least two hours feeding Steve with cognac and telling us how amazing we were and that it was all due to us! Very nice, but also quite embarrassing! Overall, we had a lovely day, got a guided tour, met the deputy mayor of Cherkassy, Steve was interviewed on TV, ate far too much at the banquet they laid on for everyone and survived the manic mini-bus drive back home (overtaking on bumpy narrow roads in the dark at high speed with lots of rapid decelerations).
Steve and I celebrated our third wedding anniversary on Thursday. Thank you everyone for the cards, e-cards and greetings, particularly Grandma for present you sent us. We had planned a meal out on Thursday, but had to postpone due to the elephant hotel situation, on Friday we didn’t get back from Cherkassy early enough to go out. We finally managed to go out for a wonderful meal at a Ukrainian restaurant last night and had a great evening.
Nice straight lines in the lynx enclosure
More nice straight lines in the lynx enclosure
Elephant Trucks
One of the elephants
Another elephant
Cherkassy Zoo Entrance
Children's play area
Scorpion Sculpture
Turtle Bench
Tokay Gecko
Donkey
Primate Enclosure
Bird Lake
Map of Cherkassy Zoo
Kyiv Zoo HippoI Love this photo!
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