Saving and Enriching Lives Through Scent Work
Zoo Logic
Long time animal trainer and consultant, Jade Fountain from returns to discuss her latest work in East Africa with a global organization called . For the past 25 years, APOPO has been utilizing African Pouched Rats trained for scent detection to locate landmines in war torn countries such as Cambodia. As a result of their work and the astonishing olfactory abilities of these rats, hundreds of thousands of square meters of land have been rendered safe for people to return to farm and to build new lives. More than 160,000 landmines have been detected and destroyed. Remarkably, no rat...
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Latest Avian Flu Strain Poses Lethal Risk to Marine Mammals
Zoo Logic
Dr. Jay Sweeney, cofounder of Dolphin Quest, returns to discuss the latest strain of avian flu making its way across the globe with lethal effects. It was an avian flu strain that caused the global pandemic in 1918 that killed tens of millions of humans. The current strain H5N5 seems to be mild in infected dairy cows and humans but it has caused thousands of pinniped and a handful of dolphin deaths over the past few seasons as migratory birds move up and down coastlines of North and South America. The strain has already impacted millions of birds on poultry farms and Dr. Sweeney urges...
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Mission Driven Research
Zoo Logic
Dr. Terrie Williams, long time UC Santa Cruz wildlife researcher interested in species energetics returns to discuss the race against geometric levels of extinction. We are losing species at pace well above the normal background rates. Her mission is to gather basic bioenergetic data to help inform regulators, lawmakers, and industry about the potential harmful effects from undersea noise pollution, climate change, over fishing, and more. Importantly, she celebrates the role of today's modern zoos and aquariums and the training professionals that make her data collection possible in situ and...
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Efficacy and Ethics of Using Hormones to Modify Behavior
Zoo Logic
Following a recent industry webinar, we asked ethicist, Dr. Raymond Anthony and veterinarian and researcher, Dr. Dave Miller to weigh in on the subject of using hormone therapy to curb aggressive behavior in managed settings. Under what conditions and to what extent is modifying animal behavior through pharmacology, specifically hormones or their synthetic analogs, an acceptable practice? Is there an ethical difference between acute and chronic use, especially when the drug in question is used "off label" or may not have been studied in the species for which its use is intended?...
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Zoological Association of America's New Leader
Zoo Logic
Before she accepted the role of executive director of the in 2023, Dr. Kelly George was a researcher with Ohio State University studying human-animal relationships with an emphasis on welfare and behavior. Today she leads the young but growing trade association focused on improving standards of husbandry care, educating the public, and promoting greater conservation efforts for species in human care and in the wild. She describes her first year, where the association is now, where she thinks it is headed, and why it is important for the organization to tell its own narrative.
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Impoverished vs. Cognitively Challenging Environments
Zoo Logic
As director of research for the , Dr. Kelly Jaakkola spends much of her time studying the cognitive abilities of bottlenose dolphins, as well as, refuting the false or unsubstantiated narratives stemming from all places, recent peer-reviewed publications by authors opposed to marine mammals in human care. One of two of her recent publications examines whether these small cetaceans in human care live in "" environments. Spoiler alert, they don't. However, Kelly argues in a separate paper that this low bar of animal welfare can and should be raised to include beneficial that enable animals...
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Training Crocs!
Zoo Logic
Before she became an expert avian trainer with , Ari Bailey got her start working with crocodilian species at a time when aversives and physical restraint were still commonly in use. Fortunately, the state of animal training for crocodilians and other ectothermic species has since advanced; in many ways, the same sort of husbandry behaviors commonly seen with mammals and birds can also be seen with reptiles at modern zoological facilities. However, while the principles of operant conditioning used with crocs are the same as with other species, their unique physiology and natural history does...
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Our Kindred Creatures: How Americans Came to Feel the Way They Do About Animals
Zoo Logic
The post Civil War era gave rise to unprecedented social changes. The energy and activism directed at ending the scourge of slavery found new life in improving the welfare of animals, particularly those species in American homes, industry, entertainment, and on the dinner plate. Authors, Bill Wasik and Monica Murphy, DVM have written their second book together (Knopf, 4/23) examining the extraordinary animal welfare movement that emerged during the latter third of the 19th century. Readers of are "introduced to the activists, scientists, and moguls who helped create our modern views on...
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Revisiting Negative Reinforcement with Ken Ramirez
Zoo Logic
On a recent visit to a zoological facility, their senior animal manager asked about my current views on the use of negative reinforcement given past treatment of the subject in my book ZOOmility going back to the mid 2000's, when I largely discouraged trainers from using the training tool. So we thought it might be time to take another look at that behavioral tool to better understand if, when or with what species it is ever appropriate to use negative reinforcement since it requires the presence and subsequent removal of aversive stimuli. We asked well known animal trainer and Executive Vice...
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Boldly Go
Zoo Logic
What is the secret to longevity and relevance in any career path? While the answer may vary among differing professions, one ingredient seems to be a willingness to "apply the joy of exploration to our own lives," according to actor, director, best selling author, musician, and real life space traveler, William Shatner. In 2022, Shatner now 93, best known for his iconic role on Star Trek as Captain James T. Kirk, wrote with coauthor, writer and director . The book is a series of reflections and insights stemming from personal triumphs and tragedies and a career spanning eight decades....
info_outlineIt would likely surprise most people that until about a decade ago, military service dogs were routinely euthanized at the end of their working service life rather than be transported back to the U.S. and a life of retirement. Congress and the Department of Defense finally provided some resources to ensure military working dogs are returned to U.S. soil at the completion of their service. These funds do not cover all transport costs and there are currently no funds to help these animals deal with the impact of physical and psychological trauma or illness when their military careers are completed. The situation is even more dire for the much larger group of trained service dogs used by private military contractors for whom there is no funding for return transport or even guaranteed feeding and medical treatment. Mission K9 Rescue co-founder Bob Bryant returns to discuss a bill pending in Congress to provide grant funding in support of military working dog medical care throughout their lives.