Training Update

Sifaka

 

Training sifaka in Jungle Trails
Training sifaka in Jungle Trails

Wilhelmina, Rinaldo, and their baby Bobbie continue to impress people with their movement and jumps.  This trio is by far the leader of cuteness in our zoo!  Their keepers, Matt and Stephanie and myself continue to work with them Fri, Sat and Sun at 2:30, allowing our guests an up close and personal look at this incredible species.  The trio will go outside when it gets a little warmer!

 

Polar Bear

Berit, the female polar bear that we trained to accept injections, is now learning to present other areas of her body and to lay down.  She has been such a wonderful animal to work with.  She is so responsive and it’s really neat to watch her thought process as she works out each problem and tries so hard to please. Watching her keepers work with her so closely and seeing their relationship with her grow in such a positive direction has been especially fulfilling.

We are still waiting (and waiting and waiting) to find out if she is pregnant or not.  We should know in the next week or two.  Lets all keep our fingers crossed!!!

If you see one of our polar bears doing the backstroke, it's probably Berit.
If you see one of our polar bears doing the backstroke, it’s probably Berit.

Foxes update

 

George interacting with guests.
George interacting with guests.

Penelope continues to do very well with her keepers in Knoxville and is now in her large permanent home.  They are working on harness training her and getting her out for walks.  I recently filmed a short training video of our foxes demonstrating all their behaviors and sent it to them for reference.  I hear she has a few favorite keepers that she really enjoys working with and others that she is getting to know.

 

George and Frankie are continuing to learn new behaviors all the time and we are working on getting them out daily for walks… if the weather would cooperate!!  I am also pleased to share that both George and Frankie will be working with our spring break campers this year and giving these wonderful children an experience they will never forget!!  Love our Campers!!

 

Cougars

 

Working on new behaviors in the cougar exhibit
Working on new behaviors in the cougar exhibit

This year we will be training our two sibling cougars, Joseph and Tecumseh, a new running pattern.  If you’ve caught the cougar chat in the past year and a half you’ve seen our cougars doing amazing jumps and maneuvering through their enclosure effortlessly while our animal interpreters explain how truly impressive these animals are.  This year we hope to change things up a bit and see just how much fun our cougars can have and how intelligent these boys are!

 

 

All in all it’s a great day everyday at the Cincinnati Zoo and the animals can’t wait to capture your heart!

 

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