Weekly Update 22

Hello Everyone!

This week we introduce a new animal into the training world of Jessica…Birds! We officially started our bird class here at DRCTI. It is just the lecture portion right now but we will begin to move into the labs soon. There are seven exotic parrots here as well as chickens and two pea hens. All of the birds have been rehomed from other places or for people who could no longer take care of their birds (exotic parrots live for a long time).

On the dolphin side of things, we are beginning the process of training our own behaviors to the dolphins. In this class, so far it has mainly been about observing how to train. In the handling class/ any other time I have been on working with the dolphins it has always been doing behaviors they already know and working on behaviors they have learned from other people. I will be starting a behavior from the very first step now. I am going to be working on a couple with multiple dolphins. I will not have a specific dolphin “assigned” to me, but will instead teach behaviors to multiple dolphins based on their previous knowledge and the lagoons they live in. I will definitely keep you posted on which behaviors I teach and how it goes!

In the Sea Lion world, it was a sad week as Karen passed away. She was the older sea lion who I shared about before, as I had the opportunity to take care of her habitat. She was very special to DRC and I am glad I had the opportunity to spend some time with her. If you would like to read the official statement you can find it at https://www.facebook.com/DolphinResearchCenter .