WildView™

August 18, 2024

Animal Care Collaboration

- as seen by -

Stephanie Graehling

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Training animals to voluntarily participate in their own health care is one of the many ways staff at the Wildlife Conservation Society’s New York Aquarium strives to provide exceptional animal welfare.

Learning new methods and gaining knowledge from others in the zoological field has led to amazing training achievements. Staff attend conferences hosted by animal or zoological organizations where trainers and keepers share what they learn. Various facilities present the best and most innovative training and procedures such as voluntary medical training, research findings, and so much more.

While blood collection is not new to the field of marine mammal training, our trainers at the New York Aquarium have unique and creative ways to achieve it. For example, when we ask California sea lion Bruiser to present his rear flippers, we use a plastic crowd control barrier in a semi-protected contact setting (above, inset). Training animals to complete behaviors like this can lessen stress for both the animals and the veterinary team.

Recently, two staff members from the New York Aquarium attended the International Marine Animal Trainers’ Association’s annual conference in San Antonio, Texas. Senior Trainer Stephanie Graehling and Supervisor of Marine Mammal and Birds Jenn Rant were selected to present a poster on voluntary blood collection with our pinniped population over the years.

The poster was a great conversation piece. Many trainers stopped to talk about their own blood setups. Questions included what reinforcement we use when doing these behaviors, what training is needed, what is the best position for the animal’s body, what size needles are best to draw blood, and many others.

Animal care collaboration in the marine mammal field is a privilege that leads to success.

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