A major milestone for Zuri!

Any parents out there taken their kids to the doctor lately? Maybe for vaccines or blood work? Here in the Hoofstock Team, our resident “kid” (2-year-old rhino calf Zuri) recently had a routine checkup from the Veterinary Team, and she reached a big milestone: participating in a voluntary blood draw for the first time!

Seeing the doctor can be stressful for a youngster of any species. At Zoo Atlanta, we work to make veterinary care as stress-free and positive as possible by using positive reinforcement training with the animals to willingly participate in their own care. Over the past year, two keepers on our team have been working closely with Zuri to prepare her for this moment.

Zoo Atlanta’s Veterinary Team has a few options for drawing blood from rhinos, most commonly from blood vessels in the ears or legs. Here at Zoo Atlanta, all four of the southern white rhinos are trained to have blood drawn from their ear veins. Zuri’s training began with a simple but important behavior: positioning.

The first step was getting Zuri to come over and stand parallel to the cabling along the edge of her habitat to make her ear more accessible. Luckily, Zuri loves interacting with her care team, especially when it involves tactile reinforcement. Every time she lined up correctly, she was rewarded with scratches from a scrub brush along her sides and belly – irresistible to rhinos!

Once she mastered positioning, we shifted our focus to her ears. During a real blood draw, a Veterinary Team member applies pressure at the base of the ear to help the vein fill (think about the compression bandage that’s applied to your arm when you get your blood drawn at the doctor’s office). To prepare Zuri, keepers gently handled and manipulated her ears while continuing to provide positive reinforcement. She quickly became comfortable with the process.

Next came the final steps: cleaning the site and practicing the “poke.” The Veterinary Team provided us with alcohol and betadine wipes so Zuri could get used to the unfamiliar smells and cooling sensation when applied to the site. Rhinos have an excellent sense of smell, so this was something we wanted to get her used to. To simulate the needle, we started by applying light pressure with our fingertips. As Zuri grew more comfortable, we progressed to using a blunted needle to mimic the real experience. This is a real needle with the sharp tip simply ground off.

Over time, we incorporated all of these steps into the care team’s daily routine until Zuri was a total pro. All that hard work paid off. On the day of her checkup, Zuri—and all three adult rhinos—did an amazing job. It’s always rewarding to see training come together, resulting in a smooth, low-stress experience for everyone involved.

Bridget S.
Senior Keeper, Hoofstock and Elephants