Training

Helping animals participate in their own care.

Training is a vital part of our Animal Care Professionals’ day-to-day care of the animals. Learn more about what’s involved and why we do it.

What is Training?

At its basic level, training is the action of teaching and learning.

When working with animals, training enables the animals to participate in their own care.

Why do we train?

Our Animal Care Professionals train with the animals for:

What behaviors do we train?

Our Animal Care Professionals focus on behaviors that enable Zoo staff to provide optimal care. To assist the Veterinary Team in caring for the animals, many animals are trained for voluntary procedures such as:

Animals are also trained on other behaviors that help with their day-to-day care, such as:

  • Shifting to other spaces. This helps our Animal Care Professionals stay safe while ensuring a clean space for the animals.
  • Exercise. For example, the elephants do a variety of “yoga” stretches to keep them nimble. The birds of prey are trained to fly during educational programs.
  • Hoof trims. Goats and sheep “station,” or stand still in one spot, for routine hoof care.
  • Shearing. Sheep are trained to remain calm for their routine wool shearing.

In addition to benefiting the animals, training helps others learn more about them through participating in behavioral studies. 

For example:

  •  The apes can interact with a computer program to help researchers learn more about their cognitive abilities, meaning how they think and problem-solve. 
  • Some animals are trained to provide routine urine samples that can yield important biological information to researchers.

We also train behaviors that can help Zoo guests better understand the animals’ natural histories and associated conservation messages.

Examples include: 

  • Training birds to fly to perches to demonstrate their aerial abilities
  • Training elephants to move specific body parts like trunks and ears to present them.

How do we train?

In positive reinforcement training, an animal (or human) is reinforced for doing a behavior that is asked of them. That reinforcement increases the odds that the animal will do that behavior when asked in the future.

Animal training programs at Zoo Atlanta are voluntary for the animals; they may choose to participate or not. Animals often engage in training, so we can surmise that they get enjoyment from this interaction.

Positive reinforcement involves introducing a stimulus to ask for a specific behavior, and the behavior is then reinforced with something the animal likes. For example, upon walking onto a scale, an animal receives a favored food item or a nice scratch with a brush.

By utilizing positive reinforcement, science has shown:

  •  A decrease in stress.
  • An increase in socialization while decreasing depression.
  •  A decrease in aggression toward members of animals’ own species outside of training sessions.
  • A decrease in aggression toward caregivers or habitat mates during sessions.
  • A reduction of stereotypical or repetitive, non-purposeful behaviors such as pacing.

There are three main types of training using positive reinforcement. 

  • Shaping: Teaching a new behavior using small steps.
  • Capturing: An animal spontaneously does a behavior and gets reinforced for it.
  • Imitation: Often offspring or social animals learn new behaviors by watching their mothers or others in their social group.

All of the animals at Zoo Atlanta have personalized training programs. Animal Care Professionals develop relationships with the animals over time with trust, communication, and a variety of the items the animals enjoy. They then can plan, prepare, and map out individualized training programs.