Learn more about our Paint With the Seals Program.
Read the full article in The Boston Globe.
 |
| Chacoda gets creative | Photo: David Ryan/Boston Globe |
 |
| Cayenne gets creative | Photo: David Ryan/Boston Globe |
Marine Mammal Trainers
Showing posts with label Cayenne. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cayenne. Show all posts
5/26/15
Artists in the news
Did you see the harbor seals in The Boston Globe this weekend? They were showing off their artistic abilities during a Paint with the Seals program. We do this enriching behavior with the seals regularly, something fun that the seals can learn. But now visitors can be part of the creative process by choosing colors and being there while the masterpiece is created!
Learn more about our Paint With the Seals Program.
Read the full article in The Boston Globe.
Learn more about our Paint With the Seals Program.
Read the full article in The Boston Globe.
11/29/09
#151: Seal of the Week - Cayenne
After a long hiatus, as we acclimated our fur seals to their new surroundings, we are back for seal of the week! This week we are going to highlight Cayenne.
-Patty
Cayenne, often referred to as "Cay," is the youngest of our females. Her mother Trumpet gave birth to her on June 6, 1993. She has a younger brother Chacoda, born in 1995. Some physical characteristics that help define Cay are the dark spots on her belly, almond shaped eyes, and a petite frame. Typically she weighs between 130 - 150 pounds so you can often point her out because she is the smallest of our seals.
Cayenne is very attentive to the goings on in her exhibit. Whether someone is cleaning the exhibit, doing enrichment or giving a group tour, Cayenne is sure to be keeping track of all that we are doing. She has often been deemed the "watchdog" of our harbor seals.
If you happen to be walking by the exhibit, you will typically find Cay spending time in the shallow end. You may even be able to play with her. From time to time, we find that Cayenne will interact with objects or visitors on the other side of the glass that attract her attention. One day, a trainer observed her following the path of a plastic bag blowing around the plaza in the wind. Sometimes, a simple hand movement back and forth in front of the glass is enough to capture her curiosity. Check out this previous post and to see what I mean! This post has another video of glass enrichment with Cayenne. You never know what she may find interesting so if you capture her eye, give it a try!
-Patty
6/17/09
#129: Harbor Seal Puzzle
Amelia has always shown a lot of interest in a particular orange boomer ball toy that we stuff with fish. Now we have decided to take it one step further by making a puzzle for her. So she can learn how it works we started with an easy one.
We modified two clear, small animal exercise balls by drilling holes in them, then placed some capelin pieces in the big ball and gave it to the seals. Since it looked a little different from the original toy, it took Amelia a little bit to figure out what it was, but once she did she was really into it. And she wasn't the only one; Trumpet, Chuck, Cayenne, and Smoke all took turns. Now the next step is to start placing the fish inside the little ball and put that inside the big ball- then they will really have to move the toy to get the fish out.
We modified two clear, small animal exercise balls by drilling holes in them, then placed some capelin pieces in the big ball and gave it to the seals. Since it looked a little different from the original toy, it took Amelia a little bit to figure out what it was, but once she did she was really into it. And she wasn't the only one; Trumpet, Chuck, Cayenne, and Smoke all took turns. Now the next step is to start placing the fish inside the little ball and put that inside the big ball- then they will really have to move the toy to get the fish out.
6/11/09
#126: I'm Ready For My Close-Up!
With a face like this to greet you, how could you not enjoy going to work! I was playing around with the camera and Cayenne came over to check me out. I wonder what she was thinking then?
-Erin
6/5/09
#122: Happy Birthday to Trumpet, Cayenne, and Chuck!
Trumpet and her two kids, Cayenne and Chuck, have birthdays within one day of each other so we decided to have a group celebration this weekend. Cayenne turns 16 tomorrow, Trumpet turns 24 on Sunday, and Chuck is 14 years old Monday! We celebrated with a birthday cake, but instead of having one made out of ice cream, their cake was made out of capelin and squid. Yum! Of course, we had to take some birthday pictures.
4/9/09
#104: Flipper Licking Good!
As you can see, each seals' tongue is shaped a little bit differently. Here are a few of the seals that we have trained or are in the process of training the tongue behavior.
4/3/09
#102: Who's Who?
One of the most popular questions the trainers hear is "How do you tell the harbor seals apart?" The answer sounds simple; just by looking at them, but it can take a long time if you don't see the seals every day.
First you need to know who is in the exhibit. We currently have seven Atlantic harbor seals in the plaza exhibit--two males and five females. We can divide them into two easily identifiable groups, the 'spotted' and the 'non-spotted' seals. The spotted seals have distinct dark spots on their necks and bellies. All of the 'spotted' seals are related.
Our spotted seals are Trumpet Cayenne & Chacoda:
The non-spotted family: Amelia and Reggae:
Last but not least, our seventh seal is Lana. She is not related to any of the other seals, but she most resembles the non-spotted family.
Other than the obvious spot patterns, we look for differences in the shape of the head, nose, and eyes. They also differ in their body length and girth, but this can be deceiving. The seals' weight can fluctuate between 10 and 30 pounds depending on the time of year, so weight isn't a reliable way to distinguish individuals.
Now that you've looked at the pictures, will you be able to tell the seals apart on your next trip to the Aquarium? Don't worry if you can't. Start by telling the spotted from the non-spotted first. It took all of us a while to figure out Who's Who too and we see them every day!
First you need to know who is in the exhibit. We currently have seven Atlantic harbor seals in the plaza exhibit--two males and five females. We can divide them into two easily identifiable groups, the 'spotted' and the 'non-spotted' seals. The spotted seals have distinct dark spots on their necks and bellies. All of the 'spotted' seals are related.
The non-spotted family: Amelia and Reggae:
1/26/09
#89: Toothbrushing 102: The Rotary Toothbrush
The harbor seals have been comfortable getting their teeth brushed with a manual toothbrush for some time, so now we're introducing a rotary toothbrush. This battery-operated toothbrush has a smaller head that quickly rotates in circles. We share a couple of brush bases, but as you see in the picture, everyone has their own brush head. The letters on the heads tell us whose toothbrush it is. For example, "CA" stands for Cayenne.
Having a toothbrush that moves on it's own takes some getting used to. We took it slow, but as you can see from the picture above, 6 of the 7 seals are using the rotary toothbrush for some or all of their toothbrushing. Here is a video of Cayenne getting her teeth brushed with the rotary toothbrush - if you listen carefully you can even hear the sound of the toothbrush.
-Erin
1/8/09
#81: Just Another Day at the Office
Rochelle and I were the only two trainers on last week. With seven seals to feed you might think it would be difficult, but this is where those name targets come in handy. Each of us did two sessions with five seals at a time, which allowed the other trainer to focus on two. It was enriching for both us and the seals; you will notice that Rochelle and I didn't always feed the same animals or even line them up in the same order, but by using those name targets we were able to keep the five seals together calmly and give everyone the attention they deserved.
Here is Rochelle with (starting from the top) Trumpet, Lana, Smoke, Reggae, and Amelia.
Can you find all five targets?
In this picture I am working with (from the top) Cayenne, Chuck, Smoke, Reggae, and Lana. With the other four seals focusing on their name targets I am able to give Smoke some of her daily eye drops.
I wonder what today will bring?
-Erin
Can you find all five targets?
In this picture I am working with (from the top) Cayenne, Chuck, Smoke, Reggae, and Lana. With the other four seals focusing on their name targets I am able to give Smoke some of her daily eye drops.
I wonder what today will bring?
-Erin
12/23/08
#78: A Trainer's Holiday Story
Once upon a time there was a group of talented trainers who worked at the New England Aquarium. These trainers decided to send holiday cards to all their friends to let them know they were thinking of them. "What sort of card should we send?" they wondered. They thought and they thought and they thought. Then one said, "Let's have our photogenic harbor seals kiss under mistletoe!" "Brilliant!" shouted the trainers with glee.
So one of the trainers gathered some fake mistletoe (because real mistletoe is dangerous) and held it above Cayenne and Chuck. For three days the trainers tried to get the perfect picture, but this wasn't as easy as they had thought. The mistletoe had to hang lower to be seen in the picture, Cayenne didn't like the mistletoe so close to her head and Chuck kept smelling the fake mistletoe and leaving in disgust--yuck! At the end of the third day when all the trainers were starting to get discouraged they reviewed their pictures and what did they find...
They quickly uploaded it, because these trainers are computer-savvy, and created a card to send to all of their friends. So to you, our friend, the Marine Mammal Department wishes you a happy holiday season!
-Erin
So one of the trainers gathered some fake mistletoe (because real mistletoe is dangerous) and held it above Cayenne and Chuck. For three days the trainers tried to get the perfect picture, but this wasn't as easy as they had thought. The mistletoe had to hang lower to be seen in the picture, Cayenne didn't like the mistletoe so close to her head and Chuck kept smelling the fake mistletoe and leaving in disgust--yuck! At the end of the third day when all the trainers were starting to get discouraged they reviewed their pictures and what did they find...
... THE MOST PERFECT PICTURE THEY HAD EVER SEEN!
They quickly uploaded it, because these trainers are computer-savvy, and created a card to send to all of their friends. So to you, our friend, the Marine Mammal Department wishes you a happy holiday season!
The End.
11/26/08
#70: More Playtime!
As you all know by now, there are many different ways to enrich our seals. Here is a short clip of Rochelle and I playing with Chacoda and his sister Cayenne through the glass.
They really get a kick out of people playing with them at the shallow end of the exhibit. Here's another post that has a video of that. Try it sometime--just remember not to bang on the glass. Sometimes you can even catch Cayenne waiting to play!
- Lindsay
11/20/08
#66: What does that mean?
Alright, we get it. Sometimes we use terms that make sense to us, but not necessarily to you. So here are a few of the terms that you might find useful when we talk about training:
Signal: Any touch, word, sound or visible gesture that cues the animals to do a particular behavior. For example: saying the word "Wave" directs a seal to move their flipper back and forth. The word wave is a verbal signal. Touching the top of a seal's nose is a signal that cues them to exhale. The touch is called a tactile signal.
Here you can see Jenny giving Lana the hand signal to dance - notice that Lana is raising her left flipper out of the water to mirror Jenny's right hand. Check out this video of dancing behavior.
Bridge: A signal that is used to indicate the precise instant that the seal did something correctly. When the seal hears or feels the bridge, they immediately stop what they're doing and look to the trainer for fish or other reinforcement. It "bridges" the time between the behavior and reinforcement. Like a signal, a bridge can be visual, auditory or tactile.Some of the bridges that we use include saying the word "Good," a short blow on a whistle, or two gentle taps on the seal's body.
Here is Baranov using his bridge...
...and Paul is using his whistle bridge.
Reinforcement: Anything the animal wants, needs or wants more of. Here at the Aquarium, our main reinforcement for the seals is fish, but it can also be a favorite toy, a scratch on the chin or any number of things. It's good to have multiple types of reinforcement--just like people, each seal has it's own likes and dislikes which can change over time. Also, not all seals like the same thing. One seal might enjoy a scratch under the chin while another one may not want to be touched. Here, Jenny is using fish to reinforce Lana...
...but sometimes Lana likes to have her neck scratched.
Target: Any object the animal is taught to touch with their nose, flipper or other part of their body. Targets provide a focal point and can be used to train any behavior. The seals can be comfortable targeting for several minutes during ultra sound or blood sampling. Gradually raising the height of a target over the water helps teach a seal where to jump. Here at the Aquarium, we use three types of targets: a hand target, a target pole with a bead or ball target on the end, and a name target.
Here you see Smoke is targeting on a trainers hand while Reggae targets on his name target (a plastic tire) and Amelia targets on her name target (a black plastic disc with slits in it). If you look in the background you will also see examples of other name targets--notice how they are all different.
In this video you can see how they all work together:
When I want to ask Chuck and Cayenne to go to their Name targets, I point to the targets (hand signal) while saying the word "Target" (verbal signal). Once Chuck and Cayenne touch their nose to their individual targets, I will say the word "Good" (bridge) and feed them some fish (reinforcement).
Using these four tools correctly is what has allowed us to train so many behaviors. It's fun. Try it with your friends!
-Erin
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)