Marine Mammal Trainers

Showing posts with label targeting. Show all posts

4/21/09

#106: Biggest Lobster Training at NEAQ

The biggest lobster at the Aquarium.
Note: He is not on exhibit at this time. This blog is the best place to see him.

You've seen a few posts on training we have done with some smaller lobsters (here and here), but did you also know we are training a 24 pound lobster? That's right - this lobster is the size of 3 newborn babies! I initially started off just learning how to feed him, but have since introduced a target and he is doing great.

Lobsters are really cool animals. Did you know that like people, they can develop handedness? All lobsters start out with their two claws the same size, but as they get older, they will start to use one claw more than the other. This claw will develop a lot of muscle, get really big, and become what we know as the "crusher" claw. The muscle of the crusher claw doesn't tire easily, so when the lobster needs to break open a shell (to get the food inside), the lobster can apply a lot of pressure over a long period of time. The other, smaller claw becomes the "pincher" claw. This claw can be moved quickly and is designed to cut through softer things, like fish.

Crusher claw (left) Pincher claw (right)

In the case of our big lobster here, his crusher claw is on his left and the pincher claw is on his right. I found that the best way to feed him was to lightly hold his pincher claw so I can get the food directly to his mouth. I don't have to apply a lot of pressure, but this way he knows where to focus and doesn't accidentally mistake my arm for food.

This video shows some of the training sessions with this big boy. You can see exactly how I feed him, how fast he can move his claw if I don't hold it, and his really great reactions to the target.

-Erin

4/7/09

#103: Lobster Flipping and Targeting

If you have been following our blog, you should be familiar with the training term "target" (if you need a refresher, check out the definition) and how we use it to train the marine mammals here at the Aquarium. Some of you may also remember that we are using a target to train some of the other animals at the Aquarium, including lungfish, lumpfish, frogs, and Myrtle the green sea turtle. Well now there's another animal we can add to the list ... lobsters!

Now I understand if you are wondering why we would want to train a lobster to target; we get that question a lot. As Justin previously explained, we were tasked to see if we could train the lobsters a behavior, then test how well they remember it over time. The results may be able to give us more information on a lobster's brain power.

Over the past few months, I have tried a number of approaches with this lobster, most of which involved trying to capture a behavior he was already doing. Here I am waiting for him to flip over on his back, which several of the lobsters did on their own before we started working with them. At first I wasn't having much success getting a particular behavior to happen with any regularity. However, I was learning a lot about this individual lobster: the best way to approach him, how to feed him, how he seemed to experience things. While I am certainly not a lobster expert by any means, learning all of these different things gave me a better appreciation for what might work best for us. Once I started training a "target" station with him, things moved more smoothly.

You can partially see him flipping over in this video:

One challenge was figuring out the best sized object to use as a target--what may seem small enough to me could be very large to my lobster (he is, after all, only a few inches long). I tried a few objects and had the best success with a small shell glued to a stick (below).

Now check out this video of him targeting the shell:

The first time I put the shell in the water, the lobster's inquisitive nature brought him over to investigate, but he stopped a bit short, a bit unsure of the situation. You'll notice though, as I introduce some food just beside the shell, the lobster comes all the way over and, while he is eating, checks out the shell a bit. His concerns must have been alleviated, because a few minutes later, I put the shell in again and this time he didn't hesitate at all. He came right over and I was able to feed him after he touched it.

Since we started this last week, he has come right over to the shell every time it was placed in the water! We have our first "test" ahead of us ... my lobster recently molted and for a few days after they are more concerned with staying safe and expanding their new soft shell than anything else. This time off will give us an opportunity to see just how much he remembers. Will he still associate the shell target on a stick with food?

-Erin

10/17/08

#58: Turtle Training Part 2

A few months ago I posted the first Turtle Training video featuring Myrtle, the giant ocean tank's resident green sea turtle. At the time, she was learning to swim away from the deck to find white target pole in another location. At the deck, she has long been able to distinguish her target from a plain black and a black /white striped pole. We wanted to know if she would continue to go to her target if there were other choices located around the tank. To find out, we placed long versions of the plain black and black white/striped around the tank too. In this video you can see how far along she has come with this behavior. You will be able to tell if she got the correct pole by seeing food being dropped in the water and the poles being taken out. Notice that she passes the other poles to get to her plain white target pole!

-Rochelle

7/9/08

#27: Turtle Training

Some may find it strange to see video of a turtle in the marine mammal blog, but the marine mammal staff has the opportunity to train a sea turtle as well. The principals of operant conditioning and positive reinforcement can work with any animal, as long as you learn what it is that they find rewarding. Myrtle, a green sea turtle, finds fish and Brussels sprouts absolutely fabulous! Myrtle is approximately 75 years old and has been at the aquarium almost as long as we've been open. We began by teaching Myrtle to "target" or touch a white PVC pipe, by putting it in front of her and rewarding her for touching it. From there, she learned to discriminate between a white pipe, a black pipe and a black and white striped pipe. She has been stellar at this, always choosing her white pipe when presented with a choice. Now we have moved on to sending her to search for her target around the tank. Her signal to start searching is a sound made by popping a smaller pole in the water and pulling it out. You can see me giving her the signal in this video:

Myrtle should hear the sound and then swim to her pole where another trainer will toss her a few pieces of fish or a prized Brussels sprout. Myrtle has proved very capable of this behavior and in this video you'll be able to see the finished behavior. Enjoy!

-Rochelle

6/6/08

#16: Seal Kisses

Training a seal to kiss is fun and begins with "targeting." Targeting is asking a seal to touch a particular part of their body to an object. The object chosen can even be somebody's cheek! In this video you will see Ursula, a female Northern fur seal, giving smooches to Jamie, Jenny and YOU!

-Belinda

Jenny	Kathy
Belinda	Kim
Patty	Paul
Vanessa	Lindsay
Erin W.	Meg

New England Aquarium