As someone who has worked with zoo vets, I’ve seen how important consistent training is to reduce stress and keep animals and humans safe during procedures. Keep up the great work!
Yep, I’ve both trained behaviours well, resulting in “successful” medical or management practices and trained “not well enough” to actually achieve on the day. It’s always great when all staff from the top down can see the importance and continue training long term to eventually have it work well, even if not initially!
I would LOVE to learn more about habitats/exhibits and how the terrain, foliage, other obstacles, and placement of food/water/privacy/enrichment can be used to influence movement and encourage the animal to fully utilize the space they have. With horses, they naturally would travel 10 miles per day. But in pastures, they often graze around, but otherwise have worn paths to the gate, water trough, and shelter. They dont move much at all. Paddock Paradise track systems are becoming more popular to encourage movement. I am curious if we can learn something from zoos to help enrich our horse's lives and encourage more movement and usage of the space they have.
Hey thanks for reaching out! Just had to look up Paddock Paradise systems, looks like an interesting concept, one of those “yeah that makes sense” kind of things! I’m sure there’s lots that can be learnt in both directions. I’m currently working on a video about size/space/complexity of exhibits. Not sure what examples I’ll be using just yet, but will try and cover all bases including equids/hoofstock! Paddock paradise system may get a mention now too! Thanks again!
@@zooblether Thanks! I am looking forward to seeing it. I think our "traditional" ways of keeping horses (big empty pastures and 12x12 stalls) are long overdue for a change. I like to think about what the "ideal" environment for our horses would be. Hearing from outside perspectives always helps ignite new ideas
Great video on a really interesting topic! I was lucky to be part of a few introductions as an intern, including one with African Painted Dogs, where we used fire extinguishers just like you described.
