I have a wildlife zoo

Once the animal keepers had become familiar with the daily operational procedures and completed training on behavior management, the animals also got used to the environment of Linhai Zoo and gradually began to start real behavior training.

It was more than just blowing a whistle and knowing it was feeding time and running over to eat.

Tiger Exhibit.

In the back house, Bao held a target stick with a bright orange ball on the end, wearing a belt on his back with a box of meat attached.

If the box was in front, the tiger would be distracted by the meat and not pay attention to what the keeper was doing; if the meat was dangled in front of it and not given, the tiger would get angry, making training impossible.

"Jiaojiao~"

Bao affectionately called out Jiaojiao's name.

Jiaojiao lay in the enclosure, languidly lifting her eyelids to glance at him.

Meng Shi stood on the side of the training cage, avoiding direct eye contact with Jiaojiao, watching intently!

Having accompanied Fang Ye often, he had seen the tigers many times, and as the encounters increased, the tigers grew less wary of him.

Now, as he wished, he had become a tiger exhibit keeper.

Though Jiaojiao was not so guarded against him, she still did not give him a friendly face, growling at him when she saw him.

"Come on, eat the meat!"

Bao took out a piece of meat and, using wooden tongs, presented it to the front of the bars.

Not using hands was very simple; although the bars of the training cage were close together and the tiger could not stretch its paws out, what if it bit your hand giving the meat this way?

Wooden tongs were used because they would not hurt the tiger; metal tongs were the most common, but they could injure the tiger's teeth or mouth when it bit down.

Fang Ye had won knowledge of Animal Behavior Management in a raffle, which added some detail to the usual zoo training operations, and he had passed this on during the training of the other keepers.

Jiaojiao perked up at the sight of the meat, stood up, and trotted over a couple of steps to eat it.

A piece of meat, weighing only one or two liangs, not even enough to get stuck in the teeth, was eaten up in one bite.

In front of the bars, she quietly watched Bao.

Bao tapped Jiaojiao's mouth with the target stick while quickly pressing the clicker, producing a crisp "click" sound.

The "click" echoed in the training cage, startling Jiaojiao!

She stood up straight, looking a bit wary, but upon seeing Bao offer another piece of meat, she quickly ate it.

The unique "click" from the clicker was important; if praise like "well done" was used, the different accents of keepers, some of which might even be dialects, could confuse the animal.

The "click" sound from the clicker acted as a standard signal, reducing confusion for the animal and shortening learning time.

In this manner, Bao tapped Jiaojiao with the target stick, made a "click" sound at the same time, and then fed her a piece of meat.

Jiaojiao kept eating the meat!

After a round of 10 times, seeing that Jiaojiao was performing well, Bao thought, "Should I try going a step further?"

He placed the target stick slightly above Jiaojiao's head.

The initial purpose of doing this was to associate the target stick with food for the animal.

The next step was to move the target stick a few centimeters away; if the animal thought about it and then actively touched the target stick, a quick "click" would signal that it had done the right thing!

Doing it right meant a reward, food.

Jiaojiao looked at him, her gaze turning somewhat unfriendly.

She was very smart!

She quickly understood the purpose of the target stick.

But a little keeper, with just this bit of food, wanted to command her?

Instead, she walked away to a distant spot and lay down.

Rebellion!

Bao was a bit panicked, "Hey, hey, Jiaojiao, don't go! Let's solidify the progress we just made!"

No matter what he said, Jiaojiao just lay down, closed her eyes, and went to sleep, ignoring him.

"Ah, I'm getting a little too eager for quick success."

Bao felt frustrated inside and scratched his head.

But he knew that various problems could arise during the initial stages of animal training.

One could only build rapport with patience.

The training process was also one of building trust.

...

Actually, the tiger training was already going quite smoothly!

In the back of the lion exhibit, Li was also training a lion.

When Qiqi began the training, he showed no interest whatsoever in the small piece of meat Li offered.

After eating the meat, instead of being satisfied, he glared with wide eyes, angrily slapped the railing with his paw, and roared loudly, "Roar!"

NMD, what is this crap! I'm used to eating big chunks of meat, how dare you give me such a tiny piece! Are you mocking me?

He was extremely agitated.

They couldn't even get past the first step.

Switch to Kaka.

Kaka had only started eating a few pieces of meat when he looked at the target stick in Li's hand, heard the "click" sound, and suddenly began to retch.

Li was baffled, why had he suddenly started vomiting? Was there something wrong with the meat?

That's impossible, the meat was just purchased a few days ago.

Even if it had spoiled, lions can eat slightly rotten food.

With a "click," Kaka retched again and then suddenly started to defecate! He dropped a pile of feces on the ground.

His expression was one of disgust.

"Ah, this..."

Li realized that Kaka only wanted to eat and had no interest in training! His vomiting and defecating were expressions of his dissatisfaction.

Li felt like sighing, but then Fang Ye's lecture came to mind: "The process of animal training will not be smooth sailing. When an animal doesn't perform the desired behavior, regardless of the reason, animal keepers shouldn't feel discouraged or disheartened, and certainly shouldn't take their emotions out on the animals."

He composed himself, then smiled and said, "Kaka, if you're so averse, let's not train today. Let's adjust our attitude and try again tomorrow."

Lions and tigers, these fierce beasts, are the ones most in need of training, and the difficulty of training them is quite high.

The numerous macaques also need training, but the methods are different.

Training each individual one by one is too troublesome; what's needed is the personal authority of the animal keeper.

With many years of experience in caring for macaques, Lü Jiamu knew that the new ones, although completely unfamiliar with the keepers, would find out after a week or two of interaction that he was not someone to mess with.

When Lü Jiamu fed them, even the ones fighting for food would run to the outskirts after being scolded or shouted at by him.

The apprentices Lü Jiamu trained, when interacting with the macaques, would get touched and played with by them.

Baffled, they asked for an explanation and received a simple answer: "It's all about presence!"

"Presence?"

"That's right, your eye contact with the macaques, your facial expressions, the way you walk, your tone of voice and volume when speaking to them... All these things together make up your presence. Macaques are very intelligent animals, they know whether you're faking confidence or if you really have it."

The apprentices could only marvel at how profound their master's realm was!

To reach their master's level probably required raising macaques for a few more years.