No "Le Pew" Here!
Advice from Animal Expert Dr. Grey Stafford
 Recently David and Anita Jackson, some zoo colleagues of mine from Zoo to You, were in town with some of their amazing education outreach animals. So I asked them to join me on the set of 3TV's Your Life A to Z for our weekly zoo segment. My reasoning was entirely self-serving–zoo keepers like to meet other people’s animal collections, too!
It was only after I was holding one of two young striped skunks, that my friend told all of us (on live TV) that these skunks had not been de-scented! Amazingly, not only were these little brothers cute, they were extremely calm and odor free. So calm, mine fell asleep in my lap. (I am sure it had nothing to do with our segment!)
This experience got me thinking. If these animals can be taught to be relaxed, gentle, and unafraid of new people, places, and things, surely there’s a lesson here for all of us who are pet owners. I asked David and Anita how they were able to teach these youngsters to be so at ease traveling to new locations and meeting new people every day of their lives. Their answer was simple: desensitization. These youngsters are held and interacted with every single day as keepers conduct normal duties such as cleaning, feeding and socializing their large collection of exotic animals. In other words, encouraging animals to respond calmly in increasingly new and complex experiences (followed by positive reinforcement) is the norm. As a result, their animals are used to changes occurring around them all the time; they aren’t afraid of change like so many of our pets are.
In much the same way, I'm often asked about the effect the Air Force jets flying overhead from nearby Luke Air Force Base have on the zoo’s collection. In all my years at Wildlife World, I’ve never seen any animal react to the booming noise of the jets. For our animals, the jets and the accompanying noises are just a normal part of every day!
Those little skunks were a good reminder to all of us that we should regularly reward our pets for calm behaviors whenever there’s any sudden change to their immediate environment. Most of all, we should practice with them how to remain calm when big changes beyond our control do occur.
Dr. Grey
Learn more about Dr. Grey Stafford
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