It's inevitable:
whether you work in a zoo or you own pets, there will come a time
when a new animal arrives on the scene. And when it does, will you
leave the introductions up to chance, or will you do something to
help ease the transition for everyone? If you know anything about Ken
Ramirez, you probably know that he's very methodical and systematic
about how he does things, and new animal introductions is no
exception.
The very first
thing that happens with every new animal at the Shedd Aquarium is a
quarantine period. This is especially important for wild-caught
animals (at the Shedd, their wild animals are rescues), who may be
harboring disease or parasites. This is a wise thing for pet owners
to do, too, especially if the animal being introduced was a stray,
but even if they weren't. Fleas and worms are sneaky, and can
infiltrate even the most responsible owners' homes.
Next, the Shedd
staff have some pre-introduction tasks. Without other animals
present, the new animal is allowed to explore the habitats it will be
living in. This will increase the animal's comfort with its new
surroundings. The staff will take the time to observe the animal's
explorations to ensure that they know where to find things like food,
water, and hiding places, and if necessary, help them fully
investigate their new home. They will also introduce the concept of
gating so that the animal can be easily separated in case things go
wrong.
These penguins can live together peacefully thanks to careful introductions. |
Animals will then
“meet” the other animals by being placed in a nearby or adjacent
enclosure that gives all of the animals visual, olfactory, and/or
audible access to one another. This allows for a measure of safety
while the animals get acquainted. The Shedd staff will observe the
interactions to make predictions about potential problems. If
necessary, they will make the introductions more gradual. The staff
will also feed all of the animals near each other (but with barriers
between them) to promote general positive feelings about each other,
taking special care to reinforce calmness and acceptance.
Animals who have
had prior training, such as those who are “on loan” from another
zoo, will get some additional introductions. The trainers will have
the new animal and an existing animal work together cooperatively.
For example, they may both be asked to target the same item.
Reinforcement is contingent on both animals being calm and accepting
of the other.
The Shedd staff
also keep in mind that every introduction is unique. Everything from
the the species, the individual animal, the habitat's size or layout,
and the trainers themselves can affect how the introductions go. As
such, the staff take care to have contingency plans on what to do if
things go wrong, and they constantly monitor and assess the situation
to see if problems arise.
One problem that
sometimes comes up is aggression between two animals, and whether or
not you should let the animals “work it out” on their own. If you
separate the animals every time there is aggression, they won't learn
how to live together. What's worse, once reunified, the animals often
show aggression again, as if they'd never met before. On the other
hand, if an animal is at risk of serious injury or death, separation
is necessary. Because this is such a difficult matter, the Shedd
staff pay a lot of attention to creating good introductions. Their
goal is always for introductions to go as smoothly as possible,
reducing the need to separate animals.
Have you ever
introduced a new animal into your household? What did you do? Was it
successful? I'd love to hear if you have any tips- or words of
caution!
2 comments:
I think it's important to stress how slowly introductions sometimes need to go. For instance, when I was introducing the Chihuahua to my Aussie (Chihuahua was new to the environment, Aussie was long time resident) we gated the dogs away from each other for a month (with training sessions in between) before we started allowing them to casually mingle in brief spurts. Even then it probably took a good 6 months for things to normalize. Now I trust the two dogs together completely despite the size difference, and I owe it in large part to how meticulous I was when doing introductions.
I think that many pet owners assume that their pets will get along and make minimal efforts to prevent issues occurring. I think posts like yours illustrate how much care pet owners SHOULD be taking in introductions.
With my rescues, I normally have at least one of my dogs that the rescue will click with instantly. Because I'm lazy, I normally don't push my luck, and just exercise two separate lots of dogs, and all is well.
However, for some of the long term rescues, I have accidents where somehow I've let the rescue and a non-friend run... And normally things are quite okay. I put this down to habituation to each other's presence, and acceptance to the rescue dog into the territory, prior to any introductions. When these dogs do eventually meet face to face, it's nothing special.
This is a long way of saying: Sometimes dogs get along because they knew each other before they had to get along. :)
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