Leading Edge

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The Banjo and The Fox

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I stumbled across a TEDx Talk last week that brought together three of my favorite things: animals, banjos, and patterns. Musician Andy Thorn went viral several years ago when his wife filmed a wild red fox enjoying a private concert in their backyard: In his TEDx Talk, Andy poses the question that everyone around the world was wondering: why would a fox enjoy the dulcet tones emanating from the banjo? We may not speak the same language as a fox, he says, "but our lives are all ruled by the same patterns. Patterns of season and time." Humans and animals alike seek out the comfort of those patterns found everywhere in nature. Music is also made up of patterns. A song is layers of chord progressions, phrases, and rhythms. Music "speaks to us like a story on the level of pattern and time" and helps us process our experiences. Did that fox think about all of that during her mountain concert? Probably not. But I don't think it's too far of a leap to think that sh
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Training Wild Elephants

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One thing that amazes me about animal training is that the basic principles can be applied to any animal. Dog, cat, hawk, fish, porcupine, and elephants. Even wild ones. Yes, you can change the behavior of wild animals in your backyard - or in Africa. Animal trainer Ken Ramirez has been working on a conservation project in Zambia to protect a dwindling herd of elephants. The herd's annual migration path meanders through Zambia where they are protected from hunting. But part of their path crosses the border into Democratic Republic of the Congo, where poaching is rampant. Many elephants are killed in this small section of their journey.  So the conservation team began to wonder if they could train the elephants to reroute their migration path to stay within the political boundaries of Zambia. Ramirez developed a training plan using the same principles that he would use to train a dog. First, they made the dangerous path more difficult by installing a tall stick barrier at a narrow s
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How important is enrichment?

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When I started studying cat behavior last year, I did not expect it to have an impact on my work with the Museum's raptors. What could solving litter box problems have to do with wild birds? On the surface, they are very different. But by digging deeper I have gained a new lens to view our raptor care and training. For one example, I've already written about applying pattern games (commonly used with dogs and cats) with Otto the Great Horned Owl.  Cat behavior has also given me the idea of enrichment to mull over. I have had the opportunity to observe many client meetings with a Certified Cat Behavior Consultant and there is one thing that stands out across these sessions. In every case - whether the cat is peeing on the carpet, fighting with other cats in the home, scratching the couch, or waking them up at 3am - part of the solution is enrichment. Each client is prescribed the task of scheduling daily play sessions and providing one new thing for their cat to explore each d
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