I have to say I had a really good day today I felt like I got to put some of my course knowledge to good use.
Mr Ping the keeper of house 3 with the Moon Bears is such a lovely human his English is limited and I have worked with him a couple of times now, he absolutely adores those bears! Especially Brandy the 'golden' moon bear but shhhh we don't play favourites. He works on some training and conditioning with 'Taylor' a big female, we worked with her this afternoon in the house before scatter feed. He asks her to climb, to sit and to 'target' placing a yellow block on the ground and says "Taylor target!" and she responds by touching her nose to the block to recieve a piece of banana. As limited as our communication is I asked Mr Ping if I could move the block around to see if she would go for it. He didn't quite understand at first but I showed him moving the block higher onto the bars and have Taylor target it. He asked and she correctly responded touching the block again at a new position right away. Mr Ping was so pleased! He said "I not try this" smiled and thanked me. The look on his face was pure joy that Taylor whom he had trained was so clever and responded positively so quickly. I felt such a sense of pride in myself that I had shown him something new, that he hadn't attempted yet because he's normally on his own and can't move the block quick enough to 'click' and reward.
Again in our 'lost in translation' conversation I said I'd work with him tomorrow and we will do more training with Taylor and see how good she is moving the block around to different places and points to challenge her. I doubt she will struggle, it's incredible how intelligent these creatures are. Even the Moon Bears in house 2 surprise me, watching one of them lifting the pin out of the slide lock and then finding out that they can actually open the slide in this way. They realised that a while ago and since then introduced caribeenas because the bears can't use them ;)
ATTENTION ALL READERS!!!
I saw a news report this morning about a trafficker that had been arrested in Java and 34 animals including a 4 month old sunbear cub and a baby orangutan were handed over to 'Cikananga' wildlife rescue centre where a volly I was working with Natasha is due to start her role as volunteer coordinator in June. She had finished working with Chikananga last month and they are absolutely desperate for volunteers and funds, even more so now that they have to care for all of these animals! If your reading at home please please PLEASE google the centre and if you can spare a few dollars donate to them as they are in urgent need to support their new arrivals! Their aim is to rehabilitate and to release wherever possible if an animal is healthy and not human dependant but they need our help. I am going to attempt to volunteer when I can at some point and I had decided this long before this had happened on Saturday.
If at the very least if you cannot donate please simply look at their site, be aware they exist and pass on the information. I know Tash will be putting in the hard yards to push for the word to get out and new volunteers to come, any industry workers, animal students, volunteer or animal enthusiast this place is one of those rare ones where you will be highly involved in all that goes on because they have limited staff and volunteers. This story hit so close to home for me and now having a personal connection I really want to help in anyway I can!
www.cikanangawildlifecentre.com
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