By Dongyun Kwon
Healesville Sanctuary emu Blinky received incredible training to have his weight checked and chose to participate in a voluntary X-ray behaviour of both legs, to investigate recent stiffness.
Healesville Sanctuary runs special training systems to look after the health of three emus.
Trainers and keepers in the sanctuary respect each animal’s opinion and trait while training them, which applies to the scale training and the voluntary X-ray behaviour training for emus.
Animal Training Coordinator Katrina Beattie said emus have the right to choose whether or not to participate in medical training.
“We always allow the animals to opt out of that session at any time, whether it’s at the start, before you start a session, during a session,” she said.
“When we set up the environment for the sessions, we take into account things like allowing the emus to have a clear path to walk through and past us at any point in time.
“Empowering animals with that choice and control does help to maintain that strong relationship.”
Regular weight checks are crucial in monitoring emus’ health as it’s hard to tell their weight changes through observation because of their feathers.
Emus are trained to stand on a platform to check their weights and to participate in body conditioning scoring.
Keepers and vet staff place their hands underneath emus’ feathers and feel their back and hips to gauge their body condition.
Ms Beattie said the body condition score along with the weight-checks and other observations allow the animal care team to get a full picture of the health of the emus.
“The scale training is special because it’s an example of how we can teach an animal to participate in its own healthcare,” she said.
“Emus are big birds covered in a lot of feathers, so it’s difficult to tell an emu if there has been a drop in weight.
“Obtaining weights is important with all animals and with emus as well, through which many illnesses can manifest.”
To train certain behaviours, animals have to learn a foundation behaviour first, which allows them to learn more complex behaviours.
“What’s special about the scale training with emus is that it’s a foundation behaviour,” Ms Beattie said.
“That was an important part of the keepers and the vet staff being able to train the voluntary X-rays.”
Apart from the regular health checkup, Healesville Sanctuary also provides a voluntary X-ray service to emus if required.
One of the emus, Blinky, participated in the X-ray behaviour last year and will participate some more in May.
Keeper Zac Bryant the bird’s weight started to change, and that was observed by the keepers.
“That’s what led up to the X-ray being needed,” he said.
“We’re very lucky that Blinky already had the foundations for that behaviour with the scale training in order to do the X-rays.
“It really helped develop that behaviour and related to that second behaviour.”
Positive Reinforcement Training is central in building rapport with animals, which is key to making animals feel more comfortable working with keepers.
Mr Bryant said animals are more inclined to want to participate in training if there’s a benefit.
“The two emus we worked with, Blinky and Drum, have different primary reinforcers. It’s essentially their favourite food,” he said.
“For Blinky, it was apple chips and for Drum, it was endive.
“Once we’ve identified the primary reinforcer, we can develop a training system that helps us guide the emus around.”
Once keepers identify the primary reinforcers for animals, they set up training suitable for each animal.
“In this case, we did target training. We used a long stick with a tennis ball on the end. The tennis ball was brightly coloured, so it was easier for the emus to spot it,” Mr Bryant said.
“What we asked of them was to follow us with the target stick and pick the target stick, and then they were given their primary reinforcer.
“That’s how we ended up guiding them up to the scale. From there, we were able to get the animal to slowly put one toe on and then half a foot and one foot and then the animal was understanding that’s where they have to be.”
Ms Beattie emphasised the importance of teamwork and communication in the success of providing the best animal welfare.
“The emu training is a great example of what can be achieved with building that good relationship,” she said.
“Consistent work with the animal, approaching each training scenario and each animal as an individual is always part of the success.
“This case of the X-rays involved excellent communication with the larger team. The whole team were there as part of the sessions, giving feedback to the sessions and the setup, and that feedback allowed the keepers to adjust their training and set the training up to achieve what we needed to.”
