Helpful Hippo Behaviors

Wicket’s keepers are currently working on training her to demonstrate numerous behaviors that Kasai and Zambezi currently illustrate. These behaviors are instilled into our hippos to help manage their care and welfare.

• Stationing is when the hippo faces the keepers and holds their chin up on the top rail of the exhibit. This allows the keepers to get a good look at her skin and medicate some dry/cracked spots if necessary using a spray bottle.

• Target training is where the keepers place a tennis ball on the end of a pole and have the animal touch it with their nose when they hold it out. This is helpful when they are working with more than one animal in the stall at the same time; one can be "led" away from the other so training is less confusing for them.

• The open mouth command is important, so keepers can look inside the hippo’s mouth, check for cracks in their teeth, check for sores, and alleviate tusk problems in case they need to address them. We also brush the hippo’s teeth daily and get any debris out from between their teeth. Oral care is important in hippos so opening their mouth for keepers to perform daily hygiene is a necessity.

•  A to B training is a good way to see how the hippos are moving. We can ask them to come to "point A" (where the keeper is), when they do we reward them, and then we ask them to go to a designated "point B" (across the yard or pool) and back again.

Training Wicket

When it comes to teaching and maintaining desirable behaviors with animals, a positive trusting relationship is the first ingredient. Currently, we are working on building a trusting relationship with Wicket, our new hippo from the Brookfield Zoo in Chicago. She is shy, but does respond to special treats like cantaloupe, popcorn, and bread. Unlike Zambezi and Kasai, Wicket backs away from touch and has been slow to respond to us, her new keepers. While at the Brookfield Zoo she was trained to open her mouth on command, she has continued to demonstrate this behavior, which is a good start. She does allow keepers that she’s "comfortable with", to scratch her tongue and brush her teeth. As with most trained animals, practice makes perfect, so we will continue to practice this behavior with her while we work on building a trusting relationship.

Our overall training goal with Wicket is to instill the same behaviors Kasai and Zambezi illustrate including: stationing, target training, refining the open mouth behavior to allow for proper oral care, and doing some A to B work with her as well. We will post a short blog defining what each behavior consists of and why we train the specific behaviors later this week.

Wicket is beginning to adjust to her new pool and stall. Along with, Zambezi and Kasai, they have all been curious about one another with interaction through the bars several times a day. This interaction is all part of the introduction phase but the stressful part is still to come. Placing a new animal in an already established group will be challenging and there will be an adjustment period.

We have our work cut out for us, but with time and patience we anticipate Wicket to be a happy hippo here at Cheyenne Mountain Zoo.

The Hidden World of African Rift Valley

Abyssinian Ground Hornbill - Jekyll

Our female Abyssinian ground hornbill, Jekyll, used to be very shy and nervous when she first came to Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in 2007. She was nothing like Petrie, who we introduced you to last week! She soon became more confident and comfortable around her keepers, and now is a star in our Wings of Africa Bird Show!

Zookeepers are training Jekyll a “retrieve” behavior to add to the foraging behaviors she already knows and performs for the bird show, like flipping a rock to find food or sifting through leaf litter where she finds a fake snake and then shakes it to “kill” it.

Watch the video clip below of a recent training session with Jekyll.
 As the training progresses, keepers will switch out the orange dog toy you see Jekyll carrying in the video for a fake rubber snake. She will be trained to take the snake back to a second keeper (who is located “offstage”) and place it into the black tub for a treat as part of the bird show. This will allow keepers to call her out of the bird yard after her role in the show is finished.

Come learn how handy ground hornbills’ bills are for foraging and see how Jekyll does with her new behavior in African Rift Valley at our Wings of Africa Bird Show at 1:00pm daily starting Memorial Day.

Coming up in the next blog in the series, we’ll meet a docile, small African creature with LOTS of legs!

Exercise Improves Mental Health

The “Run to the Shrine” is one of many local events AspenPointe sponsors in its efforts to promote a holistic approach to health and wellness. This summer, AspenPointe was also the volunteer sponsor for the USA Pro Cycling Challenge that kick-started in Colorado Springs in August.

“We at AspenPointe know how important it is to exercise every day, at least ten minutes," said AspenPointe Health Services program manager Penny Frank. "It helps your mind and spirit and helps you achieve your best."

A recent report in Time Magazine states, “That physical activity is crucial to good health – both mental and physical – is nothing new. As early as the 1970s and '80s, observational studies showed that Americans who exercised were not only less likely to be depressed than those who did not but also less likely to become depressed in the future.”

The article sites a 1999 Duke University trial where researchers demonstrated that depressed adults who participated in an aerobic-exercise plan improved as much as those treated with Zoloft.

Numerous other trials have since repeated these results, showing that patients who follow aerobic-exercise regimens see improvement in their depression comparable to that of those treated with medication.

“The trials all seem to point in the same direction: exercise boosts mood. It not only relieves depressive symptoms but also appears to prevent them from recurring,” the article said.

AspenPointe continues to move toward helping clients achieve the best outcomes through a whole-person focus. Health care providers understand with greater clarity that emotional, physical and mental well-being are much more intricately connected than previously thought.

“Being physically fit is part of being well and that’s why we encourage our staff and our clients to eat better and exercise,” said AspenPointe President & CEO Morris L. Roth. “We think wellness also encompasses things like emotional balance, financial stability, career satisfaction, spirituality and social connectedness, to name a few.”

So we hope to see you May 19 at Cheyenne Mountain Zoo’s “Run to the Shrine.” It’s good for your health.

-Adrienne Anderson

Communications Specialist, AspenPointe