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ZooNooz Article - december 2003
Dux of the Class
Smart and eager to learn, Water-rats make starm pupils, reports BARRY QUIGLEY.
Photographs Jo Nevin
Australian Mammal keepers Adam
Battaglia, Evelyn Weston and Stacey
Carter freely concede that, when
it comes to Water-rats, they have
definite Dr Dolittle tendencies.
Water-rats |
Dr Dolittle, of course, was the
storybook and film character creation
of author Hugh Lofting. The good
doctor was an eccentric country
physician with a bent for natural
history and a great love of pets.
And, while neither Adam, Evelyn
nor Stacey in any way resemble the
eccentric doctor in looks, they do "talk to the animals, walk with the
animals", just as Dolittle did.
The animals in question here
are Water-rats, of which Taronga
Zoo has four. Three are undergoing
serious conditioning to give them
physical and mental stimulation
and provide them with a meaningful
sense of being.
"Water-rats are so intelligent they can quickly become bored if they are not given enough mental and physical stimulation."
Pound for pound, these little
Australian and Papua New Guinean
natives are among the most
intelligent creatures in the zoo.
Murray is the eldest, a fully mature
adult male, and he leads a fairly
independent existence from the
three siblings, aged just nine months.
This threesome is HJ and Feisty,
both females, and the male, Schmarmy.
Because they are siblings and have
been hand-reared together, they
co-exist in a tight-knit group and can
suffer stress when separated.
All three are responding "brilliantly", says Evelyn, to the training and conditioning process
they are undergoing.
"They're absolutely brilliant in
their responses, quick to learn and
quick to say 'I'm outta here' when
they're sick of it and want to head
off for a swim."
So why bother training little
creatures who live in the darkened environment of the zoo's monotreme
exhibit, alongside the Platypuses?
Weigh-in time Water-rats |
"Water-rats are so intelligent
they can quickly become bored if
they are not given enough mental
and physical stimulation," says
Adam. "And so it is our task to
provide them with a challenging
captive environment, one which
provides environmental, physical and
mental stimulation.
"Part of the aim is also to dispel
the negative connotations of 'rat'
and educate zoo visitors about their
complex behaviour and the plight of
their habitat."
Under the guidance of Adam,
Evelyn and Stacey, 20-minute training
sessions are conducted three times
a day. To illustrate their intelligence,
imagine it's 9am on any day of the
week. Evelyn stands near the exhibit
where the animals are having a sleep-in;
she produces a whistle and blows on it.
Feisty emerges, but not the
remaining two. Feisty is given a
morsel or three of food, engages in or three of food, engages in
some playground antics - swinging
on a length of string and so on - and
then obediently heads for a coloured
square of laminated timber.
Water-rats have a lifespan of eight to 12 years and Taronga is the only zoo that is conditioning and training them.
Here she sits in response to the
command "Sit and stay". You'd swear
you're witnessing a dog training
session, but Feisty is no dog and,
some might say, she's a whole lot smarter.
Once Feisty has had her turn
at demonstrating her tricks, it's
Schmarmy's turn and, in his case, the
cue is verbal. Schmarmy, in short,
likes to be talked to, so if you want to
encourage Schmarmy out and onto the
weighing scales, all that';s needed is to
do the Dr Dolittle trick - talk to him.
When HJ is required to come and
socialise with the keeper, she comes
to the cue of a clicker. Each animal is
extremely responsive to these cues,
says Adam, and this is reflected also
in the interest they show when they
hear their own particular cue.
"It's a game for them, to come
and sit voluntarily on the scales. Once
the game of responding to commands
is on, they also come more readily to
us when we need to put them into a
pet-pack for transporting elsewhere if,
for instance, their enclosure is being
cleaned out," says Adam.
Part of the conditioning process
is to make sure each of these
engaging little creatures develops and
maintains his or her own individual
personality.
Weigh-in time Water-rats |
"Water-rats have great
personalities. In the case of the
three we are training, HJ tends to
be a bit slow to get out of bed in the
mornings, while Schmarmy wants to
be noticed," says Evelyn.
Water-rats have a lifespan of eight
to 12 years and Taronga is the only
zoo that is conditioning and training
them. The three siblings HJ, Feisty and
Schmarmy are the lucky ones, but the
training they are undergoing is only the
start of a program that will continue
for other Water-rats to come.
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