How are sea animals trained?
In: Biology
pavlovian training, do a trick get a treat. basically how you train any animal (and honestly people to) it was fun story at sea world one time there was a whale show and the lady went to throw the baby whale his treat and missed, she wouldn’t give him a back up treat, so he refused to perform
I learned how to teach my horses, based on the type of training most sea animal trainers use. This is clicker training. You associate a requested behavior, with a treat reward…ie…food they like, for example, for my horses, is was apple slices. Then associate the reward with the sound of a clicker. Then the clicker becomes the reward. I further associated the clicker sound with the verbal command, for example, “back up”. I was eventually able to say, “back up” to my horses, and they followed through without any further reward, however, I always gave them a kind word, and pat anyway. There is no punishment, other than no reward for no action.
It depends on the animal and on the training method. The AZA recommends positive reinforcement, which is giving a reward for the asked behavior. So, if an otter gives a high five, they get a treat.
Other types of training involve negative reinforcement, which is punishment for negative behaviors.
Like all other animals, a lot of trainers will establish relationships with these animals and use operant conditioning as their method of training. Operant conditioning is the use of punishment and reward system. That is, making an association for a certain behavior will deem with either a consequence or a reward.
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