My Life as a Penguin Trainer

Eric Littman, Tufts University

Life as a Vet Student, Honorable Mention     

     The sound of blood pounding in your ears. The blood-curdling scream of a two-foot tall dinosaur descendent echoes off of the fiberglass exhibit walls as you are charged by a being with no fear whatsoever. You stand resolute, knowing that if you flinch or attempt to escape, the little menace’s aggressive behavior will have been reinforced. Beak sinks into flesh. Flippers strike your shins with impunity. Pain. The tantrum slows and finally ends. He walks away acting like he has won, but you know the truth: his aggressive behavior did not pay off – his true goal – to make you leave his territory – has failed. You are a Penguin Trainer!

People who haven’t worked with penguins may look at this description and be utterly confused. Penguins are adorable cuddly creatures that sing, dance, surf, drink coke and slide on their bellies! Though I’ve never seen a penguin ask a polar bear for a bottle of soda, they can still be adorable and cuddly, but that takes time and hard work. Many people think of animal training as “Sit. Good boy. Here’s a treat.” And though that is one aspect of animal training, it doesn’t cover the animals that may not eat more than two to three pieces of food per day. Much of penguin training actually consists of reading behavior and knowing when to stay put, and knowing when to distance yourself. Offering treats (in this case fish) can be effective, but they make for short training sessions. Progress with penguin training is not measured in hours or days, it is hard-won in weeks, months and sometimes even years of relationship building.

I first started working in the field of animal training and husbandry just after having completed a Bachelor’s degree in Marine Biology from the University of Hawai’i at Manoa. It was in Hawai’i, that I got my first post-graduation internship – as a dolphin/sea lion/penguin animal training intern. Here I learned the basics of what I now know as operant conditioning. Basically, operant conditioning can be explained with one quick acronym: A.B.C. Antecedent. Behavior. Consequence. Something happens, the animal exhibits a behavior and there is a consequence. If the consequence is positive, the frequency of the behavior increases, and vice versa if the consequence is negative. Though this can be applied to dolphins, sea lions and penguins, it also works for dogs, horses, and even people!

Those who work with penguins don’t often get the opportunity to train using food as a reinforcer, making the job of shaping behavior much more difficult. They are often covered in guano, smell like fish, and have scars on their arms and legs. Sounds like fun? Well, if we focus on that which I have described….maybe not. But imagine starting off a relationship with someone who vehemently despises you (as in the opening paragraph), and flash forward a few months…

You walk out on exhibit and instead of being immediately assaulted, you sit down, and the same individual that was gunning for your blood not too long ago, is now jumping onto your lap and affectionately grooming you as you scratch the back of their head. Though it sometimes can be daunting, progress in penguin training is one of the most satisfying things I have experienced thus far. The next time you visit a zoo or aquarium, take note of the employees who work with these sometimes diminutive birds. These are heroes of the training world. These are the people that can ask a behavior of an animal without using food as reinforcement (akin to hosting a lunch-time talk without providing food – imagine how many vet students will actually show up…).

My name is Eric Littman, and before being accepted into veterinary school, I was a penguin trainer.