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NEW ZOO IN THE OLD WEST
by John M. Regan (from AAT Magazine 2001)
When you think of Waco, Texas a lot of things may come to mind. Perhaps you think of wild west cowboys, or maybe a tragic stand off between federal agents and a religious cult. George W. Bush’s ranch just down the road in Crawford might pass your thoughts. But if you ever visit Waco you’ll likely remember a wonderfully pleasant, gem of a zoo called Cameron Park.
The kind of folks running the park are the type that make you want to move into their neighborhood and settle down. There is a fresh new feeling in this zoo, a sensation of combining the old and the new into innovation for the future; a willingness to experiment, to try things out and see what comes of it. The keepers are a perfect reflection this philosophy; a combination of experience and youth.
I was met at the front gate by the Joe Grubic, Curator of Birds and Mammals. Joe represents the old hand experience of animal handling. He has been with Cameron Park for over nineteen years, since the days when the zoo was a rundown inner city institution with little to look at and less hope for the future. In 1993, however, the city passed a bond issue and a new zoo arose from a city park more accustomed to drug deals than education. As Joe and I tooled around in a golf cart it was hard to imagine that this once home to drug dealers and other unsavory characters. All that is gone now and in its place is an exceptionally nice zoological park.
Our first stop was to the zoo commissary and break area. There I met Josef and Natalie Lindholm, a husband and wife bird keeping team who immigrated to Cameron park from Disney last June. Together Natalie and Josef care for more than seventy species of birds at the zoo. They brought out “Sarc,” a king vulture whom they are grooming for an ambassodorial role in schools and public displays. Sarc first saw the world outside of his shell last June and has grown into a precocious, downright affectionate little guy (well, little as king vultures go.) Josef explained that Sarc “is generally imprinted on everybody,” an assertion not hard to believe after you’ve witnessed the fethered fella follow people around in puppy dog fashion.
Sarc has been out and about in the zoo and does do well with children, allowing them to stroke his feathers and touch him freely. I asked Josef and Natalie what the most surprising thing they had learned about training vultures and got an answer I did not expect. “We were actually surprised at how easy it was. At first we started of extremely carefully. We followed the literature exactly and worried over everything. Then we discovered that king vultures can take solid food immediately after hatching. From then on it was easy.”
Not surprisingly is the vulture tendency to pull things apart. Little Sarc did not waste his ability and was soon pulling at shoe strings, sweat shirts, and anything else within beak reach. Josef about the qualities and characteristics he looks for in a bird trainer and keeper. “To begin with,” he said, “a bird keeper should expect a lot of diversity, diversity in attitude, diet, breeding, individuality. Birds run the entire gamut. And the last thing you expect to happen will happen.” Josef paused for a while, then added, “Now that I think of it, I guess the one overriding characteristic I see in successful bird people is curiosity. Curiosity that covers an entire spectrum of interests; not just birds, but literature, astronomy; a wide range of interests.” Interesting answer.
Of course it’s hard to talk about training and not end up at the elephant barn, and that’s just where Joe Grubic took me to next. The herd at Cameron Park consists of two African cows, Zoe and Tembo. Zoe is a rambunctious, demanding 15 year old, intelligent to the point of pushing her keepers to stay apace with her. Zoe came to Cameron Park in 1996 and quickly took the lead as dominant elephant despite her youth. Tembo is about thirty seven and is a long time resident of the zoo. Content to let Zoe take the lead Tembo is an even natured girl, a striking contrast to the highly energetic Zoe.
The zoo began a protected contact training regime in 1996, but this took some structural adaptations along the way. Originally conceived as free contact the barn exit let the elephants directly into an open paddock. Once again the innovative attitude of Cameron Park solved the problem. The zoo built a steel pipe entrance to the outside of the barn, then further adapted it by adding extra pipe work that transformed the entryway into a makeshift squeeze cage. The arrangement is especially useful for any zoo caught between a free contact facility and a protected contact philosophy.
As Joe and I continued our conversation about what makes a good trainer, I asked him specifically about elephant keepers. Joe’s answer was unique, but made perfect sense. “I look for someone who will stand their ground. Elephants sense and respect that. If you back down from them you will never become a successful trainer. I hired a guy once who was an ex-Marine. He took the Marine philosophy very seriously, and although he did not have any previous experience, he did very well because he was willing to stand his ground.
Amanda Gibson has been with Cameron Park since 1997 and an elephant keeper for the past two years. She put Zoe through her paces for me and demonstrated the complete range of husbandry behaviors possible through the adapted enclosure. “When you work with elephants things are always changing. Relationships evolve; each day is new. Sometimes you don’t have the best day, sometimes you do. It’s a bit of a roller coaster ride.”
Charity Miller then brought out Tembo and put her through a similar routine. Charity came to the park in June of 1999. Her advice is to “Keep focus; stay alert. Never take the situation for granted. You never know.”
And speaking of roller coaster rides, Victoria Temple who joined the Cameron Park team last July, has really made an enormous transition. A former “mouse handler” for a medical university in South Carolina, elephants were quite a change. “Go in with a good attitude,” she said. “Elephants pick up on that, especially if the animal is having a bad day.”
At the end of an all too brief visit our discussion wandered into the area of the zoo’s philosophy and what the future holds for Cameron Park. Cameron Park is faced with the same dilemma that many zoos face. How do you educate the public and balance that commitment while entertaining enough to ensure that they return? Joe explained that the park is in somewhat of a transition period now. For a long while the park directed all exhibits to a strictly natural setting without any appearance of human interaction. They are now beginning to experiment with some more “open to the public” type training events. Instead of working the elephants in a strictly off exhibit location the zoo is considering some adaptations that would allow keepers to work their animals in the main exhibit area.
Note: Since this article was published the Cameron park Zoo has grown into a much larger and beautiful park. Stop by and visit if you're in the area. HOOAH Jack
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