I’ve started volunteering at the Heard Museum with ORCA (a lab in UNT’s behavior analysis department that focuses on animal training). One of the species we worked with on my first trip to the Heard was the Patagonian cavy, a 35 pound South American rodent.
I’ll admit, before going out there, I really had no idea what a cavy was! The cavy is the fourth largest rodent in the world (the first three are capybaras, beavers and porcupine) and resembles a cross between a long-legged rabbit and an underweight kangaroo.
Our first (and only) task for the day was to try and give the cavys a dose of medication. However, these cavys are skittish and jumpy as they still have not been properly socialized to humans. This is one of the bigger problems for zoos and other facilities that keep wild animals that are wary of humans. How do you go about medical procedures or even basic husbandry tasks with out frightening and stressing the animal?
Training is often a great way to overcome this problem. Using positive reinforcement, we can teach an animal to tolerate (or even enjoy) some of these tasks. For example, zoos teach apes to present their back end and hold still for shots, aquariums teach seals to open their mouths to have their teeth checked and many animals are taught to walk onto a scale to have their weight taken. If we use a reinforcer such as food, most animals can be taught to do (or put up with) a variety of tasks. Then the animal does not have to be darted, netted or forcefully captured, all which can be incredibly stressful.
The cavys we were working with adore hackberry leaves. So, we started out slowly, feeding them hackberry leaves when they came close enough to us. Once they calmed down a bit, we were able to give two of the cavys their medication on hackberry leaves. The third (and most skittish) was never brave enough to venture close enough, but we left the medicine with a staff member so they could try later when less people were around. Overall, though, we were fairly successful. With more positive human contact, it should become easier to work with the cavys and train them for simple behaviors, such as taking medicine.
One of my first trainees was a keeper at Los Angeles Zoo working with a male sea lion and a cavy.
It was an interesting pairing and the cavy wasn’t too amiable–good luck!
Thanks!
These guys seem pretty jumpy to me. Hopefully we’ll be able to make a bit of progress.
What an interesting animal! Looking forward to your progress! Best of luck! 🙂
I love stumbling across this article. I’ve learned so much in the last 2 minutes!
First of all, I’ve learned that Cavy is the fourth largest rodent in the world. (this is the first time I’ve seen a Cavy too! I feel so worldly wise all of a sudden.. ^_^)
Secondly, I’ve learned the first three largest rodents are capybaras, beavers and porcupine. (I didn’t know capybaras, beavers and porcupines were that huge! The cavy looks about the size of a medium sized dog.. which means a full-grown capybara, beaver and porcupine must be quite large indeed.)
Third of all, and most importantly, I’m reminded to be more patient with my robos and to train them using ‘positive reinforcement’.
Thanks for your post Mary/CheerioTrainer!
(ps: I even read your post out loud to my bf and he said yes, let’s use positive reinforcement on our hamsters so we can give them their eyedrops and vitamin drink.) ^_^
Hi Rachel,
Thanks for commenting.
I’m glad you enjoyed the article so much!
Mary