ORCA Projects at the Heard Museum

ORCA members began working with the Heard Natural Science Museum in 2008. The Heard Museum, in McKinney, Texas, strives to motivate visitors to care enough about the natural world to take interest in restoring and preserving the earth’s ecosystems. A small collection of wild animal ambassadors help visitors emotionally connect to the places these animals live and inspire children and adults to take a more proactive role in conserving wild spaces.

Most of the animals that live in captivity at the Heard Museum are abandoned pets or those that were illegally taken from the wild by people who quickly discovered that no wild animal makes a good pet. Many of these animals were not cared for properly and now have health or behavioral problems that make them unreleasable; they will always have to live in captivity. The Heard Museum is home to species such as opossums, raccoons, deer, mongooses, capybaras and macaws.

Many ORCA members are interested in training and welfare issues related to keeping animals in captivity. Our projects with the Heard Museum have centered around two main themes:

1. Enrichment: ORCA members have worked with the Heard staff to create fun and engaging enrichment strategies to keep animals physically active and mentally stimulated. Currently, ORCA members are investigating whether it is beneficial to systematically train animals to use enrichment items.
2. Training for Safe Human–Animal Interactions: Routine husbandry, as well as veterinary procedures, can be very stressful for wild animals. There can also be a risk of injury for human or animal. Positive training can be used to teach animals to cooperate with humans, making everyone involved happier and safer. For example, animals can be taught to voluntarily enter a travel crate.

ORCA has also conducted training demonstrations and educational classes at the Heard. These presentations aim to educate the public about animal behavior, proper animal care and positive animal training techniques.

ORCA has been very fortunate to be able to work on ongoing projects at the Heard Museum. Projects at the Heard Museum are a great way for ORCA members to get experience working with a variety of species of animals and refine their training skills. ORCA members meet weekly to discuss their progress on current projects at the Heard Museum.

Recent training projects with the Heard Museum have included:

1. An enrichment project with ring-tailed lemurs to increase species typical behavior and overall movement in their enclosure.
2. Crate training with two ring-tailed lemurs, a pair of mongooses, and a couple of capybarras. Crate training minimizes stress when transporting animals between enclosures during cold months and when transporting animals to veterinary services.
3. Crate training and perch training with a blue-and-gold macaw to enable safe and relaxed transportation between her enclosures. ORCA members also conducted research on crate training using the CAT procedure.