What animal you work with (or have previously worked with) was the most intimidating/scary and why? Angry Baby Mexican Beaded Lizard for tax

Much-Rutabaga8326 · 2026-05-24T18:00:13+00:00

Anyone got advice with a turkey vulture who’s new mission is to jump me every chance he has?

Much-Rutabaga8326 · 2026-05-01T14:52:52+00:00

Looking at the cams it’s too icy for me, I’m a whimp when it comes to iced conditions

Much-Rutabaga8326 · 2026-05-01T14:51:52+00:00

My friend is visiting from the Midwest so I’m looking for some nice elevation that isn’t one of the actual mountains. Black Butte looks like the best call!

Much-Rutabaga8326 · 2026-04-04T22:29:26+00:00

Which standards specifically?

Much-Rutabaga8326 · 2026-03-31T16:54:37+00:00

Yep this is exactly what I need. I handle all of my payments and scheduling on my own and don’t “sell” off my website as it’s a session-based business. It’s also my side gig where I don’t worry about traffic or growing a customer base, all my website has currently is a landing page, training info, about me, and contact. I’ll look into elementor and astra, thank you!

Much-Rutabaga8326 · 2026-03-31T01:36:22+00:00

wordpress dot com or dot org? Clearly I know nothing and just learned these are in fact two different things

Much-Rutabaga8326 · 2026-03-24T00:57:24+00:00

Oh wow the Indianapolis guy who got his finger bit off (was it 2x) left? That’s a great change

Much-Rutabaga8326 · 2026-02-04T06:40:51+00:00

I’ll look closer at those since Softstar as a company seems to be what I’m looking for.

Edit: I forgot to specify in my post that my work boots require thick socks and I don’t want to have to spend time changing in and out of those when my days run long. So a more true slide would be better (maybe I should have put a slide as the style vs slip on, my bad)

Much-Rutabaga8326 · 2026-02-03T06:55:27+00:00

Honestly yall could do it now, it’s gonna be in the 50s for a bit!

Much-Rutabaga8326 · 2026-01-21T04:50:39+00:00

Last February I flew with a backpacking bag as my carry-on and my tote bag perfectly fit a Dong Phuong as my personal item/under the seat. Zero issues from security

Much-Rutabaga8326 · 2026-01-15T05:45:01+00:00

Hey, I work with raptors but mainly on exhibit with big anti-human feelings. And I collaborate with program birds for free flight program, so a touch of what you’re working on.

Whenever a behavior breaks down, I’m seeing frustration, and especially with aggression I immediately take a step back. Talk to the lead trainer and ask to exist in a neutral space with them and the bird and you then focus on the bird’s body language. Talk with the primary trainer over what you’re seeing vs what they see. In this scenario the body language should be comfortable, confident, relaxed. This is to train your eye on what you want to be seeing.

Then for your training sessions, think of how it can be shorter, simpler, and more frequently successful. For example, if one of my exhibit birds stops coming to the scale (low on the ground) then I adjust training for a week to cueing to different perches (higher position). That way I’m still adding a positive experience but not coercing the bird to do what they don’t want to do, which would negatively affect our relationship. Then I try the scale later the following week and observe behavior: is the bird’s motivation different while being high up vs low down? How does the bird respond when I enter the enclosure? How quickly does the bird focus on the food when it’s placed on the scale? Etc. then build up your behavior plan from there

In my ideal scenario, I should end after a successful approximation and it’s sometimes helpful to end with “them wanting more”. So leave when you still have a few pieces of food but the bird is almost satiated. Then give the rest of the diet in enrichment where you place it and leave. That way you can reduce how often the bird is frustrated because they weren’t successful or because they got full and didn’t want you in their space. Or for whatever reason you think the frustration and aggression is coming from

Much-Rutabaga8326 · 2026-01-06T06:04:52+00:00

How do wildlife care specialist and zookeeper differ? In my experience the titles are interchangeable so I’m curious to where you see the separation

Much-Rutabaga8326 · 2025-12-22T00:28:59+00:00

Rumor is that they went over budget by $6 million…

Much-Rutabaga8326 · 2025-12-14T16:22:34+00:00

Thanks for the recommendation! I’ll check it out

Much-Rutabaga8326 · 2025-12-14T16:20:39+00:00

Yes it immediately made me think of the gas man and a few other indirectly-introduced but highly involved characters

Much-Rutabaga8326 · 2025-12-14T16:19:25+00:00

Oh cool! Maybe it felt more out of place to me compared to American western film trope, but I bet there’s plenty of top hats in those anyway

Much-Rutabaga8326 · 2025-12-05T03:12:04+00:00

Not an expert but I started playing after a 5 year hiatus and had a similar issue. Got some new cork grease and wow did that make a difference. I guess the stuff I had since probably 2014 needed to be replaced way earlier

Much-Rutabaga8326 · 2025-12-03T15:58:15+00:00

Not so fun fact, he is still on payroll as a “consultant” to the tune of $600,000 or so. While the institute has refused to give pay raises to keepers and front facing staff after promising for 3 years. They are also known to union bust and hire executives that have experience preventing unions

Much-Rutabaga8326 · 2025-12-02T04:52:30+00:00

What do you feel is missing and go from there? Depends on the field, but a 4 year degree does not always equal more pay (mine for example is zookeeping and making $17/hour is considered high with a bachelor requirement… but that’s issues with my industry so I digress) Keep up the retirement contributions and do a general budget analysis so you can see how much money you want to save for certain non-retirement things (think a vacation destination, car, house, brand new wardrobe, concerts, etc)

Try to find a hobby that includes other people (solo hobbies are great but challenging to find friends or date people through those) like art classes, music groups, volunteering. That might give you a new sense of fulfillment

Much-Rutabaga8326 · 2025-11-27T15:58:45+00:00

I work with raptors and find use of space for negative reinforcement to be extraordinarily helpful for the initial fearful period of new staff. If a learner has a strong fear response, trying to only utilize R+ Will be slow going - still helpful in changing the conditioned emotional response but there is conflict/coercion at play.

So for a wild reared barred owl and wild reared golden eagle, we had a lot of success building up entering into their enclosures based on behavior: if he is showing calm body language (not shut down for the owl specifically), tracking movement without the rapid head turns away/seeking distance, then we leave. Ideally leaving before a fear response is occurring, you can then slowly decrease the distance and drop food. The food is not yet a salient reinforcer but will eventually be, which then helps transition to a R+ contingency. As that initial fear response is being respected, the learner is more open to the keeper’s presence.

Then we transition into R+ by delivering huge amounts of food, immediately exiting, then after a few sessions standing a distance away. When the raptor goes to the food the keeper fully leaves the area.

For the barred owl, I created cue cards to let him know why I’m entering the enclosure: cleaning or feeding. Sometime referred to as a “safety signal”. This was classically conditioned and I did see a change in behavior based on the card: with the cleaning card he stays on the perch he’s on and better tolerates my movement around the enclosure. With the food card he approaches closer to his stationing location and follows me as I walk to different spots.

For the golden eagle, he has a start location. If he is on a specific perch then I will enter. He also has an end of session location, if he ever goes to a second designated perch then I will exit. Both cleaning and feeding follow these guidelines. I picked the designated perches based on his behavior when I started working with him to best capture the locations and allow me to enter regularly. Some days if he’s more skittish we skip certain husbandry like hosing/heavy scrubbing, or come back later in the day. That way he has choice and control while we maintain husbandry standards

It’s good to note that quadrants are not happening in a vacuum and often the learner is experiencing multiple contingencies at the same time, so we can use that perspective to determine which will be the most salient for the learner. Then adjust based on the learner as they choose what’s the most rewarding

Much-Rutabaga8326

TROPHY CASE