Myself, along with one of the other trainers at Wolf Haven, Lauren, are in sunny San Francisco! We are extremely fortunate to have been selected to present a paper at The Animal Behavior Management Alliance (ABMA) conference. The ABMA is a group of animal professionals dedicated to using positive reinforcement to improve the lives of animals in human care.

Besides the adorable lambs at the Highland Stables, there is another new addition to our animal collection at Busch Gardens. We acquire our animals in many different ways. In the case of many of our parrots, they were once someone’s pet that could no longer care for them. Our bald eagles are rescued after being injured but cannot be returned to the wild. Other animals, we get from Busch Gardens Tampa.

Hi everyone! As my first blog from the Highland Stables I decided it was perfect to fill you in on our new arrivals this spring. If you’ve ever walked past the stables it’s hard to miss our flock of Scottish Blackface Sheep as they graze on the grass or greet guests in the hallway. At the Highland Stables, we mimic a traditional Scottish farm from our majestic Clydesdales and ever learning Border Collies to welcoming new lambs in the spring.

When people ask about my job, I often hear “What a cool job!” I couldn’t agree more.

Each day I come to work is different and I am constantly learning new things. It’s an awesome job, but most people don’t realize every aspect of it. For example, we are outside with the animals all day, so I could do without some of the rain the last few weeks!

For my second official posting as a wolf trainer, you would think it would be all about wolves, right? Well, today I want to talk about pigs. My new home base at Busch Gardens is Wolf Haven which is directly across the path from the Pet Shenanigans Theatre. Almost every day, I am lucky enough to see the Pet Shenanigans trainers walking down the path with two pigs following closely behind. When I told the trainers how much I enjoyed the pigs, they invited me back to watch some of their morning routine.