Windy Hill Ranch: ABMA

In March, I had the opportunity to attend the 2006 ABMA Conference in San Diego. ABMA stands for Animal Behavior Management Alliance. To learn more about the ABMA you can click here.

The Conference was great and I would recommend joining the ABMA and attending the conference to anyone who works with animals and wants the best in their care. Specifically, their mental well being. :0)

While at the conference, I had the opportunity to visit several facilities and I got a chance to take some great photos... so here we go... a few pics from the ABMA field trips....

First stop... the Wild Animal Park. We got participate in their behavioral enrichment by helping spread goodies all over their yard. Might I add that this was a rather LARGE yard. The elephants were confined to a smaller area which gave us a great opportunity to take some close up photos. The general public normally doesn't get such special treatment.

This is an adult African Elephant

Baby 2 year old African Elephant

The elephants in their yard after we are finished placing their goodies!

To learn more click here

The Wild Animal Park also has a group of animals that they use for iinteracting with the public. One of these is an Aardvark named Arty.

To learn more click here

But perhaps the most exciting part of my visit to the Wild Animal Park was the cheetah run. This is where they take a trained cheetah to the end of a road and release him on cue and he runs (chasing a lure) right past you! Such a thrill! This is a trained behavior. They have 4 cheetahs who do the runs. Each has it's own lure of preference to chase. You can see the lure at the bottom of the picture. The cheetah was released from the back of the truck. The dog in the picture is it's canine companion. There has been new developments in raising large cats, who will be working closely with humans, with canine companions. The dogs become their playmates and their security. And yes, the dogs are always with the cats. They stay together 24 hours a day. :)