JENNY MONTAGUE'S BACKGROUND
"I started working at Marine World/Africa USA in Vallejo, California, a marine mammal zoo combination, as a landscaper while I was still in high school. It was an odd existence for a while. I was desperately trying to get into marine mammals, so I'd be at Marine World at five in the morning to do landscaping, then I had to go to school, and afterward I'd come back and work until dark.
"I did some community college but I got hired as an assistant trainer in the marine mammals department at Marine World right out of high school. That was 1981. I stayed there for eight years and left there as a senior trainer/show manager. I came to Boston right after that as supervisor of marine mammals. The woman who is curator here had worked briefly at Marine World on a research project, so we got to know each other. When the supervisor opening came up, she called me and I said yes pretty quickly. I was ready for a change. As much as I liked Marine World, I felt I had probably gone as far as I could go in the hierarchy. I was interviewed over the phone and our history together clinched the deal."
JENNY MONTAGUE'S RESPONSIBILITIES
"I am basically a trainer who has worked her way up through the ranks to an assistant curator position. I do more paperwork than I'd like to, but my basic job right now is to oversee the training and health of the animals. I supervise eight staff people. They range from assistant trainer to senior trainer.
"We work with the colony or resident marine mammals, which include Atlantic harbor seals, California sea lions, and California sea otters. We are responsible for the training, the care, and the presentation to the public of these mammals. We are located next door to the aquarium on the floating barge, what they call the Barge Discovery. It's an indoor show because of the weather we have in Boston. There are between four and seven shows daily, divided up amongst our staff. Sometimes three or four staff members are involved in the presentation if we're working with more than one animal. I personally do about eight or ten shows a week."
JENNY'S ROLE AS ANIMAL TRAINER
"We're interested in portraying to the public what the animals' background is, what their natural history is, and also some of the conservation issues that surround them. We do that in what we hope is a fun and educational way. When people can get close to live animals it makes an incredible impression on them. All different levels of trainers participate, from the assistant trainers to assistant curators. We get out there with the animals and talk to the audience about the different animal behaviors, explaining how they are able to do what they do. We do a little about the physiology and the biology of the animals and also about the training techniques we use. We'll do a demonstration of some of the medical behaviors we have, such as brushing the animals' teeth. They are all trained to sit or lie still and allow a stethoscope to be put on them. They are trained to lie still for x-rays. They open their mouths to let the veterinarians look down their throat. They'll sit still for an eye exam.
"The training is for the medical care of the animals, but it's also for mental stimulation. We find that, like anyone, if they are stimulated mentally and physically, they are much happier and healthier animals than if they are just left alone. We feel that training is a very important part of animal management in zoos and aquariums.
"During the presentations, we encourage audience members to participate. We ask them if they can give suggestions as to what we can do as individuals to keep the ocean a safer place for the animals. And anybody that has an interesting idea gets to come down and meet the sea lion. They get to pat him and get a kiss.
"When we are doing training, we keep records of all the advances the animals make and what new steps they've accomplished. Each individual animal has a primary trainer. I happen to be primary trainer right now for Ballou, a six-year-old male California sea lion. There are usually two primary trainers for each animal, so every day can be covered. We are basically responsible for regularly weighing the animals, looking at their diet, and making sure they are getting the proper amount of food. All of the fish we feed them is sent out for analysis, so we know exactly how many calories and how many grams of fat are in each kind of fish. We run that through a formula and calculate the right amount based on the animal's age and weight.
"The two primary trainers work as a team and are responsible for deciding what the animal is going to learn, who of the two will train it, and what methods we'll use.
"Each animal has its own personality. Some animals you can work on a particular behavior with for half an hour and do several repeats, and then they make a step. We have one sea lion that if we repeat things over and over and lead him slowly through little steps, he'll never forget what you've taught him. Another one, Guthrie, gets bored very easily, and he starts to add in his own special flair. We spend more time retraining him than training him, to get rid of all his extraneous stuff. But he's a howl, one of the most fun sea lions to work with.
"How many hours you spend on something depends a lot on the animals and how much they are enjoying it and want to work with you. Tyler, a thirteen-year-old sea lion, isn't too crazy about having his teeth touched, so we'll only do that once or twice at a time. But he does like the other medical behaviors. He loves to lie around for x-rays, he likes the vets to touch him, but you really have to go slow with his mouth.
"We also do show behaviors, high jumps and hitting a ball, for example. One we're working on now is a gallop, which shows the audience how quickly the sea lions can run on land. We work the sea lions in conjunction with our harbor seals sometimes, and there is a major difference in speed between the two. The sea lions are much faster. The seals slug along on their bellies; they're not the most graceful creatures on land. A lot of this might seem circusy, but we are actually just trying to demonstrate the natural behavior of the animal. They're taught to do porpoising, for example, which is a natural behavior. What we teach them is to do it on command.
"We also train for research behaviors. Recently we started a hearing study, and we're at the beginning stages of teaching the animals to allow us to put headphones on them. At the same time, they're being taught to respond to a sound cue. We also taught a sea lion to distinguish between the size of two objects and choose the larger one."
ANIMAL TRAINING METHODS
"We use three different training methods. Operant conditioning is the one most widely used. You break a behavior into small steps and you lead the animal through the steps, providing reinforcement along the way.
"Another method is called innovative. Where operant conditioning is based on repetition, with innovative we are asking the animals to create something new. After they have a solid operant conditioning understanding, we give them an arbitrary signal, which is crossing our arms across our chest. They have no idea what it means, but they might confuse it with a signal they do know and will offer a behavior. At the beginning we would reward the old behavior, but then we'll only reward every new behavior. We use a variety of reinforcers, like fish, or some of the animals like to be scratched and rubbed down. You spend a lot of time trying to find what the animals enjoy. Some like particular toys, others like things like ice cubes. So, for example, after the signal, they might give a salute. We'll reward it and then, because they are familiar with operant conditioning, they figure that if they do it again, they'll be rewarded again. But the next time we don't reinforce the salute. You can get a curious look from them at that point. We'll give the signal again, and if the salute doesn't work yet again, they'll start to offer something else, whether it's a look in another direction or moving their whiskers forward in a curious questioning look. All of those little subtle movements are rewarded, and they start coming up with some pretty wild things. The purpose of this is to stimulate their creativity. It allows them to do things they like to do and it keeps them thinking. It also gives the training staff some ideas. A lot of times they'll come up with things we wouldn't have thought of. Our sea lion, Zack, used to carry some rings around on his flippers and slap them at the same time. He had all his flippers going and then he'd roll over. It was this amazing little dance that he did.
'The third method is called mimicry training. We ask the animals to focus on us and copy what we do. We got the idea for this because they already did mimic us to some extent. Some of the things they'll mimic is turning around in a circle or hopping up or opening a mouth or making a sound. It's really fun, and the benefit of that is it gives them a whole different focus. They have to watch our whole bodies completely, instead of just the usual hand gestures."
THE UPSIDES AND DOWNSIDES
"One of the nicest things about the job is that you never run out of ideas and you're able to try them out. It's always different every day.
"On the downside, the hours are inconsistent and you can't rely on a nine-to-five day. Most of our staff work four ten-hour days. We are open seven days a week. Something always comes up, though, which prevents you from a regular schedule, but then, on the other hand, that might be a good thing."
A WORD OF ADVICE
"My advice would be to find any one of the schools that work with animal behavior. The interesting part of this job is that there are different academic subjects that can help you, such as psychology, animal behavior, and some zoology. Marine biology, however, is not a direct lead to the training field. It's a misconception a lot of people have. When I was in school, it was pretty difficult finding people who were doing animal behavior work. It was happening but it wasn't as accessible as it is today. It wasn't really considered a career path, and if you wanted to work with animal behavior, you did training with pigeons and rats. There are formal training schools now. One is EATM, Exotic Animal Training and Management, in Moorpark, California. There is also a strong program at the University of California in Santa Cruz. IMATA, the International Marine Animal Trainers Association, can provide a list of all the training programs.
"I also strongly suggest that people volunteer. A lot of the time folks come and see animal shows and think that's all there is to it. But it isn't. We're up to our elbows in sinks full of dead fish all the time. We're running around in rubber boots all the time and you do get damp. There's a lot more to it than the time on the stage. As a volunteer, you'd get a sense of all that.
"It is also important to visit different institutions. Everyone has a different style."
