A Powerful Training Technique I Used to Get an Asian Elephant and Macaw to Get Along

The Ringling Bros Circus is famous for using Asian Elephants in their shows across the world. To find out more about their Center for Elephant Conservation, click here.

Because its a circus tradition as well as a high hope for Ringling Bros to get these animals off the endangered species list, we had to do something in our attempt to get our macaws to like the elephants (and vice versa). Suzie, one of the elephants in our gold unit show Illuscination, has been doing shows for many years and is over 50 years old! She’s a very well tempered elephant and is very use to show business in a variety of ways.

Ramon, the elephant trainer, told me that elephants are short-sighted which means they can’t see things from far away but begin to see them when they get closer; which is where the “mouse myth” came from with elephants. Elephants aren’t really scared of mice, but they do spook easily when something is coming AT them from head on. This is because they only notice it when it’s already very close… I think that would be scary to anyone!

Ramon worked with Suzie outside and sat Kat, whom Suzie knows well, up on her back while Ramon threw a foot ball to Kat. Suzie didn’t care in the least. She’s got to be the most desensitized elephant (or animal in general) that I’ve ever come into contact with. Ramon also tried throwing  a long sleeved shirt up to Kat to catch, as he figured something that “moved” a little while being tossed would resemble a bird a little more. Suzie still paid no attention and sat patiently during the entire thing.

We then decided it would be a good idea for Suzie and our macaw, Comet, to just be able to see each other. I brought Comet over to Suzie and stood a fair distance away. Comet didn’t seem to care about Suzie until she began lifting her trunk and feet on command as Ramon wanted to cue an “incompatible behavior” so that if Suzie got scared, she couldn’t do the behavior and run at the same time. The behavior was to lift her trunk and foot at the same time which she did. Once Comet realized that wasn’t just a stationing platform you could walk up and stand on, and realized it was a moving, living, breathing animal that was a million times his own size… his body language changed. He leaned into me and away from Suzie, aware of how big she really was. I found it necessary to find the distance away from Suzie where Comet no longer showed this body language, but eventually perched up right and remained calm.

The next step was to show Suzie what birds can do. Inside the theater Dave and I flew Comet in front of Suzie. Suzie stood in the back of the stage near what we call the “portal” which is the opening of our stage and a long walk way. Suzie stood behind the open curtain watching down stage as Comet flew from Dave to me, and back again. It was a great sign that Comet was flying at that distance, as that meant he wasn’t stressed about Suzie being that close.

But as we attempted to bring Suzie closer to Comet’s flying space, he became more reluctant to fly. We decided to use the Power Pause technique in conjunction with Emotional Conditioning and Positive Reinforcement of giving treat rewards, pets and praise which we have talked about a lot to people before who can’t even get CLOSE to their birds. We began by placing Comet on a t-stand in the ring and started Suzie at the portal again (back where both animals were comfortable with one another)

Then Ramon would take a step forward (keep in mind these are elephant steps so only one step at a time was necessary!) and I would cue Comet to “wave” or “spin” something he couldn’t do if he was going to fly away. By performing these tricks for me, it caused him to focus on the training I was asking rather than how nervous he was about Suzie the elephant.

As Suzie would get closer, I would cue him the tricks and reward him with treats. Randomly I wouldn’t ask him to perform a trick, but I would click my clicker when he showed calm body behavior and reward him with a treat then as well.

You can watch the video of our training session with Suzie the elephant and Comet the macaw above.

In a single training session, we got Comet and Suzie close but just out of reach of Suzie’s long trunk by using the Power Pause technique. Think about how you can use this technique in a variety of ways for socializing your bird to other pets, people and things.

If we can use the Power Pause to get a macaw and elephant to get along, you can use it to get close to your bird.