Without visitors, animal caregivers do things differently

In the time of COVID-19, Mystic Aquarium and Beardsley Zoo are strange sights, to say the least.

“To walk through, time and time again … and not see anyone or interact with anyone is really weird,” said Carey Richard, assistant curator of marine mammals at Mystic Aquarium, where she has worked for 20 years.

The lack of visitors, day after day, is unprecedented.

But as much as staff can’t wait to reopen the facilities and resume educational programming, the pandemic has afforded them an opportunity to do things differently.

The marine mammal caretakers, for example, had a dance party at the beluga whales’ underwater viewing station, according to Richard.

“As an animal caregiver you find great excuses to make yourself look like a silly person … and of course it’s all for the animals,” she said.

They could not necessarily dance for the whales with guests around.

Nor would they be able to sit and eat lunch in front of the exhibits, something staff at both facilities have been doing.

“You have to see the silver linings,” said Richard, who added that the closure has given her a chance to “appreciate what the guests see.”

Getting creative

With extra time and a lack of visitors, the pandemic has gotten animal caregivers to think creatively about enrichment programming.

To “enrich” the animals is to vary their experiences, according to Beardsley Zoo Director Gregg Dancho, who stressed that enrichment is always important.

Enrichment comes in many forms, from changing up the food the animals eat to the giving them new sounds to hear and even creatures to see.

“Enrichment is important for any living thing. It’s just something that keeps your day variable,” Richard said. “It just gives them an an opportunity to explore differently.”

Mystic Aquarium’s seals, for example, live in two separate social groups. Every so often staff changes up who lives where, according to Richard.

“That’s always enriching for them, because they’re like, ‘Hey, I haven’t seen you in a while,’ ” Richard said.

While the aquarium has not necessarily increased enrichment since the coronavirus hit, having always incorporated plenty of variety into the animals’ days, according to Richard, the pandemic has fostered creativity among caregivers, enabling them to engage the animals in different kinds of enrichment activities.

Staff lunches at the exhibits, along with the dance party, represent two ways the caretakers have ensured underwater viewing enrichment despite a lack of visitors.

With the marine mammal caretakers split into two teams so as to limit personto-person contact in the face of the virus — a set-up that, Richard said, the aquarium has never seen before — staff also held an enrichment competition.

When the pandemic began, Richard had just moved into a new house, leaving her with two large cardboard boxes, she said. The curator gave one to each of her teams and asked them to come up with an enrichment activity using the boxes, which they were not allowed to cut up.

One team answered the challenge by creating a human jack-in-the-box. Richard described how they put the box outside the sea lion exhibit and had a staff member hide inside while music played and jump out when the song ended.

A pool noodle stood in for the crank, she continued.

Sea lions and beluga whales aren’t the only ones seeing their caregivers get creative.

Lisa Dilworth, an aquarist who helps care for the facility’s fish, reptiles and amphibians, said the pandemic has given her time to reconsider certain aspects of animal care.

Her team has developed training plans for two species they would not normally train — the Florida softshell turtle and the queen triggerfish, according to Dilworth.

How do you train a fish or a turtle?

“Believe it or not, it’s the same as the marine mammal training or training your dog at home,” Dilworth said.

Staff use positive reinforcement to get the animal to follow what they call a “target,” according to Dilworth.

In the turtle’s case, the target is a red buoy. By training her to follow it, aquarists can get the turtle to swim into a net voluntarily, or onto a stretcher for a medical exam, Dilworth said.

“It’s way less stressful on them and on us,” the aquarist noted.

And the training is enriching for the animals, too.

“It gets them thinking and problem solving. It helps them simulate natural behaviors,” Dilworth said.