I have always wondered at the "pillars" to keep the elephant close to the ride platform. Also it would be difficult to "grind" as many rides as possible in a 30 min. intermission having to turn the elephant around. Is this possibly the reason they started sitting people astride the elephant? Does anybody know who first came up with the concept and when?
Friday, October 10, 2008
London Zoo?
Posted by
Wade G. Burck
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4 comments:
I wonder how much control they have on the elephant. When they need an aid to keep the elephant docked to the platform. Condition the elephant to the environment,not the environment to the elephant.
Mike,
I assume they were still "working" it out back then. I am often surprised at how much was learned when I see some of the things done today. I can recall a great who was crushed doing an elephant ride, and there are multitude of examples of ride elephants running/stampeding with a full load on board. Were they not "conditioned" to the environment properly after spending most of their life in it?
Wade
Wade, I am also surprised at what I see being done. Mainly the lack of understanding to communicate with the elephant on the trainer/handler's part. I see a lot of audible and tactile stimuli, but not a lot of visual stimulus being used. Timeing of positive reinforcement(audible or tactile)if used is usually off. Direction of the hook wrong, but the animal still understands and learns. I have seen elephants spend their life in the same environment that are "desensitized", but are not "conditioned" properly.
Mike,
Because there has never been a "standard" or "who should be qualified or who should be certified". Nobody every asked the public what what they liked. The asked family and friends to they would get the answer they wanted. The public as told the hook or whip doesn't hurt them,or I don't use it(but I will carry it anyway?????) so we made it smaller or attempted to hide it. In the case of cage acts, I don't need the lash whip which only needs to be used once. Instead I will use this buggy whip(which I don't hit the animal with, but I will carry it any way?????) which has to be used 5 time to get the same message across that the lash whip got across once.
Wade
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