Back in the late 1900’s I was an exotic animal trainer at the San Diego Zoo. All those years of experience contribute heavily to my writing today. My books all feature animals as primary characters, and I love exploring the human-animal bond in my latest, Salt, Sky, and Fire.
I often get asked, what was your favorite animal to work with? They all had their lovable, and not so wonderful aspects. Each one was special in their own way.
Yes, but …
I have always loved wolves, and I got to work with two, Nocona and Akela. They definitely hold very special places in my heart, if for very different reasons.
Nocona was five when I started and already set in his ways. All the other trainers were his pack, and I was an interloper. He tolerated me, he did not like me.
Akela, on the other hand, came to us as a pup and I helped raise him. You can probably see the difference in our relationships in the pictures below.
[Hey, all my zoo work was last century and pre-digital. No I’m not good at scanning.]
I mean, you can feel Nocona giving me side eye even through the picture. I sure did back then.
Me: “Did you get the picture? Cool. Let’s go, Nocona.”
Nocona: “I was thinking about chewing on you, but that patch of grass you’re pointing at smells more interesting, so … you’re lucky. This time.”
He was one of the more difficult animals I worked with because I was forever an outsider to him. However, Nocona was an important part of my career and taught me how to have a respectful working relationship with a challenging animal. All part of the job for a professional animal trainer. They don’t all love you.
Exotic animal training requires developing close observational skills, a thorough understanding of the animal, and rapport through clear communication. Nocona helped me learn all of them.
Tolerance is the best I ever got from him, but it worked for us. With the other trainers it was a completely different story.
Them, he loved. As in wiggly puppy, whining and crawling all over them loved them. Because they raised him, and they were his pack. He loved them enough to tolerate my presence when they were around because they accepted me.
We achieved a working relationship as my time and experience around him grew. I was able to handle him on leash, as you can see. But he definitely let me know I was not on his favorites list.
He had this behavior the other trainers called “corn cobbing.” Experiencing it was another lesson: how to maintain my calm when every instinct is screaming “run.”
“Corn cobbing” involved rapidly chewing his way up and down my arm. There wasn’t ever a specific trigger, but it usually involved a difference of opinion between us.
Me: “Let’s take this trail instead of that one.”
Nocona: “Nope, don’t want to.”
My co-trainers prepared me for it.
“He doesn’t use a lot of pressure. Just ignore it, tell him, ‘No, Nocona’ and redirect him.”
Me: Just. Ignore? A 120lb wolf gnawing on my wrist? Ok then…
Thing is, Nocona had accepted other trainers before me, and put them through this. It was as much a test as it was his way of communicating.
As a trainer, I got really good at interpreting his every ear flip, muzzle twitch, and sideways glace until I could tell when he was starting to get bored, or fixated, or whatever, and starting to think about corn cobbing. The better I got at reading him, the less he had to use that method to express what he was feeling.
We never did have an easy relationship though, Nocona was strictly business.
Akela however, was a completely different wolf. I helped raise him. Yes, it made a huge difference.
He arrived in the summer and due to an unexpected shortage of space, the hospital was temporarily unable to quarantine him. The supervisor kept Akela at her house until space freed up, but to ensure he didn’t break quarantine, he could never be left unattended. So all the trainers got scheduled shifts at the boss’ house.
Those are some of my favorite memories: puppy sitting during the summer. Daytime TV, movies, snacks and a wolf puppy frisking about or napping in my lap. Seriously. I got paid for this. In my late twenties, I was sure my life was complete and I’d peaked.
Oh yeah! I’m the one who named him. Akela was the leader of the pack in Jungle Book. I read my copy so many times as a kid, I wore the color off the cover. Wolves have been one of my favorite animals forever.
Yes.
Best. Job. Ever.
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Serena Dracis 