This episode, through daily live recordings, features a recap of the 2024 ABMA annual conference (April 15-19 2024) hosted by the Nashville Zoo. Each day of the conference, one of the presenters for the day discusses their presentation and other learning that impacted them.

Day 1: Benjamin Fainsod, Jerusalem Zoo & The Animal Behavior Community (carnivores@jerusalemzoo.org)

Day 2: Dr. Cathy Mingee, North Carolina Zoo (cathy.mingee@nczoo.org)

Day 3: Cam Luna, Nashville Zoo (cluna@nashvillezoo.org)

Day 4: Chandelle Cotter, Bird Treatment and Learning Center (chandelle_cotter@birdtlc.org)

If you are an ABMA member be sure to log in to Animalprofessional.com to watch most of the presentations and panels from the 2024 conference. For questions or suggestions about the podcast email abc@theabma.org. Let's talk some training and banter about behavior!

• 7:00 Recap of Monday with Benjamin Fainsod, Jerusalem Zoo & The Animal Behavior Community

• 18:45 Recap of Tuesday with Cathy Mingee, North Carolina Zoo

• 35:45 Recap of Thursday with Cam Luna, Nashville Zoo

• 45:05 Recap of Friday with Chandelle Cotter, Bird Treatment and Learning Center

This episode Tim Sullivan, Brookfield Zoo Chicago and one of the founders of The ABMA, discusses how to use behavioral goals to provide purposeful lives to animals. Tim starts by giving a little history to the founding of The ABMA and then jumps into discussing why behavior is an all encompassing word. If you were at the 2024 ABMA annual conference in Nashville or if you are an ABMA member and watch Tim's environmental enrichment workshop on animalprofessional.com, this podcast episode is a great companion to his presentation. Tim educates about shifting our mindset in order to provide purposeful lives to animals. Taking ourselves away from providers and into a facilitator role, allowing animals to do the jobs that they do best! Tim also speaks to what it means to teach animals to be good learners instead of teaching animals "good" lessons and how we can all successfully navigate this shift in thinking. Stay tuned in for Tim's "Training Tale" about how he started thinking about the correlation between guest applause and the behaviors of the animal. For questions or suggestions about the podcast email abc@theabma.org and to reach Tim you can email tim.sullivan@czs.org Let's talk some training and banter about behavior!

• 2:30 Introduction to Tim Sullivan

• 9:15 History on the founding of The ABMA

• 12:50 Why is behavior an all encompassing word for training, enrichment, etc.?

• 16:20 What does it mean to “Provide Purposeful Lives” to animals?

• 23:25 Teaching animals how to interact with an enrichment opportunity/do a novel behavior in their free time?

• 28:05 Getting started with changing the mindset

• 33:50 Shift in enrichment from items to experiences/opportunities

• 37:20 Teaching animals to be good learners, not teaching good lessons

• 48:05 “Training Tales”

This episode Sarah van Herpt, Animals Asia - Vietnam, discusses relationship and trust building with animals who previously lived in adverse and traumatic environments. Animals Asia rescues bears from the bear bile industry so Sarah is able to give practical examples of how they help the rescued bears move from trauma to trust. Sarah educates about desensitization and different techniques used to build trust such as temporarily using negative reinforcement with animals where the best reinforcer is distance and space. Sarah also talks about how to build trust back quickly after a situation that may require some of that trust to be broken. l Stay tuned in for a "Training Tale" about giving the power of consent and control back to rescued bears! For questions or suggestions about the podcast email ⁠⁠abc@theabma.org⁠⁠ To reach Sarah email svanherpt@animalsasia.org and to learn more about Animals Asia visit their website at https://www.animalsasia.org Let's talk some training and banter about behavior!

• 3:00 Introduction to Sarah van Herpt and Animals Asia

• 9:00 Starting to build a trusting relationship with an animal from a previously aversive situation

• 16:00 Desensitization

• 21:10 Negative Reinforcement as a temporary tool

• 24:05 Relationship building outside of a “formal” training session

• 28:40 Working with animals with low trust in the “trust account”

• 31:55 Building relationships back up after doing something that takes away some trust (example: necessary medical procedure)

• 36:05 Overcoming setbacks with animals that previously had traumatic experiences

• 37:30 “Training Tale”