[Forum] Forum aicas

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Hello to you,please add your name next time so we know whom is responding.

For ages people are trying to domesticate wildlife, some animals are good for domestication and some are not like the ostriche.
But remeber domestication does NOT occur in one lifetime!

We musn't forget that we mainly work wild animals and those always will be wild.
A tiger on stage is always a wild cat and is alway dangerous at any time its handled.
It never will be tame, it purely a work of trust and respect from both sides!

We show people in our educational presentations wild and domestic animals to learn them the difference between both.

To answer you question about the llama's, yes they are indeed real domesticated and don't live in the wild!
Prairydogs however do live in the wild and are unfortunnaly kept as pets but aren't any good pets such as many other exoticsand shouldn't be sold at the first place.

The last thing i have heard is that people are crossbreeding wildcats with domestic cats to create new breeds.....HELLOOOOOO?

Oncicat   Ocelot x cat
Bengal    Bengaltigercat x cat
Afrikan    Serval x cat

This is just ridicullus.

But to come back to the Llama's even many zoo's dont know really how to take care of their Llama's as weve found out that we have to shave many animals in zoo's because of their far to long woolly coats, some even couldn't barely walk!
Even dark coulored Llama's can get severe burnmarks from the sun if they stand in the sun without shade or a waterhole to cool down.
There for we shave our Llama's every year around the belt and leave one cm of wool as protection against the sun.
At warm days our Llama's dont work they rather cool down in the waterhole or stay in the shade.

Using animals in a educational presentation has nothing to do with medical and husbandry training in the daily zoo life, the animals will know the medical procedures but will not show them in an presentation.
Animals in an educational presentation are taught to show natural behaviours on cue, just be them selves, be wild and natural.
If an animal doesn't want to work he doesn't have to, we don't force them to perform!
We don't ask them to jump trough a ring of fire, stand on their behind leggs or do any other unnatural behaviour.

Dont forget that we also tell people that exotics don't make good pets as we present them, thats also one of the reasons we introduced domestic animals in the shows and productions.
We made clear that tame rats and ferrtets do make good pets, and if we bring on ourdogs we ask people to go the animal shelter if they want a dog instead of buying it at a breeder.

As i said before animal presentations is one of the best way to educate our parks visitors, and to give them a possibility to get a close encounter.

With kind regards,

Mariano Zamorano

ZOONIMAL- Germany
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: forum at aicas.org 
  To: forum at aicas.org 
  Sent: Saturday, July 22, 2006 1:01 AM
  Subject: Re: [Forum] Forum aicas


  Hi there,

  I've been surfin' your website and I have found something that I wanted to ask you, Mr. Zambrano. In your "about us" section, you define your training model not as a "circus where animals are trained to perform tricks and unnatural behaviour". But in your last mail, you defined one of your best "educational projects" as having llamas carrying some people picknick baskets. Is this an unnatural behaviour?. 

  I know what would you answer to this. You may be thinking that llamas are domestic animals that are meant to do that. Like horses, donkeys and many other animals (the same animals that can be taken for pets as you say about the llamas). Maybe your right,... but nowadays, is very common to have prairy dogs as pets. Does it mean that we can use'em to entertain our visitors accomaining them in their visits? Is that so different, a prairy dog from a llama? why? because the priry dog has been among our us for the last 20 years and the llama, since the Incaic times? Is that a matter of time? So,... it would justify also to train my dog to bring my shoes at home (as dogs have an evolution mixed up with the humas for thounsands of years). Does it justify the action of taking animals to do those things in our times?

  Haven't you found a better way to educate people about llamas ecology than making'em carry picknick baskets? 

  As you know, many years ago, the ostriches were used to drive people around parks and zoos. It sounds to me like the llamas activity. Doesn't it?

  The interaction between animals and people can be carried out using many other tools and resources. These actions have a thin borderline between what's "medical training" or what's "show taming". Let's define both concepts, and then we will analyze if the actions that we are taking are closing to one of them.

  Looking forward to hearing from you.

  Thanks!


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