Why does an Aquarium have birds?

Today's episode is all about the Aquarium's Ambassador Birds! These animals live behind the scenes and come out for presentations like Birds Shorts, which happen daily in our Honda Pacific Visions Theater. We are joined by Aviculturist Heather who teaches us about the different types of birds she cares for, their stories, and helps us interview our first non-human guest.

Episode Transcript

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:05

Hi, I'm Erin Lundy. And I'm Madeline Walden, and this is Aquarium of the Podcific. A podcast brought to you by Aquarium of the Pacific, Southern California's largest aquarium.

SPEAKER_03 0:15

Join us as we learn alongside the experts in animal care, conservation, and more.

SPEAKER_02 0:21

Welcome back to Aquarium of the Podcific. I'm Madeline Walden, the Aquarium's digital content and community manager.

SPEAKER_03 0:27

And I'm Erin Lundy, Conservation Coordinator for Mammals and Birds.

SPEAKER_02 0:30

I'm very excited for today's episode. We are going to talk to Aviculturist Heather Pence, and we're also going to hear from a very special guest, I think our first animal guest on the podcast. I think so. His name is Lola.

SPEAKER_03 0:41

His name is Lola. He is a good bird. Lola, if you haven't guessed, is one of our birds that we have here at the aquarium, and he is actually a program or ambassador animal. What that means is that Lola is a very special animal who goes out and interacts with guests and also does shows, and in that way actually provides a lot of educational messaging, but it kind of provides some context to why we should care about some of these conservation messages. And so Heather is bringing Lola in, which we're very excited to have a bird in the studio. It's very it's a good time. I know we're so excited. What kind of bird is Lola? Lola is a self-requested cockatoo. And uh you will hear in the episode, or you won't hear in the episode, because Lola, it turns out, was very shy during the day. He was very, very shy. And that's okay. Birds can be shy. And to be honest, in a totally silent green room in a recording studio, I can understand. It took me a while to get used to it. I get it. Like lack of external sound must be very strange for an animal. So although Lola was very shy during our interview in the studio, we do have some really cute audio clips of Lola externally. A post-interview. Post-interview. A post-interview rundown.

SPEAKER_02 1:51

We had to do a debrief. A debrief with Lola and be like, how did you feel like that? What did you think about that episode? And he had a lot to say. I'm excited for you all to hear.

SPEAKER_03 1:58

Lola is one of the cutest ambassador birds, and I'm not biased or anything. I just I do see him a lot, and he is often going out and meeting guests. And he makes people laugh. Oh, he cracks me up. I just, I don't think I ever really realized that birds can be funny, and I actually think he's being funny too. He's being funny on purpose for sure. He knows it. Because when you laugh, then he just makes fun of your laugh. And that's extra funny. So he's an amazing bird. Just being in a quiet office and hearing hello. Yep. And he's just kind of talking to himself. He does say, I love you. And he says, I think hi Lola mostly. Hi Lola. That's like a big one for him. Yeah. So we'll be stoked. Goes like that too. And then he imitates a sea lion. He does a lot of different things. You'll hear it. It's way better when he does it, I promise. It doesn't sound so terrible when a bird is doing it. But in addition to Lola as a wonderful guest, um, Heather Pence is one of our aviculturists who has been instrumental in training some of these animals to participate in different like face-to-face interactions with guests, but also with our bird shorts, which is a relatively new like program that we have, where essentially our ambassador birds get to come out and do a demonstration prior to the shows that we have in our Pacific Visions. And they are so cool, and I get to watch her develop them from sort of the ground up, like picking the music and picking the backgrounds that we want. And um, she's trained the birds also to participate along with our aviculture team. And um our birds are doing some really cool stuff. That's so cool. We have a hawk flying around in our theater, like come on down. There's a hawk. There's a hawk here. There's a hawk might see a different program animal. We have a red-footed booby. No one has a red-footed booby. Very few institutions have red-footed boobies. They're pretty underrepresented. I'm clearly very excited about birds. Um we have a lot of different cool animals that are all participating in these bird shorts. And it's just cool to see animals getting out and sort of fulfilling a mission and you know, being a part of the outreach that we do with our guests while they are still living this incredibly fulfilled and happy life. And part of that for these animals is going out and like stretching their wings.

SPEAKER_02 4:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 4:06

It is very enriching for them. And I can tell Lola enjoys the field trips, even if he did not enjoy today's interview because it was a very strange I think he was mostly mad that it wasn't just him being interviewed.

SPEAKER_02 4:17

He's like, Heather. So why is she here? Why does she get a mic? And I don't truly understand.

SPEAKER_03 4:22

I think we would be remiss if we gave a bird a microphone, just, and then the screaming in it. That's I think what the people want. That's true.

SPEAKER_02 4:30

I think that's what our audience wants. We'll have that call just a recorded episode just hosted by Lil that's just him streaking into the microphone.

SPEAKER_03 4:37

If you guys want that, please let us know. We'll do it. I'm not above it. I'm not above an entire episode where we ask questions. Animals answer. That is fun.

SPEAKER_02 4:48

Oh, we should interview Parker.

SPEAKER_03 4:50

He's got a lot to say. He does. He'll sneeze on the microphone. Perfect. Anyway, so will I. You already did this. I have allergies. Um, so Heather and Lola have been wonderful guests. I am very excited to talk a little bit more about sort of what it means to be an ambassador bird and sort of what training goes into that because it is also very different than some other types of training that we do. And yeah, we're gonna get to learn about a really, really cool animal today, and Lola. I'm just kidding.

SPEAKER_02 5:16

Shout out to Heather. It's a really fun episode. Let's get into it. All right, everybody. Welcome back. We are here today with Heather Pence, who is an aviculturist here at the Aquarium Pacific. Is that your correct job title right now, Heather? Yeah, that is correct. Queen of Birds.

SPEAKER_03 5:32

I think that's actually Heather.

SPEAKER_02 5:34

Yeah, I think that was actually the I felt uncomfortable saying aviculturist because I feel like, you know, Queen of Birds just suits you so much better. I'll take it.

SPEAKER_00 5:41

So what is aviculture? It is the uh someone who studies and cares for birds.

SPEAKER_03 5:47

That makes a lot of sense as to why you work with so many of our bird species there.

SPEAKER_02 5:51

But I know you work with other animals besides birds. We're gonna get into that too. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. It doesn't, it doesn't encompass everything, I guess. I guess that's kind of how it is at the aquarium. Your title doesn't necessarily encompass all the animals you work with.

SPEAKER_03 6:04

I think that's what we've learned over the course of our podcast, too, is people are like, oh, I work with the octopus, but I also feed the sea lions. And you're like, okay, cool, the goal works out every day.

SPEAKER_02 6:14

So amazing. How long have you been at the aquarium?

SPEAKER_00 6:17

Uh, this is my going into my fifth year. Nice. Wow, really? Yeah, I started off as a volunteer for about a year and a half, and then I was hired. Uh, I just got my little anniversary email.

SPEAKER_02 6:28

Oh, yay! Happy anniversary! That's awesome. That's incredible. Um, what about life before the aquarium? What was what's your background in animals?

SPEAKER_00 6:35

Uh I went to school at uh America's Teaching Zoo, which is a school up north. It's just a um two-year program, and you graduate uh with a certificate working animals, talking about animals, pre-ver pre-veterinary courses, care, restraint, handling, all that stuff. And so I actually uh had a job at an aviary in Salt Lake City the day I graduated. So I had to you haul packed up and ready to go.

SPEAKER_03 7:01

Was it lined up for you like partially through your school? Did you meet the people through Salt Like?

SPEAKER_00 7:04

Yeah, they did the interviews at the school. It was the only place that came, uh, probably because my boss at that facility was a previous student.

SPEAKER_03 7:13

So that makes sense.

SPEAKER_00 7:15

Connections, networking, very important.

SPEAKER_03 7:17

Yeah. I think it's everyone's had such a different background on this, like in terms of where they came from. Like, I'm pretty sure Jeff is a marketing background. You know, everyone has like something different. And so it's funny to hear really the full spectrum of like I went to a teaching zoo and I learned how to do this properly from like a school. And then me who's like, yeah, one day someone asked if I liked frogs, and I said, Yeah, sorta, and then now that's my thing. So it's kind of cool to see the full spectrum of animal backgrounds and stuff. I know, I love it.

SPEAKER_02 7:45

It is really cool to see. Awesome. Well, okay, what is your I guess like day-to-day like at the aquarium?

SPEAKER_00 7:53

Uh it's pretty full, actually. So as an aviculturist, uh, I come in and I take care of the birds, and I currently am managing the large aviary, the Lorkeet aviary, and then I also care for the animal ambassadors along with a great team of people.

SPEAKER_05 8:09

Awesome.

SPEAKER_00 8:10

And but what's nice is I don't, it doesn't just stop there. I also get to help with sea lion feeds and a bunch of other things, and I also get to do presentations with those animal ambassadors. Very cool.

SPEAKER_03 8:21

Yeah, it's been fun to sort of utilize people's background and experience. And you have experience working with sea lions before, right?

SPEAKER_00 8:27

Right. I actually went to that school to work with marine mammals. Really? Um, but I grew up, my mom was affiliated with an animal rehab, wildlife rehab, and we always had birds growing up. So I grew up raising sparrows and doves and crows. Um, so I went to that school to be a marine mammal trainer, but then the birds got too bad. Every facility has birds, even an aquarium.

SPEAKER_02 8:52

I know that's one of our questions later on. It's like, why does an aquarium have birds? And to that I say, why not? It's true. Why not? Everything's connected. I love it. Um, well, tell us a little bit about the ambassador program. What what is the ambassador program? What are ambassador birds?

SPEAKER_00 9:08

I am very excited about our program is up and coming, so we've always had an ambassador, animal ambassador program. Um and recently there's been more of a focus on us, and we've been asked to do more. And so we're slowly uh gaining some traction and we're gonna add some more animals to our collection, which we're always careful about to make sure we're going about the best procedures to do so. And we're in the process of making new programs for our guests here at the Aquarium of the Pacific. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_03 9:36

What are some things you might consider when you're looking at potentially a new animal ambassador? Like some of ours are probably not what you think. Like, I think people think of a very charismatic parrot as an animal ambassador, which we certainly do have, but I think some of our ambassador animals would surprise people as well.

SPEAKER_00 9:51

Yeah, that's a really good question because not every animal is going to be suited to be an animal ambassador, and we have to make sure that we're picking the right animal for this position. I'm really glad you mentioned that. So that's why we're being so careful about our choices. And again, we are we are working with animals that are non-releasable, meaning they were wild, they were hatched wild birds, and then something happened, usually because of people and um they were injured, and those injuries were permanent enough where they could not be re-released. And so we are offering them a home. Um, so I have to make sure that we are choosing animals that uh will be able to be conditioned successfully. So this is uh something that's enriching and positive for their lives.

SPEAKER_03 10:29

Absolutely. That's amazing. We want to make sure that they have good welfare, you know, and I think it's a really important consideration. Um Mike in his episode last season mentioned his absolute favorite animal is actually an animal that just recently went through that whole process and is our most recent program animal acquisition, Lyra. Um tell us a little bit about Lyra.

SPEAKER_00 10:49

Lyra, I love her so. So we uh recently well, it feels recently, acquired a red-tailed hawk. And in falconry terms, it's referred to as a passage hawk, meaning it's its first year, she's in her first year of being hatched. And so she had some pretty serious injuries, yes, and was taken to a rehab, and not all of those injuries healed as we would hope to be re-released into the wild. So um I had heard that there was a red-tailed hawk that had um was capable of flight, but was considered non-releasable. And when I heard about her age, I knew that would be the right um parameters that would make this a successful animal ambassador. So we added a red-tailed hawk to our program, and she's been this consistent, beautiful flyer, and she currently flies over our guests in our Pacific Visions theater. It's so cool. It is so cool.

SPEAKER_02 11:42

She also has a bedazzled um float, I guess is a good name for it. Yeah, it's a float. It's very fabulous. It makes it sound like she's in a parade every day. I mean basically. It is a parade all from the barn to to the theater. It's true. I I know I I see people looking and I stop in my truck, like, who's there?

SPEAKER_00 12:00

I know. Oh my gosh, it's Lyra. So we what we're talking about is she has a cover that covers her crate to keep her calm as we wheel through the guests. And it's we happened to order a velvet cover for this crate, which is really cute. We just so happen to have the crushed velvet. So one of our volunteers bedazzled it with her name. It's gorgeous. It's so sparkly. You might see it walking around the aquarium.

SPEAKER_02 12:23

You might get lucky to see the star being transported.

SPEAKER_03 12:26

Before she goes to her dressing room to get ready. So cool.

SPEAKER_02 12:30

Um, like I kind of not to not to be a downer, but I do kind of want to hear about the number of reasons why the animals are in this position to begin with, because they are ambassador animals. They are going to inspire the public to care about the animals and to take better, better precautions just in the world. So, what are some of the reasons that the animals have ended up in our in care and then adopted by us?

SPEAKER_00 12:53

Good question. So, for instance, uh, we were just talking about Lyra. Lyra, more than likely, based on her injuries, was hit by a car. Um she sustained a lot of damage to her hip, her hip was broken, her feet were damaged. Um so that is one example. Um, and that was just from people throwing stuff out of a car window, and then rodents feeding on those things, and a hawk trying to do their job full circle there. And it happens quite often, a lot of times with owls. Um, we have, for instance, we have Lola, and Lola is a sulfur-crested cockatoo, and he is considered a rescue uh because he was an unwanted pet. Uh at the age of two and a half, his owners decided he was too much to handle, they're not domesticated animals, and they were looking to have someone else take him. He wasn't there for every animal, and so he is considered a rescue, and he has been here um for 17 years now. Oh wow, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 13:46

I think that speaks to a really salient point that a lot of people adopt birds or get birds thinking that they are, you know, an easy pet to manage. And I feel like every single bird has such an individualistic personality and different traits, and to be honest, they can be quite loud and messy and stubborn, and you know, all of these things that indicate that they are super intelligent. And so, is there any what is it like working with the cast of characters that are all of the different birds that we have here?

SPEAKER_00 14:12

Well, I think our curator has learned not to hold a meeting in front of Lola.

SPEAKER_03 14:17

And what happens when he holds a meeting in front of Lola? It's actually really funny.

SPEAKER_00 14:24

It is, it is, it is. Um so yeah, that is one example. The disrespect.

SPEAKER_02 14:31

He's just engaging with his audience. You know, it's the thing about animals is they listen to us talk all day long. I feel like that's with my dogs, you know. Like I've they listen to us talk all day long, and then they have something to say sometimes, and we can't ask them to be quiet. That's true. They have stuff to say sometimes. Sometimes.

SPEAKER_03 14:48

Um when you when we acquired Lyrod, she certainly was a wild animal. And so sort of what went into conditioning a hawk to be comfortable flying over a theater with potentially hundreds of people in it from being a wild hawk.

SPEAKER_00 15:02

Yeah, that's a very stark difference, you know. Uh well, it's a lot of training and conditioning and using positive reinforcement. So the best way for a raptor, which is a bird of prey, is to speak to their heart. And you speak to their heart through their stomach. Um, they are very unlike parrots, uh, they've taken emotion out of the equation. They're very kind of black and white. You feed me, and it's positive, you're positive. And so by utilizing food and gaining that trust with her, I took very small approximations. And then when she realized that none of us are gonna do anything negative to her, and that her opportunity to get a lot of reinforcement, which is all sorts of things that are yummy, just to her. Hey, speak for yourself. I love a raw quail, right? Who doesn't love a raw quail? Uh, she was very quickly through trust and training flying over people. She's was consistent and has been consistent except for just one time. It happens, and that was just stage fright, honestly.

SPEAKER_03 16:00

Every car gets stage fright once in a while.

SPEAKER_00 16:02

You know what? She might not have done it that one time in front of all those people, but that is the most talked-about performance ever happened. She uh, so she flies, so our audience have a mental picture. She flies from the back of the theater behind everybody down over the audience to the speaker on stage. And we're wearing a raptor glove, which is a leather glove that protects us from her talons, and she lands in the glove and eats her favorite things, which could be mice or quail or chick. Um, and so during training, and my co-trainer Susan and I had been working this behavior for a while, pretty much right out of quarantine. Um, she had been consistent, flying down, no-brainer, very easy, until we had 300 people in the audience. And I thought it was the group because she had never seen a group so big. But what it turned out to be was the lighting. The lighting hadn't changed last minute. And so we released her and she sat up on her box, and I could see her looking real hard. Oh, they have this amazing vision, right? But she's in the dark, they don't fly, they won't do it. And so she sat up there for the longest time, and and you're like, Yeah, so oh my gosh, stalling.

SPEAKER_02 17:11

There's the most stalling.

SPEAKER_00 17:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:13

I've no I sometimes it happens with our animals during we do live streams, like the octopus. You can't make an octopus do anything you they don't want to do. You can't make a hawk do anything that they don't want to do. Exactly. So you just have to get pretty good about kind of filling that time, and you know, eventually sometimes they come around, and then at some times you're like, All right, we're gonna wrap it up with that. They don't want to participate today, and there's not we can't tell them to.

SPEAKER_03 17:33

Yeah, and it's a good learning experience for us in like what we might change. Like, do we do a slightly more lighting in the theater now? Yeah, really good.

SPEAKER_00 17:42

Now I can tell the difference. I guess I was just so with the huge crowd and on stage, it seemed different, but I didn't.

SPEAKER_02 17:48

She's like, This is not my lighting. I do I'm not gonna perform in this life. She's there doesn't need a dim glow. That's her. Um, and that's you know, Lyra is a pop star. She shows up with a ring light every time. Yeah. How dare we? How dare we ask? Um, I would love to know the differences between um raptors that you work with and our parrots that you work with. Um, personality-wise, viciousness.

SPEAKER_00 18:14

I just know um there's a lot of differences. I I like switching gears for both. I prefer, I just love all the birds. So, you know, birds of prey to me are much easier to read. They're gonna show you right off the bat if they're uncomfortable, they're gonna show you if it's something there's something off. You can read it, you can tell, and you can make your choices from there uh behaviorally to set them up for the best success. Uh, parrots are different because there's more a social animal has more emotion at play, and sometimes they mask their feelings. And so when they're stoic and they sit there like that, you don't know if they're just taking everything in and enjoying it and it's enriching, or there's something underneath going on, and you're gonna find out later. Yeah. So they're definitely a little bit more complicated. You definitely need to know your animal in all the different situations and um always try to set it up where they are gonna come out of that experience knowing that it's gonna be okay and it's going to be positive for the next time.

SPEAKER_03 19:14

Are birds of prey typically pretty solitary animals? Uh whereas parrots live in like huge congregations.

SPEAKER_00 19:19

Yes, they are solitary until about a mating season. Once they get a mate, they will stay in a mate a pair, but they don't hang out in big groups. In fact, they're territorial.

SPEAKER_03 19:27

Do they stay with I mean I guess it would probably be species dependent, but do some species like stay with their mate all the time? Like even out of breeding season? Frequently. That's really cute.

SPEAKER_02 19:36

It is let's kill stuff together. Right. Honestly.

SPEAKER_03 19:41

Honestly, kind of a vibe. Ooh, I learned a really cool term. That's you said in falconry terms, and I just love the phrase because like when do you ever get to say in falconry terms? Yeah. But I learned a really cool phrase the other week that um the phrase fed up comes from falconry, and it generally is like your animal is now full, and is like I'm not really, yeah, I don't really want to like do this stuff anymore, you know.

SPEAKER_00 20:05

Fed up as then he's done with it.

SPEAKER_03 20:08

Exactly. And it's just come to mean like so like frustrated with something, but really just means that your bird was full at one point.

SPEAKER_00 20:16

I'm so used to fed up that I'm I haven't even considered that like what it's fed up with you.

SPEAKER_03 20:22

No, I'm just I'm just I've eaten a lot today and I can't do much else. Like that's that's actually how I fed up most days.

SPEAKER_00 20:30

Falconry's falconry has seasons, so you will fly your hawk for a season, hunt with your hawk. It's a working relationship, it's a partnership. It's really, it's really a very different than what we do here, but it's just really amazing and peaceful and really bonding with that animal. And you spend all your time with your raptor. I mean, they're riding with you sometimes in the front seat on a perch. That's really you know, sometimes they're by your bedside. Um, and then you go hunting uh with your raptor. Um uh so when you say they're fed up, and it started by saying you've they're fed up for the season. So you give them a huge whatever they caught a duck, whatever they caught, that's their feast, and they're fed up for yeah.

SPEAKER_03 21:11

That's really funny. So yeah, I learned that the term fed up came from in falconry terms, which it's just such a cool thing to like. I don't know. I've just always wanted to say in falconry terms.

SPEAKER_02 21:22

I would love to learn more about kind of the safety precautions you have to take with an animal like that. You mentioned the glove. Um, are you keeping a certain distance? What's kind of I'm I'm sure it's just a constant kind of checking in with the animal when you're watching, yeah, with an animal like Lyra who has the capability of you know potentially she's intense too.

SPEAKER_00 21:39

She is intense. I love her so much. Um with this training, uh there's a very close bond and trust. So they need to be pretty close to you. And I have to be able to trust that she's not gonna use her natural weapons against me for any reason. Um so there is a there is a closeness when you're working with a Raptor, and it's uh um it is a relationship, it is a trust. Um, and you need you need that for your success for that animal.

SPEAKER_02 22:07

Back and forth. Yeah, so the glove kind of acts more of protection for your arm, I'm assuming. It's not necessarily a precaution if something were to happen, but more of like she's sharp, she's got sharp effect, but she's got those murder toes, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:20

And she's not landing on you with any sort of aggression, she's landing because you've asked her to. Yeah, and it's just that's just how the how it is. Yeah, yeah. That's so funny. That's so cool. The longest toenails.

SPEAKER_02 22:31

How often do those um gloves have to be replaced? Are they do they get worn pretty quickly?

SPEAKER_00 22:35

They do get worn, but mostly it's not from the raptors, mostly it's from just being like tossed around.

SPEAKER_03 22:40

Yeah, it's from the humans, right? The raptors do barely anything to do. Yeah, but they're like just a little scratch. Yeah, but well, also there's like little pieces of mice on it and stuff once in a while. You know, I get it. I remember very early on when you had started working with Lyra, you were like, Do you want to help me with an approximation? And that was just sort of like one little baby step to getting her to fly from one person to the next. And I had never seen a bird of prey up close. Like I grew up in Hawaii, there's nothing, you know, like I never even thought about it and was like, cool, little hawk, you know, sure. This bird is huge. The bird is like the biggest thing I've ever seen in my life. And I'm not afraid of animals, but I had a little fear in my heart that day because she just comes flying in so hot. And she landed on my arm, but I think my arm was positioned low where I dropped it, and she started walking up my shoulder. And there's this picture that Heather took of me, which is so funny because I look like I'm smiling, but my eyes are so wide and fearful because she's looking right in my eyeballs with her leg. And I was like, And there was nothing about her that meant ill, you know, like she was just trained. She's learning, but yeah, she has like the most intense, like she'll stare right in your eyes. And I was like, okay, you can have her back.

SPEAKER_02 23:52

You know what happens with a lot of our animals. Like, I treat people to a sea line encounter. It's true. And from outside of the exhibit, oh, they're so cute. Once you get up to those guys, Parker's 600, 800 pounds sometimes. You forget, like, you're like, okay, oh, that's a big guy. That's big. That's standing right next to me. He's got those teeth. Okay. And then you have to, and then you're like, oh, he's so cute. He's actually a big, a big worm at the end of the day.

SPEAKER_00 24:15

He's that animal's an amazing animal. I didn't, you know, you don't realize how, like you said, you don't realize how big he is until I had my 12-year-old do an encounter. Right when I was doing encounters, and like, oh, he is huge.

SPEAKER_02 24:25

Yeah, and you're like, oh yeah, he is.

SPEAKER_03 24:26

I guess he is kind of big. You forget. And he's just like the gentlest guy, too. Like, we're so lucky with the animals that we have. And a lot of it is good training, and certainly that goes into them being comfortable. And an animal's not going to aggress on you if they're comfortable in their situation. And so it's amazing to see these animals come from situations where they're rescued wild animals and over time become so conditioned and understanding of the interaction that we're having with them that they're really calm. Um, something that may or may not be relevant to the remainder of this podcast is we actually are working on conditioning one of our animal ambassadors right now. Isn't that right? That is true.

SPEAKER_02 25:02

There's a there's a Lola right in front of me. He's a little guy. And he is he is very anti-podcast. Yeah, what are you seeing?

SPEAKER_03 25:09

And how are we working through this? You just fed him, so I did.

SPEAKER_00 25:12

This is actually the first time he's been open to taking some food through his crate door. So he's never been in this room before. There's microphones, it's the green room, it's so difficult. It's like a hundred people visually for him. And uh, you know, he's been all over this aquarium. He's been here for he's been here longer than I have, and uh, he's been everywhere. Um Except this room. Apparently, except for this room. This is new. It's a lot.

SPEAKER_02 25:34

Because it's the most quiet I've ever seen. He's like, it's quiet in here. I have to be quiet too. Now, this room is really funny because yeah, there's no ambient noise. We're in we're in kind of like it must be a lot, right? Just a lack of sound. Yeah. It's like something's up. So he's just watching us. So we'll see if we'll talk about this.

SPEAKER_03 25:49

Yeah, a little like appearance. Right around his mouse, all of his feathers are puffed up. What does that mean? Like you are his body language expert. Like, I know that's what you're doing when you're doing these things. What is he telling us right now? He's sitting tight.

SPEAKER_00 26:00

He's like, hold on. When his feathers are pulled back like that, he's there's an action that's about to take that's about to happen. When he's sitting there and he's got his chin feathers all up there, he's he does not plan to move from there right now.

SPEAKER_03 26:12

That's we get a little bit. It's cool that you can look at an animal and sort of be like, this is you know, vaguely how they're feeling and what you know we're looking for. And so I don't know. It's been fun to just kind of watch you choose the moments of like, hey, I'm gonna offer you a snack. Do you feel good about this? Do you want to take it? And he's doing his best.

SPEAKER_02 26:27

He's doing his best. My favorite thing is um sitting in our admin offices and hearing Lola come by. Um, it makes my entire day. And then sometimes he'll talk to me and it's it's the best day ever.

SPEAKER_00 26:39

It's so funny because I didn't expect this behavior from him at all. He, when we take him to uh the Honda Pacific Visions Theater back in Vince, which is a big journey for Arnold. He's just flirting with everybody through the crate the entire time. And we have just as much of a production to and from the program.

SPEAKER_02 26:58

And we're just in a very chill, quiet room, and he's like, something's up there's nothing.

SPEAKER_03 27:03

I'm pretty sure I've like been walking and heard a wolf whistle and been so offended. I'm like, oh, it's Lola. Well it's just like, hey, how are you doing up there?

SPEAKER_00 27:11

Like, oh it's just slow. He wolf whistled at him as we were walking here.

SPEAKER_02 27:14

So I get it. He's the best. He's so cool. We'll see if he well, if if he doesn't make an appearance today, we'll do a post interview with him.

SPEAKER_03 27:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 27:22

He's so cool.

SPEAKER_03 27:23

It's it's cool to see each animal have their own personality, and certainly some of it is species dependent, but I mean even our lore keys, right? Like each of them has a very distinctive person. You wouldn't imagine like a hundred birds in the aviary. Oh my goodness. And they're all different somehow.

SPEAKER_00 27:36

It's a very strong hierarchy of personalities.

SPEAKER_02 27:40

Can you tell the difference between them based on the way they look? Personalities.

SPEAKER_00 27:44

Not like somebody, not like some people can, um, but I'm doing my best. There's a lot of birds in there. We actually have the second largest aviary. Uh I think it's the first of the states, but second of all interactive aviaries, alarkeyed aviaries. Um, so there's a lot of birds in there, and uh, they all have different numbers and a number on that band, but I can only tell some a small percentage apart based on their behavior and how they treat. Yeah, that's cute.

SPEAKER_03 28:09

I know you. Do you have a favorite?

SPEAKER_00 28:11

Yes. Who is it? Rancor.

SPEAKER_03 28:12

Rancor.

SPEAKER_00 28:13

Why rancor? Stage five clinger. Yeah, I love that. I love that. I like his personality. I I there's so many that I love, but when I talk to the aviary, he's he's the boy I look for. I love that. That's cute.

SPEAKER_02 28:27

Well, do you mind quickly listing all of our ambassador birds and then maybe we can get into a little bit about the other ambassador animals?

SPEAKER_00 28:35

Yeah, so the ambassador birds that I'm working with now is Lola, the self-requested cockatoo, who's quietly sitting here. And we have Lyra, our red-tailed hawk. We also have Sulla, our red-footed booby. She's cool. Yeah. She's really cool. I never got to work with a booby until I came here. It's just amazing.

SPEAKER_03 28:51

But Sulla is, I think, the only red-footed booby that I know of that's under human care. And she is one of the coolest birds I've ever met. Like definitely. She's got her own personality, too. Um I remember when she first came to us, she had a stick that she was obsessed with.

SPEAKER_00 29:06

Yeah, we think she was younger at the time. You know, we just had to kind of guess at their ages, um, and her behavior kind of indicated to us that this was a younger bird who did a lot of playing. Uh, and so she would play with a favorite stick on a string, and so we would bring one of those things as a way to engage with her and reinforce her in different locations, and it was it was just really fun to watch. It's been cool to see her kind of grow up here too.

SPEAKER_02 29:29

Yeah, yeah. Okay, so we have Lola, Lyra. Oh, I got sidetracked. No, I don't that's our job, don't worry.

SPEAKER_00 29:37

And then we have a small group of reptiles, so we have uh several snakes, two kink snakes and two boas. And um, we now have three uh prehensile-tailed skinks. Now we have three.

SPEAKER_03 29:49

And now we have three. We have a baby. It's a really cute baby, too.

SPEAKER_00 29:53

And Benny. My goodness, Benny's a blue-throated macaw.

SPEAKER_02 29:57

Benny is a beautiful bird. He is so cool. That's another person. I love when he comes by my desk. Doesn't really communicate, especially the way Lola does. No. Right?

SPEAKER_03 30:06

Does Benny talk? Because I definitely thought I heard Benny saying hi the other day. But he says hi and hi. As soon as I like looked, he was like, mm-mm, I will not say a word.

SPEAKER_00 30:17

And then the cutest part, the cutest thing is Lola taught Benny how to do the monster behavior. So if you do put your hand up like a claw and you say monster, he puts his his foot up and goes monster.

SPEAKER_01 30:36

So fuzzy. Do it again. Monster.

SPEAKER_00 30:43

That was wonderful, Benny. Thank you. And Lola taught him that. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_03 30:50

You did a very good job, Lola. Great job, Bella. Lola's like, listen. He's like, please, I'm the best trainer here. Honestly. I mean, it's cool to know that birds can learn by mimicking other birds, even other species. That's fascinating. And I mean they're they're roommates. I mean, not in the same enclosure, but like certainly they can see each other, right?

SPEAKER_00 31:07

So what's funny is Lola, um, Lola knows all of his his cues, his SDs. And so if he sometimes he'll say to himself, Target or step up. He's like, I'm doing it.

SPEAKER_02 31:19

I want to learn more a little about um that communication with the birds. How is an animal able to talk? How is it able to mimic what we sound like?

SPEAKER_03 31:29

Yeah, and how much understanding of what they're saying do you think that they have?

SPEAKER_00 31:32

What's crazy is it's not clear to people exactly how they're able to do that. They don't have vocal cords. And what's also fascinating, it was speculated by some a while ago that why would they need to be able to have that mimicking, which not all of them do. Some of them are great mimickers, like some people can sing really well, and some people like me cannot. Um and so it was speculated that maybe the best mimickers can mimic a predator to avoid another predator coming, or other, but there's been no documentation and lots of studies, and no one's ever seen or heard uh a parrot doing that, utilizing their ability to mimic other animals. But there is study um of these birds having their own family sounds of recognition with each other in large flocks. So even though they'll have family groups, they can be found in huge, huge groups of several hundred birds.

SPEAKER_02 32:23

So cool. Yeah. I always wonder why that was something they they had and it goes back to their evolution, right? Something they picked up and do they name each other?

SPEAKER_03 32:31

Like you said, that would be Lola. What is your actual name? Oh, that I need to look that up. Isn't that weird? That would be interesting to know whether or not they like have individual names. Like I know some species, I think dolphins, they have like whistle signatures that are like, that's for you. And so I wonder if parrots have the same. That's so cool. Lola, let us know. Oh, he actually looked. Oh my gosh. I'm so nervous. He's looking at me. Nobody's asked me that before. He's like, my name is. He's actually just constant screaming the whole time. He's been saying it. Every time Brett drops, that's what he's yelling at.

SPEAKER_02 33:09

It's a beautiful name.

SPEAKER_03 33:11

He wants his name and he wants raise. He's in. He's like, I should go full-time out here, you guys. Oh, buddy. I didn't know. Well, now we'll call you by that only. Can you imagine? This is our ambassador sulfur costicography on screen. I think he'd have a really good time. Our whole AV team is like, please, please, please stop talking about it. I'm sorry, Scott, in advance for you listening to this.

SPEAKER_02 33:33

Well, can we talk a little bit about the a little more about the positive reinforcement? So you're um giving him some pellets or some snacks right now.

SPEAKER_00 33:40

Yes. So we train using positive reinforcement. And just a quick, easy way to explain it is we just reward behavior we like and we ignore behavior we don't like. So any of our animal ambassadors, including the reptiles, we do, and some of you that come to the aquarium on a regular basis are familiar with this, the two-finger touch. So if I go to one of our snakes and I touch them gently on the back and there's a reaction, um, that's their their only way to tell me that they don't want to do it. Um, which I don't normally get that from our snakes, but they have that option if they wanted to. And it's the same thing with Lola and Lyra too and Benny. So if we we have a station uh in their enclosure and we ask them to go to that station, which is a specific location in their enclosure, and that's a re highly reinforceable uh station or location. If they go to that station right off the bat, that's his way of telling me, I can't wait to come out and see what you have for me. Uh and if they don't, uh that's his only way to say, I'm not feeling it today. So if he doesn't, we respect that um and we talk about it. And if it happens more than once, then there's something, it's an indication that something's not positive for him because the whole goal is that he wants to come out and be enriched and do things and see new things, not new stimuli.

SPEAKER_03 34:52

One of my favorite things about training is that you know, people always are like, Oh, well, you make them do something. And I'm like, No, the whole thing is a conversation, you know, like the animal is expressing to me either, hey, that's something that maybe makes me nervous, and you're expressing, I'll work through it with you. And I think that that can be lost when you're just looking at it externally. But the minute that you're in it, and it's the same as if you're training your dog, you know what their boundaries are, and like I'm not gonna do that, and when they're uncomfortable. And every single species has some ability to communicate, but also training is a way for us to give them the tools to tell us when they do or don't want to. And I think you probably more than most individuals at the aquarium, because you work with so many ambassador animals that come out and meet people and have to do things that might be overwhelming or scary for an animal, have to work on these relationships and communication styles and understand them so much better. Like, I I could tell you a frog's probably uncomfortable, but like when is a frog comfortable? You know, like they just constantly have this is a huge eyes. But like for all the different species of birds, you have to be able to read a situation and like get an animal to participate or accept that they won't and be like, hey, that's okay, that's something we can work on another time. And I think that's a really cool aspect of our jobs, and especially your job, that I don't think we look at enough of like you're talking to these animals in your own way all day, every day, and it's pretty cool to see.

SPEAKER_00 36:12

That's one of the reasons why I stuck with working with birds and training with birds because the biggest reward is free-flying birds. And for instance, take raptors or birds of prey, they can reinforce themselves. Lyra's perfectly capable of hunting on her own. But the fact that through uh positive reinforcement and through our relationship, she will choose to come to me and do that instead. And we can do these performances, you know, in other places that I worked at, it's completely outdoors, and all these animals are making their choices. It's it's cool.

SPEAKER_03 36:43

It's cool. Super relationship based too, and like it's cool to know that they know who you are. Like Parker, no offense again, but I don't think Parker has any idea who I am. You know, he sees a person who shows up and feeds him sometimes. Yeah, and he's like a bucket of fish, I'm here for it, let's do it. But these birds, like you and another person who's brand new could ask the exact same thing of a bird, and they will give totally different responses because, like, I don't know you who are absolutely that's pretty good. I don't like the way you ask me that.

SPEAKER_00 37:10

I will never do that for you, ever. Is that how Heather told you to do it?

SPEAKER_03 37:14

Is there like a pretty big learning curve to you know working with some of the I'm maybe less so for some species, like a snake that maybe is like I'm pretty chill hanging out. However, but like for the birds especially, is there a pretty big learning curve to starting to work with them?

SPEAKER_00 37:29

It is, and it's different for every person, it's a different journey for sure. And for instance, um, you know, Gary, uh my co-trainer, has to work extra hard at being currently the only guy on the team. So when you have a bunch of girls working the same animals and we deliver our cues and our verbal in like a high-pitched voice, which I always do. Good, good job. Harry's always done really good, and so he has to really keep up on relationships, as we all do, of course, but him even more so to make sure that he's working and being able to take care of these animals as equally as we can.

SPEAKER_02 38:02

They get so cool, something I would never consider before. That's amazing. Like, a man?

SPEAKER_03 38:08

What? I think um, I mean, it just goes to show like how individualistic they all are. Um, given how intelligent they are and how individual they are, are there differences in like the types of enrichment that you offer them? Or what types of enrichment might you give a parrot versus a hawk? And like, how do you keep them entertained?

SPEAKER_00 38:28

Um parrots, uh you can overwhelm them for sure, but they're they are fun to give enrichment to. You can give them brows and bright, shiny toys, and they love to shred things. Um, and that's what floats their boat. Uh, you have to be careful. Some things can be overwhelming to them and they can be a little fearful. So you have to actually sometimes you have to take approximations and have that toy outside their enclosure and work your way closer and closer. Like one day you will love this. And we're not gonna rush it. Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 38:59

It's just it's just gonna be 10 feet away, and then tomorrow nine feet. I'm just gonna make its way a little closer.

SPEAKER_00 39:03

You know, so it's safe. We have in the past given a Christmas tree to our raptor. Now, Lyra's too big uh for a Christmas tree. She'll take down a Christmas tree, no problem. True. It's over. Well, I hate Christmas. That's funny. Uh what I have done is taken uh a shoebox I got in new work shoes, and I poked holes in it, and I put a quail inside. Oh, and I had to show it to her. Yeah. And then I threw it on the floor and I watched her. Anytime any bird that peeks has to turn its head sideways to peek, is the cutest thing to me still to this day. Uh so she flew down and with that stern raptor look, because you know they have that natural sun visor, it makes them look really like they have no sense of humor.

unknown 39:45

Intense.

SPEAKER_00 39:45

Yeah. She like got really low and she peeked really hard into that box. And it was the cute I wish I had filmed it. Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_02 39:52

We have to film that this year. We have to put a camera inside the box too. See her eye. Yeah. A GoPro. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 39:58

She could have mine. Honestly, even if she destroys it. If you're existing, that would be really funny. I just love the idea of just like the one. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 40:05

And that would need to be a gif or a gif. I'd want to see that. Yes. I would use that all the time.

SPEAKER_03 40:11

Hawk getting really close to the camera peeking with the one eye. I love that. I love it.

SPEAKER_02 40:16

Cool. That's amazing. Um, so that would be probably considered like a hunting enrichment for her. Is there any other hunting enrichments that you give to a raptor or raptors here?

SPEAKER_00 40:27

Hunting enrichment. We've done enriching actions and sessions where I can take her somewhere else in the room and I can just toss something up and have her invert and catch it and land, and that's just really stimulating and fun for her. Um, from what I understand from those who worked at the OHI Raptor Center, she was a very assertive uh hunter uh in her flight aviary when they were trying to prep her for a release. And so I've been using that quality in her to be able to stimulate and give her enrichment uh outside of her enclosure. Ah, so we can do flights back and forth. I've even, and this might be for me too. I like watching birds of prey run on the ground because it's really awkward. It's kind of cute though, because we're like, you just like roll roll her food across and she just just trucks.

SPEAKER_03 41:15

Can we do a slow-mo of librarie running like face on the little wings? That would be really cute.

SPEAKER_00 41:21

Plus, it looks like they're wearing trousers, and so you just get to see their feathers on their legs, and I love it.

SPEAKER_03 41:25

Yeah, why do they have such feathers all the way down? Because, like some birds, their feathers end at sort of like where their trunk, you know, their body ends. Like vultures. Yeah, why do raptors have feathers all the way down? They look like pants. Vultures have uh don't have something.

SPEAKER_00 41:40

Like eagles be called them trousers. Oh, I see your trousers. Um it's just they're feathered all the way down for their protection. It also helps protect them from their prey. So even a squirrel can wear brown and bite, uh, kind of thing. Uh, and it's also warmth. Uh vultures, on the other hand, have naked legs and a naked head because they eat dead things and they'll actually stand in a carcass and it helps keep them clean. Yes, keep their feathers clean by not having feathers in those locations. And also things aren't fighting back, I guess, at that point. So like right, no protection needed. Which is a good point. A lot of times uh raptors have been raptors will eat carrion just like a vulture can, which is one of those things why you don't want them around roads.

SPEAKER_02 42:18

Yeah. Don't throw your food out your windows, don't throw anything out your windows. Yeah, absolutely. But it's I there is that like argument like, oh, I'm throwing something biodegradable at back into you know nature, but that is just creating a food source for other animals where they shouldn't be close to a lily way.

SPEAKER_00 42:35

Absolutely talk about that in our bird shorts and Pacific Visions. Throwing an apple core out of a car window might seem like a harmless act, it's biodegradable, but it what feeds a rodent, which attracts a raptor, you know? Yeah, and there's where it goes through.

SPEAKER_03 42:48

That sort of leads to the first question we have from social media of like, why do we have birds at an aquarium? And I think you touched on it, the messaging is there, you know, everything's interconnected. But what's your rationale for we have birds here? I don't like them because I love birds.

SPEAKER_00 43:02

Because I love birds.

SPEAKER_02 43:03

Why wouldn't we have birds? I don't want to work here unless there's birds here. I get it.

SPEAKER_00 43:07

There's so much connection with birds that most people do not realize. I, you know, in my career working with birds, a lot of people don't have that connection that they do with mammals. And I love being able to change that and showing them um how important and cool birds really are. But their connection is amazing. And each species and each animal group or each bird group has these important connections to our oceans and to our ecosystems. Like, you know, we talk about the red-footed booby and how what they're doing is their waste products are n give nutrients. They're like gardeners to coral reef ecosystems, and how we came about finding that out. You know, Lola here, his the sulfur crested cockatoo is not an endangered species. There are cockatoos that are critically endangered. However, um, parrots like the cockatoo are highlighted as frequent long distance seed dispersers, and that's really important to the survival of our plant species. These guys. There's been studies of how long these birds will fly with branches and ribbons in their feet and in their beaks.

SPEAKER_03 44:09

The hard buttons. Yeah. He's like, don't make fun of me. I'm sorry. You never know what stick is important. I'm never talking now. I have walked up to Lola's enclosure before and just seen him with a stick in his hand. And it is the most threatening thing you've ever seen in your life. Don't you one foot on the perch and then just a stick being held out at you, and you're like, oh, I have fun. He did he he got offended. Oh, we got a foot up. We're getting comfy. He's like, where's the stick? He's like, Where's the stick? What stick? Give it to me now. What stick did you see? It's been pretty cool to see. I think um something someone told me once. Maybe you can fact check me on this. Someone told me that birds like parrots can't taste like capsaicin, or it doesn't give them the same reaction like that spicy food does to us. And so for that reason, peppers develop capsaicin very specifically so that birds could eat them and disperse the seeds and poop them out, but wouldn't be averse to it. And I was like, what are mammals wouldn't because they would digest it. And I was like, that's crazy. We could give them a jalapeno right now. We could see how it does, is it anything? Yeah, someone told me they can't like experience spice in that way.

SPEAKER_00 45:18

That makes sense. They don't uh in writing it says they don't have a sense of smell. However, a lot of us that have been working with these birds notice that if you you can hold up a piece of food and they'll be willing to take it visually, like, oh, I I want to try that. And they'll get this it'll get so close to their mouth, and at the last second they'll pull back and shake their head. So there's something going on there. Some sense, right? Right, there's something there. Um, so I don't think across the board it's blanket, no sense of smell. There's something going on. Yeah, they're definitely perceiving. That would help them eat the pepper.

SPEAKER_03 45:50

I know that like parrots also use their tongue like a finger, right? Yes, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 45:54

It's so funny to say their beak is like a hand to them. There's this expert climber, so they feel with their tongue, and so it's intimidating to new trainers if a parrot especially opens their beak right at their hand. I'm like, oh, he's just he's checking you.

SPEAKER_03 46:10

Just as a way to touch you, yeah. Yeah, he's gonna give you a little lick, see what you're all about, and get an idea of what the situation is.

SPEAKER_02 46:16

But don't worry, he's not smelling you.

SPEAKER_03 46:18

Yeah, don't worry.

SPEAKER_02 46:19

Right, he probably can't, but we don't know. But we don't know.

SPEAKER_00 46:21

He's doing something after I steals some sea lion session. He's not offended, but if I smell like fish, he doesn't know. Maybe he likes fish.

SPEAKER_03 46:28

This is how we found out Lola really likes seafood.

SPEAKER_02 46:30

He likes sushi. That's so cool. I have a question aside before we get fully into that. Do you have any recommendations for people who aren't bird people who come and visit the aquarium? Laura Key porous can be a little overwhelming to someone who isn't into birds. Do you have any suggestions for someone who maybe has like a slight fear or a worry? Yeah, where do you start? Yeah, I wouldn't start in Laura Keepers.

SPEAKER_00 46:53

Our forest is amazing and like I said, it's very large. Um, but if you are bird phobic or you're just starting, that might not be your stepping stone. Um, I would watch from the outside first. Uh, and then or come see some of our bird programs where you're at a distance where you feel comfortable. Um, our lorikeets, I love them, they're amazing. They have very fast metabolisms. So there's one minute where they're completely full and you can't predict when that is. Um, and they will not land on you and then 20 minutes later they're all at the front gate. So it's a little unpredictable in there. Something that I've learned and try my best to stay on top of. Yeah, so I would start small just by observing from a distance. I would watch from the outside because they'll actually come and hang and talk to you and act with you through the walls of the aviary. And so I would well, a lot of times we'll watch parents uh with small kids who weren't ready to go in yet watch from the outside. Yeah. And that's a great way to warm up to it. That's a good idea. And we're gonna see what happens.

SPEAKER_02 47:50

And also, if it's not for you, that's totally fine too. There's there's other ways, like you said, you can enjoy our birds here at the aquarium. They're not gonna land on your head during the shows, they're not gonna poop on you. Maybe they might they might poop on you. Hopefully they might happen. Hopefully they don't land on you either. It's also good luck if you get pooped on, just so you know.

SPEAKER_03 48:08

So it'll be fine. Yes. Um the luckiest person in the world. A lot of luck. A lot of luck. A lot of luck. That's amazing. But speaking sort of along those lines, um, I know that some people, you know, a fear of birds is pretty normal for some people. Are there any animals that you've been like it's been an unexpected negative reaction when you've brought them out for a program, or unexpected fan favorites to an animal that you're like, I didn't expect people to love this animal so much. What's been your extremes on both ends for that experience?

SPEAKER_00 48:38

We occasionally get the extreme where it's someone who has a phobia. And you have to realize, what do I work with? Snakes and birds, which tend to be the two high up there for some people. I've never heard someone say I'm phobic about otters. Get it away from me. Like it just doesn't happen. I am.

SPEAKER_03 48:55

The only thing you could add is like tarantulas, and then you're like, I'm the scariest person here. Take your bitch. These are what I work with.

SPEAKER_00 49:04

Which I guess is good that these are our animal ambassadors because that is my job is to educate and to change minds and to get people to appreciate uh all the aspects of these animals. Uh, the opposite end of that is um it's just so fun when someone just lights up, lights up. Uh, and then I had somebody wanted to see me after a presentation several weeks ago, and I got a call on the radio, and I was like, Oh, I don't know what that can mean. And it was like, someone wants to talk to you. Who who did the who did the last bird short? That person wants to talk to you. We get some guests here, and I'm like, Do I know these people? And they're like, No, they're they just wanted to talk to you. And I'm like, Oh, okay, what happened? This is a scary radio call, so I came all the way up to the front, and it was um it was a couple that were just so excited about what they saw. Oh and they just wanted to talk my ear off about a hawk they saw in their backyard. And they wanted me to say what it was. I I which I couldn't like it looked like a bird, right? It was big, it's a pretty big brown wings and a wider chest, and I'm like, there's so many that could be. I didn't want to squash that. So we chatted for quite a while. That's just their excitement was so reinforcing for me.

SPEAKER_02 50:18

Yeah. I love that about you guys, your our staff here at the aquarium, where if you have the time, um but you know, after a show or between, you know, between shows, and you're so passionate about your job, you're so passionate about the animals that you work with, of course you want to share them with the world. And I just I really appreciate it about that. You I really appreciate that about your department.

SPEAKER_03 50:36

I appreciate that about our guests, you know? The odd guest who comes up to you and it's like, tell me everything you know about those frogs. You're like, okay, yeah. The guest isn't odd, it's just the one-off guest who I love desperately. It's they're so great. So ask like a question that I've never asked or thought of myself. Yeah. They'll be like, what are otter tongues like? And I was like, I don't know. I just never looked that close at them. And then you're just like opening their mouths and you're like, let me, and then you come back out and you're like, it looks like this. Take a picture, it looks like that. I absolutely love that.

SPEAKER_02 51:07

So definitely if you're visiting the aquarium, don't be afraid to talk to our staff members. Everybody you know who works with animals, or even from our education department, even our guest services staff is really knowledgeable about the animals that are here and their interesting behaviors. And we want to talk about animals. And we want to talk about it.

SPEAKER_00 51:21

We do. Well, that's our job. Yeah, bridging that. That's why we started this podcast. Bridging that gap from our the mission of our facility and what we do for conservation, and we're bridging that gap to for our guests to understand exactly what we're doing. Because that's more that is more poignant than any sign or any pamphlet. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 51:36

A social media listener wants to know how they might be able to visit some of our ambassador animals or where they might see them.

SPEAKER_00 51:43

Uh, currently, the only scheduled presentations that we're doing is in our Honda Pacific Visions. Uh, at 10:30 and 2 o'clock, we do our program called Bird Shorts, which is a live animal presentation. It's always going to be a bird. That's why they're called the Bird Shirts. Uh again, every day, seven days a week at 10:30, and then at 2 o'clock. Those are the ones that are scheduled. And then we do um unscheduled surprise visits with our ambassador reptiles. So anywhere outside, you typically outside, we can be anywhere. We are gonna take out a snake or a skink and uh be out there in the sunshine and talk to our guests. Sometimes we're on mics, sometimes we're just walking around and engaging with people on the fly. Yeah, so just stay aware of your surroundings, right?

SPEAKER_02 52:29

There may be a snake button. There may be a site. That sounds scary. But it or also really cool. In a positive way. In a positive way, there may be exactly cool. Um, who's the oldest ambassador bird that we have?

SPEAKER_00 52:41

Our oldest ambassador bird is Lola.

SPEAKER_02 52:43

Mr. Lola.

SPEAKER_00 52:44

He just screamed. Well, we do have Laura Keats that are older. Oh, but he blinks so hard. He usually is 19 years old, so he is our oldest ambassador.

SPEAKER_02 52:53

Wow, a teenager, you're almost 20. I know, right? It's in double decades. When's his birthday? I have that. It's October. October 5th.

SPEAKER_00 53:03

Oh my gosh, a Libra.

SPEAKER_03 53:04

Hey Wishy, he's a Libra.

SPEAKER_00 53:06

No wonder he's. No, sorry, October 7th, 2005.

SPEAKER_03 53:08

Yeah, it turns out Lola has the same birthday as our curator. Maybe that's the connection of why he's been screaming at us. I'm very excited. Oh, he's communicating in his own ways. Good job, Lola. He's 19? Amazing.

SPEAKER_00 53:24

These guys can easily live until their late 60s. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 53:27

I was gonna say, too, with with them being able to be purchased as pets, you know, that's a huge commitment. You're adopting something that potentially outlive you depending on your age. We had a cockatoo.

SPEAKER_00 53:39

We had two at home on my parents uh growing up. And they had my mom had she picked out this wallpaper that she absolutely loved. And then within one day, the cockatoo had peeled up all the wallpaper that it could be in a sphere around its cage.

SPEAKER_02 53:57

I love that you had cockatoos growing up and you still volunteer to work with them. Because I feel like that could easily go the opposite. Yeah, you know, you know, like I accept you for who you are, Lola.

SPEAKER_00 54:08

We don't want to know what we had growing up. It's a lot of things.

SPEAKER_02 54:12

That's amazing. Um, cool. What are the role of parrots in their ecosystems? We kind of talked about they are able to carry those branches and seeds.

SPEAKER_00 54:22

Their biggest thing is wow, seed dispersal. Yeah, they're amazing. So yeah, they transport seeds because plants can't migrate, they need help to spread their seeds. And it's not just birds. Animals in general will spread seeds, so does wind and water. Uh, but these guys, like I said, they're highlighted as big, frequent seed dispersers long distance. Um, and that's their biggest role. The sulfur-crested cockatoo numbers have increased dramatically. And I, from what I understand, they're considered a pest and they can be really destructive to some people's farms in Australia.

SPEAKER_02 54:52

Yeah, I think we kind of get a couple of those comments every time. Australia with our social media posts. What's up? People are like, I have ten of those in my backyard right now. Yep.

SPEAKER_03 55:04

It's really I'm like, you have ten Lola's lucky you can do that. I know.

SPEAKER_02 55:07

I don't know about that.

SPEAKER_03 55:08

Like, I don't know. It's crazy to see those videos where it's just like someone walks outside and there's just cockatoos all over the yard and you're like, I what? Have any of our ambassador animals been born at the aquarium? Uh why, yes. Why yes?

SPEAKER_00 55:22

Very recently. A new birth, actually. And it I can say birth because prehand cell tailed skinks actually give live birth, um, which is unusual for a reptile. Yeah. And so we have baby mojo who is And why is his name Mojo? Well, I'm glad you asked because his dad is named Banjo and his mother is named Monkey. So we put those together. Oh monkey and banjo and mojo. It's one of the few times one person suggests the name, and everybody agrees. Yeah, I was like, yes, absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 55:50

Also, Mojo's a great name for the little guy.

SPEAKER_00 55:53

He's cute. He's got a lot of mojo. And he was huge being born. Oh my gosh, they're when they're born, they're about approximately a third the size of the mother. One third of the size. And I read. Yeah, can you imagine? That would be like a human person giving birth to a five-year-old. And then I stopped reading, like I stopped reading. I know I know.

SPEAKER_03 56:14

We did a whole, I mean, it was basically done learning today. We did like a baby shower, we did the guess the date that Mojo will be born and how big it will how big it'll be and how much it'll weigh.

SPEAKER_02 56:26

I love that story because that those are animals we've those are two animals we've had for a long time and have never bred.

SPEAKER_00 56:32

And then all of a sudden, the mojo, you know, you never know. Especially monkey. Monkey's one of the oldest, she's one of two of the oldest living ever recorded prehintel tailed skin. Really? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 56:46

And she just had a baby.

SPEAKER_00 56:48

Yeah. So I assume that was not physically possible for her. So she is doing very well.

SPEAKER_02 56:54

That's so cool. Um, we have a very specific question for you from um someone you might know. And it is tell us a fun fact about red-tailed hawks. Or sorry, a co-worker of ours. Shout out, Amanda. Thanks for the great question.

SPEAKER_00 57:06

Uh, red tailed hawks, like all birds of prey, their vision is ten times better than our own, uh, and their speed is incredible. So the fastest animal in the world, everyone thinks, is the cheetah. Um, but actually, there are many birds, even some fish, that go faster than the speed of a cheetah. And the fastest animal in the world is a raptor. Now, eagles can go 70 to 80 miles an hour. Hawk, yeah. Hawk like Lyra, uh, 120 miles per hour, and this is referred to as a stoop. So this is not flying and gliding out in the air like you see them doing. This is when they tuck up their wings and dive like a bullet going after their prey. A lot of times it's the impact alone that kills their prey, uh, not necessarily the sharp talons, it's just that impact coming in. Um, but the fastest um of the raptors is the falcons, and the fastest of the falcons is the North American peregrine falcon at 242 miles per hour. It's crazy.

SPEAKER_03 58:01

Are they are there like I was gonna ask it in the stupidest way. I was gonna say, are they like built different? Like built different. But like when I think of birds, are they built different? They built different? When I think about birds, like songbirds, little birds, they weigh nothing. They have hollow bones. They like you could look at them and their bones seem like they're gonna break at any second. But I can't imagine diving at 240 miles an hour and landing on something. And yeah, the impact kills the thing, but how does the impact not kill the bird? How are they? Do they like put their wings out at the last second and they like stop themselves? Like, how different? How do they just built to different different?

SPEAKER_00 58:42

Are their legs like I'll explain exactly how they're built different for the coolest fact. There's lots of difference, a lot of different facts to talk about. But my all-time favorite, and this is a falcon thing, they have a tiny twist of bone and skin in their nostrils. So if you look, it's like a little island in the middle of each nostril, and it's just bone and skin. And so as they're diving, and you can imagine if you've ever been in a car on the freeway, and as a kid, stick your hand out the window and watch that force of air push your hand backwards, that's just going the speed limit, hopefully. But for an animal that can physically reach the type of speeds that a falcon can, that force of wind hitting their face, if they were trying to take a breath, it could explode their lungs. And what that twist of bone and skin does, it breaks up the wind and it protects their lungs. So when they're doing that dive from several hundred feet in the air, they could breathe normally safely. Isn't that the coolest? They're different. They're feel different.

SPEAKER_02 59:43

They really are. That's so cool.

SPEAKER_03 59:46

Hards are amazing. If I had that, I would probably get surgery for like a deviated septum, you know, like, and then for them, they're like, I need this so that I don't explode while I'm well.

SPEAKER_02 59:55

If you had that, then you could maybe dive from at about 280 miles per hour.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:00

You could do that. I just don't think I could stop. I'm just gonna install a twist of bone and skin in my nose. Let me do that. Then you're invincible. What is that? Ping what is that? Don't worry about it. Stop picking up. It's actually the twist for my dive. You wouldn't understand. You twist. You wouldn't get it. I'm gonna understand. I'm built. You're not a falcon. I'm fed up. Okay, we're done.

unknown 1:00:24

We're done.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:25

Full circle. I know. Good job, Aaron. Full circle.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:27

Full circle. Well done. Okay, before we end, is there any favorite stories you have of working with the birds that you would like to share? I feel like every day is something new, so I'm sure it's hard to keep track of them. But do any stories stick out?

SPEAKER_00 1:00:40

So Sula, which we haven't talked about Sula quite enough for the amazing bird that she is. No, we could do a whole episode on Sula. Right? Our red-footed booby, she's relatively new to doing these big theater shows, um, our bird shorts. And she is uh she flies and we make it different each time, uh, kind of mix it up. But she does one A to B, which is point A flight to point B, and I'm talking the show. And when I'm talking, these are animals that can be unpredictable and things can happen. And my job is to keep talking as if it was part of the presentation, no matter what I'm doing. According to plan. And so uh lately she has been feeling more comfortable, and she's been deciding to do flights that don't land on my arm and fly past me with a little bit of side eye. Um, you know, I'm sitting here like an idiot with my arm up, and I've learned not to say, and she's gonna fly right over here to me. Um, and she flies and she's gonna land. I can see her, and then I can just see her face, her eyes disconnect from me and look past me. And then she just keeps going and she makes this beautiful circle across. We have um a beautiful beachy sunset backdrop, and you see her fly across this gorgeous setting.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:55

As if it was planned.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:56

As if it was planned, and that's exactly what I do. Like, she is gonna take this time to stretch her wings and give you a gorgeous look at how beautiful these birds fly. Right, and just even the inside of them die, like where'd you gonna go? Don't hurt yourself. Well, they make sure everything's safe. Like, where's my co-trainer? What's going on? Why would she do this? We'll talk about it later. And then she lands on the back of someone's seat. She does. Fortunately is good. Nothing came out of her. Yeah, exactly. There was no good luck at that point.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:27

Okay, so go to bird shorts if you if you got a good um good attitude about maybe getting up close to an animal because it could happen. It's unpredictable.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:35

So it's just like I'm a pelagic bird. I'm gonna demonstrate me flying over the ocean that I'm gonna make friends with this guy. Right? What's up? What's your name? Till it's a hey, she got squid for me. Yeah. By chance, everyone else seems to.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:51

You work here? It's funny. You hang out around here sometimes. You around here much? That's amazing. Cool. Thank you so much, Heather. This is a really fun episode. I learned so much about our ambassador birds, and like I said, we could really do an episode on each each one. So maybe that'll come in the future. Thank you for just a whole season of ambassador birds.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:09

It's just been a really good time. I think it the funniest thing is that we have this gregarious, amazing program animal right here with us. And he's just been so nervous about the new setting that, like, it's actually a great opportunity. Our real last question that we can edit in at the end is we wanted to know what Lola's best animal impression is.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:29

You're a very pretty bird. What kind of bird? It's time to use my teapot. What's that? Good. Good. That's a favorite game to play. Let's do that one again because that's pretty fun. Let's do it again. If I scratch my head and say, let's think, he scratches his head and says, Where's your brain? Let's do it. Let's think. Good.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:12

Aquarium of the Podcific is brought to you by Aquarium of the Pacific, a 501 C3 nonprofit organization. In 2023, the Aquarium celebrates 25 years of connecting millions of people worldwide to the beauty and wonder of our ocean planet. Head to aquariumofpacific.org to learn more about our 25th anniversary celebration. Keep up with the Aquarium on social media at Aquarium Pacific on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:37

This podcast is produced by Aaron Lundy, Madeline Walden, and Scott Shaw. Our music is by Andrew Reitzma, and our podcast art is by Brandy Kenney. Special thanks to Cecile Fisher, Anita Vias, and our audiovisual and education departments, and to all of our amazing podcast guests for taking time out of their day to talk about the important work that they do. Podcific wouldn't be possible without the support of the Aquarium's donors, members, guests, and supporters. Thanks for listening.