Young Learners

 
This article's title, Young Learners, may immediately conjure images of toddlers playing with blocks, paints, and crayons. Humans, of course, do not hold the patent on learning skills. Indeed, we are not the only species to experience crucial learning lessons early in life. Most animal species - including ourselves - exhibit a combination of innate (instinctual) and learned behaviors. While innate behaviors are essentially pre-determined, learned behaviors may develop in a variety of interesting ways. Perhaps no where is this as obvious or entertaining as witnessed in developing young - human child, lion cub, and killer whale calf alike.
 

We recently had two killer whale calves born at SeaWorld in San Diego. Nakai is now a year old, and his cousin, born just four months ago, has a lot to learn to catch up. It's wonderful to observe the development of these two calves, to note comparisons, and how they interact with the whole group of ten killer whales.

One of the earliest forms of learning that takes place is social learning - the calves observe and model the behavior of the other whales. When Nakai was just three months old, he was coming over to participate in sessions with the other whales. He would rest his chin on the side of the pool with the others as they waited their turn for attention from the trainers. He learned this simply by observing the other whale's behavior. This is also how both he and our newest calf began playing with food right around this age as well. Physically their teeth are beginning to erupt at about three months, so the natural progression to solid food follows quickly as a supplement to mom's milk. Now, Nakai sometimes follows his mom doing jumps around the pool, hangs upside down with an older male who enjoys playing with kelp, and even slides out onto a shallow platform - because all the other whales do too.

  
 

The calves are very interested in everything that is happening around them and Nakai seems especially independent, curious and playful. At the underwater viewing panels of Shamu Close-Up, Nakai spends time interacting with guests and mimicking their movements. Wiggle your arms back and forth and Nakai will wiggle his pectoral flippers. Shake your head and Nakai will often shake his! To him, this is all fun, he doesn't know he's actually learning.

  
 

All during the time Nakai is learning from the other whales and guests, he is learning from his trainers as well. The most important thing we teach the young whales is that we are fun and interesting and have a lot to offer. Of course they get all the food from mom and us that they could want, so we need to be really creative to keep their interest at times. Toys, bubbles, water jets, ice cubes, tactile stimulation, hide-and-seek games and more are used to create an interesting, stimulating and fun environment. We utilize these things to make learning fun, so all the animals want to participate at least most of the time. The calves learn by example from their conspecifics, but as trainers, we use small approximations to teach the whales most of what they learn from us. From simple behaviors like opening their mouth for a dental exam, to more complex behaviors such as completing a forward flip, the learning is based on positive operant conditioning techniques. We have even taught all the whales to rest comfortably while the veterinarian withdraws a small blood sample. This is one of Nakai's newest behaviors.

  
 

There will be hundreds of different behaviors the whales will learn - at their own pace and always in their own unique ways.

The calves, as well as the adults, appear to be motivated by the challenges, fun and relationships created through the training process. As Nakai and his younger cousin mature, surrounded by moms, aunts, brothers, sisters, and friends in the group, we look forward to seeing how their personalities develop, and will have a great time getting to know them as individuals of our pod.
 

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