23.08.2020

Features of the behavior of animals during training in the circus. Animal training - the most interesting blog posts

The whole truth about animal training in the circus

There are many photos and articles on the Internet about how cruel animal training in the circus is. It is enough to enter the corresponding query in the search bar, and materials about the whip method revealed by a hidden camera will immediately appear. Here are numerous complaints from animal rights activists to law enforcement agencies, a photo of an elephant, tied with ropes until blood

There are many photos and articles on the Internet about how cruel animal training in the circus is. It is enough to enter the corresponding query in the search bar, and materials about the whip method revealed by a hidden camera will immediately appear. Here, there are numerous complaints from animal rights activists to law enforcement agencies, a photo of an elephant tied with ropes until bloodied.

Daria Yarkhamova - Kazan

KazanFirst journalists asked themselves a question and visited the backstage of the famous circus of Gia Eradze to find out if it is true that animals must be beaten to teach a trick, and on what basics of training the performance is based.

Alexander Dudkin and Ricci

At the service entrance to the Kazan circus, the administrator meets us and takes us on a tour of the granaries of the "Royal Circus of Gia Eradze". Our first interviewer turned out to be the adorable chimpanzee Richard with his friendly trainer Alexander Dudkin.

Ricci is 12 years old. He has been in the circus since childhood. Came to us when he was still one year old. He became one of the first pupils of Gia Eradze. When I came to the circus, Ricci was almost six years old. He immediately accepted me as a leader, began to show respect and began to imitate, - Alexander Dudkin recalls.

The trainer sat on a bench surrounded by green fake palms, and next to him was a tall, stocky gentleman in a logo suit, uniform - a distinctive feature of Gia Eradze's team. The gentleman hugged the "owner" by the shoulders and looked with curiosity at me and the photographer. From the first minutes of the conversation, we realized that in order to train monkeys, we must encourage them with treats. And when the animal is still small, then you need to treat it tenderly and affectionately, like a child, and constantly be near. 12-year-old monkeys in mental development can be compared with a 6-year-old child - they understand everything and sometimes are capricious.

Practically, you live with a monkey so that she perceives you as a father, - the interlocutor notes.

In monkeys, it is in nature that there should be one leader in a flock. If he is not there, then they begin to fight and identify him; in the circus, this leader is the trainer.

The process of work goes like this: first you observe, play with the monkey, during the game it does some trick itself. Your task is to catch her on this and then consolidate the action with a treat, - Alexander Dudkin reveals the peculiarities of working with animals.

According to the trainer, when monkeys grow up, they should be treated more strictly. When walking, they should always walk side by side and keep eye contact. And monkeys can also eat from their hands. Ricci, for example, will never give up on an outstretched fruit. Favorite treats are bananas and kiwi. In the evenings she eats porridge and drinks sweet tea. He holds the cup himself. He also loves soda: phantom, cola, pepsi. Loves chocolates and sweets.

If you give him six chocolate bars, he will eat them all at once. But monkeys are predisposed to diabetes, so we don't give him much chocolate. Only two pieces per day are allowed, - says the source.

Ricci also takes off his clothes himself. Likes to go naked.

He needs walks on fresh air... The bigger, the better. But in winter we don't go for a walk with him, because the immunity of monkeys is weaker than that of humans, - the trainer notes. In Kazan, Ricci and I have not yet walked on the street. The temperature is not right yet.

According to the trainer, keeping the monkey is inexpensive. He eats as much as a person of average build.

We don't let Ricci come in contact with other animals because he's big. But if during one of the performances he accidentally meets a lemur, he will bypass him. So he shows himself to be the leader among them, - says Alexander Dudkin.

Richard no longer requires frequent training. Enough two or three times a week. But when he was little, it was necessary to rehearse with him every day for several hours and to be around all day.

Many have noticed that monkeys have leashes. This is not so much a limitation as a connection between the animal and its trainer. When the monkey is small, then it is not kept on a leash: there is no harm from the cubs to other people. And an adult only obeys the trainer, and even if one of the people says “no” to him, he can perceive it as “yes”. So Ricci can't walk off a leash, because he can be unpredictable. And if you consider that our hero weighs 60 kg, then games with passers-by can be dangerous.

Ricci is cunning. When you come to his aviary in the morning, you find some thing, and it is not clear where he got it from, - the interlocutor smiles.

According to him, Richard understands intonation. If he began to behave in an inappropriate way, then he is pulled verbally.

Lyudmila Surkova and her predators

Our next point of excursion is a room with tigers. To our surprise, a fragile woman turned out to be a trainer of predatory animals Ludmila Surkov.

Don't get close to the cages, someone commanded.

But how can you not get close to them? To get into the room to the predators, it was necessary to pass in the closest to the cage - 15 cm. There were transplants on either side of us, open-air cages stood in front, and a grate covered the exit from the room at the back. And in each of them tigers darted. Predatory eyes fixed on us. The whole space seemed to me like a huge striped red carpet that rattled against the iron bars.

These are the same cats, only big ones, ”says Lyudmila Surkova, smiling. - I do not need to somehow overcome fear. If you are afraid, it is better not to go to them, because predators feel it perfectly. I was scared only once, when I left the enclosure. It was like knowing: God, what I just did.

Lyudmila is a trainer with 10 years of experience. Since childhood, she dreamed of becoming a "teacher" of tigers.

I have complete mutual understanding with them, - the interlocutor smiles broadly. To tell the truth, in her features she herself is similar to a tiger.

In total, Gia Eradze's show features four African lionesses and 10 Amur, Sumatran and Bengal tigers. Lyudmila Surkova has all her favorites, but the best ones are those who are distinguished by their great intelligence and ingenuity. This is the Pirate.

There was a case when I was telling "them" a new trick, the Pirate came up and began to do it, but he had never performed it before, ”says our interlocutor.

The tricks are explained by bodily contact. To make any movement, tigers are lured by goodies. Some even eat off their hands. But it depends on the mood of the predator.

Tigers are cats that like to swim, so in summer they are kept outdoors, if the circus territory allows it, in huge enclosures with pools inside. But walking them on a leash is crazy. Even if several people do it. Not only the trainers can suffer from this, but also the tigers themselves. A cat may simply be frightened from a change in the surrounding landscape, since their "star life" takes place only on the territory of the circus, and it is, as a rule, typical.

We have contact tricks. For example, a kiss with a big lioness. The predator takes meat from its mouth. This is a very dangerous trick when his fangs are next to your face, - says the interlocutor.

In her opinion, all training is based on education.

We take them small, educate, domesticate them, sleep with them in the same bed. Nobody should be afraid of anyone. Neither you are an animal, nor it is you. There must be trust between you. If an animal does tricks at the expense of its fear, then someday it will rush at you and take revenge. The main thing in our business is love, mutual understanding and affection, - says Lyudmila Surkova.

If we talk about the diet, then one adult tiger needs 6 kg of meat per day. And different things: pork, beef, chicken, rabbits, otherwise the predators will not be so beautiful, well-fed and healthy. Lions, on the other hand, are prone to obesity. If you overfeed them, they will become fat and immobile. And they will start having heart, kidney and liver problems. And rehearsals and training are just physical exercises so that the animals retain their beauty and grace.

The basics of training are when the animal knows its place and sits there. We have it a curbstone, - adds Lyudmila Surkova.

Each tiger has its own role. Everyone performs only the tricks they are capable of. Lyudmila has a tigress, Klepa, who is not afraid of heights. With her, she sways on a swing. Lyudmila is the only girl in the world who has performed this trick since the time of Irina Nikolaevna Bugrimova.

Circus tigers are born in zoos

There are certain standards. You cannot take an animal from the wild - this is a condition for working in circuses. Lex (white tiger) came to us from the zoo in South Africa. Gina (lioness) is from Karaganda. We take tigers from the zoo in Sochi with pleasure, because there they are born with good genetics and character, - says the interlocutor.

It turns out that all predators are different on the faces, and all have different stripes. Tiger stripes are like human fingerprints. According to Surkova, tigers are trained for a long time. It takes a long time to rehearse new tricks - weeks, months, and sometimes even years.

Tigers also love to be naughty. Even at shows when the trainer does not see. The trainer has a stick called a "stack". This is an extension of the hand. It happened that tigers took away a stick from Lyudmila Surkova. This is how they play and want the person to just play with them.

You can spank a tiger with a stack. If this is a punishment, then the tiger has the most sore spot - the nose. But you can stroke with a stack and even scratch his belly, - she says.

The trainer has assistants. They are located behind the cage. Each of them has its own task - someone needs to watch out for the tiger, someone for the lioness, there are those who stand to protect in case of danger. There are also people behind the arena who are responsible for preventing the viewer from approaching the cage. Predators are rolled out onto the arena in special carriers, not by hand, but on wheels. From the aviary in which they are kept, they themselves sit in them. They even know who is sitting with whom and who should enter behind whom.

I was attacked several times. At such moments, you think how much power they have and how it all can end. Once they pushed me against the wall. We just wanted to play. They got up on their hind legs, and leaned their forepaws on me. I thought that I could not bear the load on my spine. Then about 400 kg piled on me. Thank God they didn't injure me. We jumped off ourselves, - recalls the interlocutor.

During her many years of career, Lyudmila Surkova had a moment when a tigress accidentally hooked her with a claw on a pillow thumb... The main thing is to calm the tigress and remove the palm from the claw, because a big cat may be afraid that it has caused harm. We do not punish for such misconduct - it is not special.

As for the offspring, it is impossible to breed tigers in the circus. The conditions for raising babies are difficult here. A tigress can bring three or four kittens, you can't take all of them “home” at the same time. Therefore, during the rutting season, tigresses are planted away from males. But if it happens, then they bring up like their own children.

Other animals

Then we were taken to look at horses and other herbivores. The photographer and I left the predatory room with relief. First of all, we saw the nose and porcupines. Nosuha is a predator, but omnivorous, eats both meat and fruits. Then we walked past the room of a kangaroo named Kanga. This is a boy. He is seven years.

In the Soviet Union, the famous trainer Vladimir Durov had a kangaroo boxer, for a long time this number was the hallmark of the Soviet circus. Nowadays it is less and less common to meet these animals in the circus. The kanga was given to us. They feed him with vegetables, fruits and hay, - said the administrator Christina.

Then we went to the stable to the artiodactyls.

Zebra Ele is 14 years old. She came to us when she was three years old. Artiodactyls before a certain age fragile bones. They are raised and then transferred to zoos, equestrian sports or a circus, - our "guide" explained to us.

Then there were llamas, dwarf ponies, the African antelope Jafar, Andalusian horses, the majestic black Friezes and camels. They are all kept in stalls, often walk in the yard in warm weather, and rehearse every day. Our excursion ended. Coming out of the circus, the photographer admitted that he barely moved the room of predators, and I felt that my hands retained the smell of tigers that we stroked.

We tried to reveal the secret behind the scenes, the secrets of training, and on ourselves we felt the whole burden of responsibility for our smaller brothers.

11 927

Probably each of us in childhood has been to the circus and the zoo. Some people go there even now, take their children to give them moments of joy, to fill their childhood with happiness. On the one hand, it seems like a completely natural parental concern. But the animals in the cages of the zoo and circus, alas, grew up without such care.

I vaguely remember my impressions after visiting the circus and zoo as a child. I realized that sitting in a cage is not very fun, but a child's mind is not accustomed to loading itself with sad thoughts. But somehow I was called to the circus when I was no longer a child. The circus program was called Skate Bears. I looked at the bears who not only skated, but also got up to various tricks, they rode a skate, standing on their front paws. I then thought that I, in principle, do not know how to skate, but, if I wanted to, I could learn, but just not standing on my hands. Never! It's scary, it's not natural to stand on your hands. I would never have learned that way ... unless I was starved and punished severely for disobedience.

I could hardly sit through this disgusting performance. Since then, the circus for me is something wild, evil, disgusting. When I see circus posters, where the emphasis is mainly on "incredible shows with animals," I am surprised how civilized people in our age, when entertainment is at every step (without the pain and suffering of other living beings), still support this industry of violence. Not a single animal came to the circus voluntarily. No animal wants to perform tricks for a piece of food.

But, animals will suffer while you buy a ticket to the circus, it is you who are contributing to this abuse of animals.

To make the bear, funny waddling, dance "Kalinka", he is placed on a metal surface, music is turned on and the iron is heated to an unbearable temperature. In order not to burn its paws, the bear has to shift from foot to foot. The reflex is reinforced by no single such lesson. Bears are not very obedient creatures, so they are most often beaten by tamers.

Horses have long been tamed by man, thousands of years ago, with the help of horses, man mastered new lands. Now there is no need to use a horse for survival, but horses are still enslaved by humans. In the circus, horses are subjected to sophisticated torture. So that they can stand on their hind legs for a long time, an electric shock is applied to their genitals at the moment when the trainer suddenly throws his arms up. From the terrible pain, the horse rears up. If the horse lowers his front legs before the handler lowers his arms, the electric shock is applied again. And so - until you get the result required for the number.

“People who accept and all the more support the entertainment industry with animals are people with a cave mentality, this is a dead end branch of humanity.«

Funny monkeys, dogs and cats are subjected to no less cruelty. And if you think that dolphins in dolphinariums are happy animals, then you are mistaken. No animal wants to do what nature does not give it, and it does not matter whether it climbs trees or swims in water. Dolphinarium for dolphins is hell. A dolphin living in freedom swims 150 kilometers a day. Its habitat is 85 sq km. In captivity, it can splash in a pool of concrete, steel or glass measuring 8x8 meters and 1.8 meters deep. The average life span of a dolphin in a dolphinarium is 10 times lower than in natural conditions.

The fate of a circus animal is: brutal training, constant performances, hunger and life in a cramped cage. However, can this be called life?

A whole book could be written about the suffering of animals in a circus. But it's better to see once. Watch this movie and say NO circus with animals. Just 30 minutes of your time can change and give a free life without violence to animals in their natural habitat.

Circus programs with animals are not instructive for children. The animals there are just clowns, forced prisoners, slaves ...

22.05.2013

"Circus of Horrors". There is no other name for the video, which was filmed by a volunteer girl in one of the circuses in St. Petersburg. What methods do trainers use to get tricks from even the most harmless animals? Sensitive people are not recommended to watch videos. (18+)

Sensitive people are not recommended to watch videos. (18+)

The video was filmed by a volunteer at the Vita Animal Rights Center, who got a job as a cleaner in the Great St. Petersburg State Circus on the Fontanka and put a hidden camera there.

It's better not even to imagine what is happening behind the scenes of the most cheerful and joyful of places. To create tricks with animals, only a whip is used, there was no smell of gingerbread here.

In particular, to force the monkey to stand on its front legs, the trainer not only hits it with a whip, but also hits the animal with its head on a chair several times.

The containment cages are clearly not comfortable. Our smaller brothers can hardly turn around in their "houses".

The video material collected by the volunteer about cruelty to animals in the circus served as evidence attached to the statement to the prosecutor's office of the cultural capital demanding that the trainers be prosecuted under Art. 245 Art. Of the RF Criminal Code "On cruelty to animals."

“I have said many times that it is necessary to introduce a license for the profession of“ trainer ”, to introduce a license for keeping dogs of fighting breeds and for keeping dangerous animals at home,” the trainer commented on the situation. Edgard Zapashny.

By the way, yesterday, May 21, a bill was introduced to the State Duma of Russia that toughens the responsibility for cruelty to animals. To date, the maximum punishment is six months of arrest. If the use of sadistic methods is carried out by a group of persons - two years in prison.

The bill proposes to increase the terms to two and three years, respectively. Those who prove that they have mistreated animals due to a mental disorder are encouraged to be sent for compulsory treatment.

In addition, it is proposed to enter the information resources of doghunters in the register of prohibited sites. “At the same time, it is quite obvious that it is necessary to adopt a new Federal Law, entirely devoted to the issues of animal management. It is with the introduction of transparent rules governing the keeping of animals and the treatment of them that it is possible to establish more specific measures of responsibility, including administrative ones, ”says the author of the bill, a State Duma deputy from the Fair Russia party, in an explanatory note. Oleg Mikheev.

Animal training

German shepherd dog swinging on a swing in competition

Chicken on a skateboard

Animal training (from the French. dresser - to straighten, train), - a set of training actions on animals, taken to develop and consolidate various conditioned reflexes and skills. Training can be carried out with the aim of developing friendly relations, forming an adequate behavior of an animal for finding it in human society, searching for objects of any type, protection in certain circumstances or entertainment. Training is a necessity for a comfortable coexistence of a person with certain types of animals.

The basis of training

The basis of animal training is the formation of conditioned reflexes, according to the teachings of I.P. Pavlov on higher nervous activity. Using a variety of stimuli, for example, such as sound, food and gesture signals, which are conditioned, and mechanical actions, which are considered unconditioned reflexes. It is this effect that causes the necessary reaction in animals, which the trainer is trying to fix.

Methods and methods of training

Turtle charmer

A person engaged in training should be able to feel the dependence of the type of higher nervous activity of the trained animal on its characteristics, and only after determining this dependence can one choose the training method necessary for this animal.

Contrast methods

If the necessary commands are fulfilled, the animal is encouraged, in case of disobedience - punished. In order for the skills to be developed, the animal must be periodically trained. In this case, the trained animal will ideally perform all the actions that a person requires of him.

Pain method

Incentive method

Imitative method

Circus training

Animal training for circus performances has been known for a long time. Even in Ancient Egypt and Ancient Rome, animals were used for these spectacular events. Now in the circus you can see a variety of trained animals, from elephants to mice. If the bulk of the trainers used painful methods in working with circus "artists", then VL Durov was the first to use the painless encouraging method based on the teaching of I.P. Pavlov about conditioned reflexes. It was this method that allowed Durov to subdue and work with animals, the training of which had previously been impossible. This method has received wide recognition and is used by many trainers, for example, the famous circus master Yu. D. Kuklachev uses this rewarding and painless method of training when working with cats.

Types and variety of trained animals

Various types of both wild and domestic animals are subject to training. Wild animals are first tamed and then trained. The younger the animal, the easier it is to train and get used to humans. The elements of training can be the simplest actions with farm animals, for example, a milkmaid milks a cow, but if the animal has not previously undergone a certain training, then milking will be problematic and the cow simply will not give the milkmaid milk. That is why the animal is preliminarily accustomed to the place, room, to the sight and smell of a person. This is the simplest training, but even such training and taming is considered training.

A horse is trained by teaching it to walk in a bridle, cleaning, a saddle fixed on its back, and training horses for dressage or for a higher riding school is a rather complex training that requires certain knowledge and skills of a person.

Dog training

Basic principles of dog training

Features of training birds and insects

Birds and insects lend themselves to training. For example, the domestication of pigeons to fly long distances. It was thanks to the work of man with these birds that the ability of carrier pigeons to find their way home was developed.

Beekeepers who want to get honey from a certain type of plant work in advance to create conditioned reflexes in bees to smell the necessary flowers. This method was first proposed by the Soviet scientist A.F. Gubin in 1933. The necessary actions are achieved by feeding insects with sugar syrup with the addition of the aroma of a certain honey plant. Having got used to a certain type, taste and smell, bees will search for this particular plant in the future.

Notes

Literature

Karen Pryor, "On the training of animals and people"
VL Durov "Animal Training"

Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

See what "Animal training" is in other dictionaries:

Training (from the French dresser - to straighten, teach, train), methods of influencing an animal in order to develop and consolidate in him certain (necessary for a person) actions and skills as a result of the formation of conditioned reflexes. Theoretical ... ...

TRAINING (from the French. Dresser to straighten, train), methods of influencing animals in order to develop and consolidate certain conditioned reflexes and skills in them. They use training, for example, in service dog breeding, in the preparation of circus ... ... encyclopedic Dictionary

TRAINING - (from French dresser "to school"), animal training. D.'s difference from training itself is often seen in the fact that a trained animal does not understand the meaning of its actions. D. is as old as a person, but only at the present time, the study of conventional ... ... Big medical encyclopedia

- (from the French dresser to straighten, train) the development of fixed forms of behavior by alternating positive and negative reinforcements. Training is one of the oldest methods of controlling animals and people. Many people ... Wikipedia

I Training (from the French dresser to straighten, teach, train) methods of influencing an animal in order to develop and consolidate in him certain (necessary for a person) actions and skills as a result of the formation of conditioned reflexes. ... ... Great Soviet Encyclopedia

- (from the French dresser to straighten, train), the impact of various methods on animals to develop and consolidate in them certain conditioned reflexes and skills. They use training, for example, in service dog breeding, in preparation ... ... Modern encyclopedia

training - and, w. dresser. 1. Action by value. ch. train; a method of teaching animals associated with the systematic consolidation of the skills they have acquired. ALS 2. 2. perev., Obsolete. Training, instilling behavioral skills (usually by cruel methods, drill) ... Historical Dictionary of Russian Gallicisms

- (from the French dresser to straighten to teach), methods of influencing animals in order to develop and consolidate certain conditioned reflexes and skills in them. They use training, for example, in service dog breeding, in the preparation of circus animals for ... ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

I (from French dresser to straighten, train), methods of influencing animals in order to develop and consolidate certain conditioned reflexes and skills in them. Training is used, for example, in service dog breeding, in the preparation of circus animals ... ... encyclopedic Dictionary

TRAIN, rui, rue; oval; not sov., whom (what). Train (animals) to do what n. actions, develop the skills a person needs. D. dog. Trained animals. Ozhegov's Explanatory Dictionary. S.I. Ozhegov, N.Yu. Shvedova. 1949 1992 ... Ozhegov's Explanatory Dictionary

One of the most disgusting things is the animal show at the circus. To force an animal to perform tricks, it is necessary to break its will with the help of fear of punishment. The more difficult the trick, the more suffering during training. Almost all trainers beat animals or use electric shocks. Fangs and claws are pulled out of many predatory animals. Do not believe the stories of gallant trainers that they work only with love and affection. Many circuses, for ethical reasons, are beginning to abandon animal shows. Best shape fighting this brutality - an economic boycott. Such people understand only one argument - a blow to the wallet.

And you shouldn't take your children to these performances at all.

A large reportage on how elephants are trained was published by PHOTOTELEGRAPH

The crown number of the world famous Ringling Bros. - performance of elephants. Spectators are amazed every time how interesting and complex tricks the animals do. And behind the scenes, it remains how cruel training elephants must undergo in order to perform for the amusement of the audience. Here is a selection of photographs from training, which was secretly made by one of the employees of the famous circus, tired of watching animals being bullied.