Miyagi, our male coati, is quite dependent and he likes the attention of the caretakers. He lives alone in his zoo enclosure. Male coatis are usually solitary animals, while the females and babies live in groups up to 30 individuals.
When I approach Miyagi, he starts to squeak and walks around waiting for my attention. The noises he makes are high pitched and they are different in intensity depending on if he is happy, angry, excited or looking for food.
These animals are known to be very energetic and nervous and can be difficult to get their full attention. They are very quick, can be fierce fighters and they have very sharp canines, so it is important that I stay a 100% focused when I am training him.
Starting my training
First, you have to know that I am no expert trainer. I am just starting to train animals, but I have had the chance to watch more experienced caretakers train.
And secondly, Miyagi is very easy to train because he is already used to people. He was raised by a family before the zoo adopted him.
I started to train Miyagi because I noticed that he was bored during the day and acting very nervous when we were inside the enclosure with him. These two things combined could be very dangerous to him and us.
In the beginning I just wanted him to focus on me and let me touch him. Every time I was able to do that without him trying to bite me, I gave him a reward (normally grapes).
After that, I set a routine with him: do a circuit in the enclosure to help him focus on one thing and liberate some energy. At the end of this circuit, on the same spot as always, I do the second part of the training: touching Miyagi on specific body parts where in a future he might need an injection (for example the back leg). In these trainings my finger replaces the needle, with the intention to make him comfortable with this pressure on one spot. The exercises are always done in the same order: first he needs to focus on me and follow me throughout the circuit, then he gets a treat, I touch him and if he accepts this he get another treat, I touch him again on another spot, he gets another treat and so on.
When he started to accept all the interactions, I tried to go further, like touching his belly, paws and face. These parts are more vulnerable for him and dangerous for me to touch. It is always important to observe and be alert if the animal is comfortable with the exercise. That makes your job a lot easier and the animal won’t be stressed when you need to check injuries, check its weight, give an injection, etc.
And now?
I only have time to do this training every other day, but it would be better to do it every day.
Miyagi is doing very well in his training. Now that he knows the routine, I try to not only give him grapes, but also other fruit with less sugar.
Every individual animal is different, and when you train them you have to adapt your training to their situation to avoid stress or negative results.
Have some of you trained a coati or other animal before? How was your experience? Leave your comments below if you want to share your story.