A pair of clever bison have learned how to vaccinate themselves by leaning into needles of their own accord.
Young bulls Fury and Haze were trained by keepers in a bid to make the experience less stressful.
Now they have “control over the movement” and even push their bodies towards the injection when they’re ready for a jab.
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“We started off with reinforcing calm behaviours and positive associations between their trainers and keepers and themselves,” Becky Copland, Animal Behaviour Management Officer at Wildwood, near Canterbury, Kent, said.
“We progressed on to target training and that’s where we got that turning movement that we wanted so they presented the side of their body to the fence.
“The pair came straight back into the training session after the procedure, reinforcing that it was not as stressful for them as previous methods.”
Previous methods include darting, which involves a syringe being fired with compressed gas from a non-lethal rifle.
It is activated by the momentum of a steel ball in the syringe that pushes the plunger down and injects the animal upon impact.
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Becky also told What’s The Jam: “Darting can be quite stressful and not the most pleasant process so it’s something we had wanted to move away from.
“We’ve trained them to lean into their own injection syringe so they’ve got control over that movement and that procedure which will hopefully make things much smoother for them.”
The plan is now to use the vaccination method on other animals in the park, including elk and wolves.
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