FEATURE
fly between me and Susan Friedman. Susan was attending the workshop in the dual capacity of student, training birds and some of the other creatures on the ranch and also giving us her superb lectures on behaviour science. On the last afternoon, Rob and Susan and I were with Palmer in the aviary. Palmer had been flying about 30 foot between Susan and me. Rob and Susan turned aside for a moment’s chat; I was left holding Palmer. I walked him over to a perch and stepped him up; we waited quietly together. How simple it sounds but this was the first occasion that I felt myself handling the bird with the requisite tact and smoothness.
I have no proven theory as to why the NEI birds learn faster than most of our pet birds. They normally live in flights with bird buddies. They are not petted by their carers, preening and
social relationships are with their own species. Janet Jeanpierre, a student another workshop
36 BIRD SCENE
remarked: ‘The show birds I saw at NEI had very little opportunity to learn from trainers except when they were actually working. Other than working, they were caged and not being fussed with. That means there is very little opportunity to learn confusing or contradictory messages simply because their interaction with people is very limited. It is a completely different relationship.’ Information on NEI and workshops can be found on the website Steve Martin’s Natural Encounters, Inc. Dr. Susan Friedman’s articles can be found at
www.thegabrielfoundation. org/html/
friedman.htm -
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