Tools for Training Elephants

Elephant care and training is crucial in maintaining and enhancing the well-being of the animal. When a trainer utilizes the correct methods in working with an elephant, the outcome can have a positive impact on the animal due to the reduction of stress. There are two main methods elephant trainers use to provide a safe atmosphere for everyone involved. Reinforcement for the elephant is a significant factor in eliciting certain behavior.

  1. Guide or Ankus

    • The guide is used so the trainer can touch, push or pull different parts of the elephant's body in different directions. The tool is a shaft that has a hook attached to it, which is tapered with a metal point at the end. The guide is typically associated with negative reinforcement due to its light physical contact on the elephant to goad it to do a certain task. Once the elephant obeys the command, it receives positive reinforcement.

    Free Contact

    • The free contact training tool is used when the trainer and the elephant interact on a direct level. When the handler engages in a free contact training session, she has a guide to let the elephant know which behavior will be reinforced with food, praise or some type of social contact. This type of training gives the handler the ability to move, exercise and examine the elephant without using medication or involuntary physical restraint.

    Protected Contact

    • Protected contact training for elephants, which was established at the San Diego Wild Animal Park in 1989, was introduced to ensure safety by restricting the interaction between the elephant and trainer to taking place only through a barrier. This type of training entails engaging the elephant to respond to various positions and targets that the trainer has set up prior to the training. If the elephant goes where it is supposed to go and holds the positions it is supposed to hold, it will then be reinforced with food or social contact. When the elephant displays the correct behavior, it will hear a whistle, clicker or the trainer's voice. This type of contact is utilized to keep the trainer safe, along with eliminating the need to use physical punishment.

    Punishment

    • Instead of utilizing physical punishment in training an elephant, trainers rely on negative reinforcement to make sure the elephant knows the difference between good and bad behavior. Negative reinforcement is used by providing an unpleasant stimulus for a specific behavior until the elephant performs the correct behavior. Another form of punishment is not providing a reward when the elephant exhibits an incorrect behavior.