Reply #34: So far so good.

[blindpig]

I was pretty lucky as I did have a few close calls. Waked in with a cougar once by accident, I was unfamaliar with the protocal, but no big deal, she was a sweetheart. Also walked in with a female polar bear, damned good thing she was as surprised as I was! If it had been the male I wouldn't be typing this. Only serious injury was a permanently mess up knee from an accident with an elephant. Also had a great crested porcupine back into me hard, leaving half a dozen quills in my leg.

I'm pretty rusty on this stuff but I have a book on the shelf at home, The Psychology of Zoo and Circus Animals by Heidi Heidiger, an old work but possibly useful. As I recall Heidiger's basic premise of training circus cats was the manipulation of the fight and flight distances of the animal. I'll check it out tonight and report if I find anything useful. It does sound like she needs to be given some space, for the time being anyway. It's great that Lorien now has a backup plan, that fellow seems to really know his stuff.

I worked at the Children's Zoo for a year, mostly domestic stock. Two years with elephants, polar bears, sea lions, pygmy hippos and small clawed otters. My last two years were with primates and small mammals. Nowadays I just have a basement full of reptiles.