Several years ago a young black bear came sniffing around our house in early spring. It walked across the driveway and turned toward the entryway of the house. Pretty soon he became very interested in a hard-body cooler sitting next to the door. He knocked it over, pried off the lid, and locked his teeth around the 10-pound bag of carrots stashed inside. He quickly ran off with his plunder.
We learned a valuable lesson that evening and made sure to bring food inside.
But the next night, right around the same time, the bear came back. He sauntered to the doorway looking for another tasty treat. Finding nothing, he moved on.
He came back the next night, too. And maybe even a fourth night. But eventually he changed his route and we didn't see him again for the rest of the summer.
Why did the bear keep coming back? It can be explained by positive reinforcement, the same principle I use to train our raptors. Positive reinforcement means that the animal gets a reward for performing a behavior, and they will likely repeat the behavior to earn the prize again.
The bear's behavior of snooping around our house was reinforced by finding the jackpot stash of carrots. He learned that this was a good location for finding food, so naturally he came back the next night looking for more. Once he realized that our house had no food for him, he stopped coming around because of the lack of reinforcements.
I decided to try this same idea with our tree frog who lives on exhibit in the Curiosity Center. Naturalist Intern Cade told me last week, "I don't think that frog has moved since we started here in June!" I had also noticed that she was always in her favored spot, wedged at the top of her habitat. What could we do to encourage her to move around more? Positive reinforcement, of course!
I happened to spot the frog one morning sitting in a new spot on her branch. I rushed to the refrigerator, warmed a mealworm in my hand, and offered it. She gobbled it down right away!
In the case of the bear, finding food in a new location caused him to spend more time there. With our frog, I hope that finding food in new locations will also encourage her to spend more time in different places in her habitat. The experiment is still underway, but I have a feeling that she will start to have new favorite spots soon!
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