How does Ringling Bros. train its animals?
Our animals are great performers, because their routines are tailored to each animals natural abilities and individual preferences and reinforced through a system of repetition and reward. The same behaviors you see the elephants exhibit in the arena you can see among young calves naturally exploring their environment at the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Center for Elephant Conservation such as climbing on their mothers and on each other, doing head stands for fun or manipulating things in their environment like logs and branches. Because the performances are based on what the animals do during play and socialization, training is simply a matter of encouraging the elephants to do what comes naturally on cue to music. We accomplish that by reinforcing their natural behaviors through repetition and reward. And, because the trainers provide the animals with a stable, rewarding environment, the animals eagerly learn to repeat their behaviors in sequence and on verbal cue. We only incl
