Pine Cones and Point Follows

My weekend is fast approaching and once again I'm having a super fun work week! I am getting the hang of toy play sessions with the whales and thinking of different things to incorporate into the sessions to add more variety and fun for the whales. It's definitely a lot easier to extend the session times and keep pace with the other trainers now that I am able to use toys instead of free feed the whole time. On Wednesday, while cleaning the exhibit, Inuk brought me a special surprise. He swam over to me in hopes of getting some tongue rubs and I happened to notice something in his mouth. It slightly resembled a piece of poop. But I reached in his mouth and pulled out a slobbery pine cone. Its almost like he purposely put it in his mouth to get my attention and get tongue rub reinforcement. It was like a dog bringing over a stick!

Over this week I have been working on point follows, which are hand signals that you give to move the whales to different location. Both the females (Naku and Kela) have the same hand signals but Inuk has a totally different hand signal. The girls hand signals are a little more confusing because you do the hand signal in the opposite direction you want to go. So if I wanted to move Naku to the right, I would have to give the signal with my left hand. For Inuk, his signals are directional. If I want to take him left, I give the signal with my left hand. But I'm sure after I do the signals for awhile I will get the hang of it and it will all become natural.

I have noticed the whales starting to play favorites. Just like the trainers said, "pretty soon the whales will tend to pick you over the volunteers." And sure enough it has started! A volunteer who was helping feed Naku today got in a couple tongue rubs before Naku left and followed me around to get tongue rubs from me! To have her come to me when I had nothing to do with her training and feeding session was quiet amazing!

I don't have any more pictures from the aquarium, but I will leave you with the sunset I saw coming home today! Another thing Connecticut has going for it...the sunrises and sunsets! And you can also see the San Francisco-esque street I live on!