Senior Trainer, Kristie Lacy, teaching Beethoven to touch a target
The end of summer means weekend-only operation for SeaWorld. Every year at this time people ask, “Now that you don’t have shows, what do you do?” Well my friends, rest assured that the off-season is often just as busy if not busier than the summer season for an animal trainer. We have plenty of projects to keep us busy.
At the Beluga Stadium, one of our big off-season projects is Beethoven. Remember him? He was the first beluga born at our park back in 1992 and he just returned in June. Over the past three months he has done remarkably well. He has successfully been acclimated with the rest of the beluga family, including Bella the baby. We’re really excited because Beethoven is now learning to participate in our Beluga Interaction Program. Select guests have had the opportunity to get to meet him up close and he is responding very well to the attention. He is proving to be a gentle and sweet whale who seldom tussles with the others and is eager to learn. We love having him here.
Aside from the Beethoven project, one thing that has happened this fall season is the annual shifting of trainers between stadiums. Each year at this time we give some trainers the opportunity to work at other stadiums within the park. This proves very beneficial to a trainer’s career because it not only gives them experience working with other animals, but just as important, it gives them experience working with other team members. I will go so far as to say that many of our standout trainers have spent time at all of our animal training areas. Good luck to Darcy, Tiffany, Jeremy, Chaz , Ann, Slade, Catherine, Greg, Tricia, Scott, and Todd as they begin the next chapter in their animal training careers.
Other off-season projects for members of the Animal Training staff include training new show behaviors (look for some exciting changes to the VIVA! show in 2010! More on that in future posts), teaching trainers new show roles, serving on various park committees, as well as taking care of the many administrative duties of our job. We’ll be very busy during the weekdays, but we look forward to seeing our guests on weekends.
Continued success and blessings.
Chuck
Related posts:
- Who Would Have Thought? Little Known Facts about Animal Training
- Welcome to Beethoven
- Moving Time: SeaWorld Trainer Moves to New Waters
- SeaWorld Sea Lion Show Full of Animal Behavior Hijinks
- It all starts tomorrow…
Tags: animal trainer, baby beluga, Beethoven, Beethoven the beluga, Bella, beluga whale, Training
Posted in Around the Park, Features, animals
Twitter Comment
Update from @chuckcureau about Beethoven the Beluga and the trainers’ busy schedule [link to post] #swsa
– Posted using Chat Catcher
Thanks again Chuck for taking the time to talk to me over the summer. Hope to see you again in January.
Looking forward to hearing about the changes in store for Viva! It is by far my favorite show so I’m kind of nervous.. But I’m sure you guys are gonna do a fantastic job. =)
Glad to hear Beethoven is doing well! I got to meet him at Careers Camp this year. What an awesome whale.
Viva is the bomb! We’ve seen it sooo many times that we know all of the cues for dives, etc. If Trevor ever retired, any one in my family could do his routine. I’m anxious to see the changes as well.
Thanks for the comments. We’re very excited about the future of our show. I think you will be too!