Bethany Krebs

Bethany Krebs

San Francisco, CA

San Francisco Zoo

PhD

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Published on Feb 28, 2017

The Rhino Foobler makes the cover!

The paper about the rhino Foobler was accepted and came out earlier this month in the journal Animal Behavior and Cognition.  In addition to the publication, Boone and his Foobler were featured on ...

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Published on Jul 18, 2016

Rhino Foobler 2.0

Our official study of how the rhino Foobler affects Boone's behavior is underway, thanks to the newly revamped heavy duty electronics undertaken by the TGiF team!  Thanks to Fred, for taking the vi...

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Published on Jun 06, 2016

Just when you think you know a rhino...

He goes and surprises you.But more on that in a minute.Up until now, we've been updating you on the progress of the rhino Foobler and teaching Boone how to use it.  We've all been really happy with...

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Published on May 02, 2016

Rhino Training Montage

We've been working intensively with Boone to train him to use the Foobler for about a month now. The steps we're taking are small, as he's still a little unsure about new things but he's made so m...

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Published on Mar 28, 2016

The Art and Science of Training a Rhino

As promised last week, I sat down with the San Francisco Zoo's Director of Training and Behavioral Husbandry to discuss our training plan and goals for teaching Boone to use the rhino Foobler. The...

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Published on Mar 11, 2016

Learning about the Rhino Foobler!

Now that we have the Foobler, we need to learn how to use it and test a few things out. The 'Cliff Notes' version of this process is in the video, but if you're curious about the other details you...

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Can't wait to hear about it! Also that picture is awesome :D
Jul 18, 2017
Lemur Boot Camp! Challenging survival skills for reintroduction
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Hahaha does this mean you'll be making the trip? ;)
May 26, 2017
Using high-tech toys to improve foraging in captive rhinos
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Former U of I bird lab member here. Loving the pictures and missing grassland species. Hope you hit your funding goal!
Nov 11, 2016
Biodiversity in working landscapes: Help us conserve declining grassland birds in restored Midwestern grasslands
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Hi Leslie, In theory once we have a Foobler design that works, we could vary the size for putting the mechanism into different sized enrichment balls for other animals. I don't think we'll be moving the current one between exhibits, but that's mostly because it is kind of difficult to load onto a golf cart to move around
Oct 31, 2016
Using high-tech toys to improve foraging in captive rhinos
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P.S. The Foobler is now scheduled to go out on Thursdays ;)
Oct 26, 2016
Using high-tech toys to improve foraging in captive rhinos
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Thank you, Joan! I'm tearing up reading your comment, this is the best reception we could've hoped going into this project. Thank you for sharing the journey with us!
Oct 26, 2016
Using high-tech toys to improve foraging in captive rhinos
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Thanks Jeanne! He's definitely using his brain more, it's really great watching him work through stuff :)
May 03, 2016
Using high-tech toys to improve foraging in captive rhinos
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Same kind of behavior data as before, Boone's behavior and location when we're watching him, trying to get out a couple times a week at different times to see what he's up to throughout the day. We've had a few technical difficulties with the electronics, so it may be a while longer before we can make comparisons between what I collected last year and recently but we're getting there!
May 03, 2016
Using high-tech toys to improve foraging in captive rhinos
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He's so funny, you can totally see the wheels turning when you watch him!
May 03, 2016
Using high-tech toys to improve foraging in captive rhinos
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This is great! I love how they follow the tractor that's taking the ball away at the end, clearly they wanted to keep playing. Thanks for sharing, Leslie! This made me smile.
Mar 30, 2016
Using high-tech toys to improve foraging in captive rhinos
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I should've practiced with the camera before the big day! Turns out I'm not terribly quick on the draw with the tripod, getting shots of things moving around the exhibit was not my strong suit.
Sep 23, 2015
Using high-tech toys to improve foraging in captive rhinos
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Great question! We get all devices approved by the zoo's curators before deploying them, so we present an idea and then modify it according to all potential concerns they have. For the Stanford class, the komodo mister, fence kangaroo feeder, and the bear's kibble launcher have the majority of their components outside of the animal's enclosures. For the kangaroo PVC ice feeders, the pipe pieces were cemented together to prevent things falling apart. With the giraffe feeder, we've enclosed the electronics in a water proof box and will hoist the majority of the feeder out of reach of the giraffes. We make sure there aren't any sharp edges, unsecured pieces, accessible moving parts, exposed electronics or wires that the animals can get into for all of the devices we design!
Sep 12, 2015
Using high-tech toys to improve foraging in captive rhinos
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