Her rough tail twitched as the raptor slid to a halt, her razor sharp talons raking the soft earth. Her head lifted as she sniffed the air with short quizzical breaths. She was trying to locate the scent. The sweet tang of fresh blood filled her nostrils, it permeated everything around her. She wouldn't be fooled though. There was a trail stronger than the surrounding air, it mixed sweetly with his scent, the pack scent, creating a scent that was easy to follow, even with the surrounding odors. The raptor's lips pulled back, revealing her dangerous teeth as she dove back into the foliage with a renewed vigor.
Owen smiled, wiping his brow in the afternoon heat, as he watched Delta duck back into the paddock's cover. She was persistent and focused, ignoring anything else, even her feud with him. Scent training. It was a simple idea, but it was working far better than he had ever hoped. The raptors were taking to it like it was second nature.
The trainer was pretty sure it was second nature.
The idea had been a suggestion by his father during one of their regular skype calls. Owen had been thanking the man for shipping his suit on short notice and relaying the events of the banquet when the question initially came up.
"Dad, one of my raptors has become extremely aggressive. Do you have any ideas I can try to calm her down?"
"You know, I might have something. Hold on a minute." His father ducked out of the camera lens to search for something off screen before finally returning with a worn journal. Flipping open the worn binding he tabbed through the entries humming to himself.
"Here we go. One of my apprentices had this problem a couple of seasons ago. I made a note of it for future use. Andrew came to me complaining that his passage Red Tail was becoming really aggressive during hunts, then extending to training over time. He was at his wits end, asking me repeatedly if he should just release her and be done with it. Poor kid had the bandages and scars to prove it too. Apparently his bird had ceased hunting with him. She would fly off on her own and find her own prey, when she missed, Andrew would find himself on the receiving end of a very frustrated set of talons.
When we looked through his daily records, we found that she hadn't caught anything all season. The bird was frustrated and bored, taking her anger out on the young falconer. He and I worked on getting her some easy hunts to boost her moral. Once she had successfully caught a couple rabbits, her demeanor changed completely, she began working with him again and she became a hunting machine. Last I spoke with him, he still had her two years later."
"That's great dad, but we hunt them every few days, at least as best as we can do in the paddock. They don't always catch the pig, but they catch it enough to keep trying. This is Delta we're talking about, the one I told you about."
"Ah the West Nile case?"
"Yessir. She's not bored or game hungry. Just aggressive, like a switch has been thrown or something. She pinned Charlie yesterday and I doubt she intends to stop until she gets alpha."
John rubbed his chin absently "Hmmm. That is a problem. Is she always aggressive?"
"Not always, and not in any particular pattern. Sometimes she's on edge, other times she's relaxed or picking on her sisters. It's making it really dangerous to work with them. I don't feel like getting challenged by her every time I step foot into the paddock."
"Well you may not be looking for a challenge, but she is. It sounds to me like she's bored. Maybe you need to redirect that focus. If your mother were here, I'm sure she would suggest finding something else to keep that raptor of yours focused."
"I'm not sure I'm following you. I can't let her out to hunt better game and the only other challenges in her eyes are Blue or myself."
"Exactly my point. You need to fabricate a new challenge, something that redirects her attention. Do you remember when your mother trained the police dogs for the San Diego Police Department? She had those animals eating out of the palm of her hand because she kept them focused on doing something challenging that they wanted to do."
"I remember all of my stuff smelling like vanilla for a month when she decided to bring that training home with her."
That got a soft chuckle from his father. "Yeah, me too."
"But all Delta seems to want to do is pick fights. How am I supposed to redirect that?"
"Nonsense, you know there's three things predators want most of all."
"Yeah. Eating, hunting, and-"
"Procreating. Yes, my point is that maybe you need to get Delta hunting something more challenging than a canned pig." The older man paused, thinking for a moment. "I guarantee your mother would recommend scent training. It has the right challenge and reward that your girls are looking for. Delta gets a challenge to focus her mind and you might get a calmer Velociraptor out of it."
"Hmm, I'll run it by Barry, at this point I'm more than willing to try anything."
"Well that's just this old man's advice, take it or leave it. Except what your mother would say, always listen to your mother."
"Thanks dad, how is mom doing anyway?"
"Oh, she's fine, wanted me to tell you she says hi. She's still stationed in Yellowstone. The wolf program up there is having some difficulties and the NPS has asked her to help find the root of it."
The two men talked, and Owen relayed the idea to Barry later the next day. They had spent the rest of the week planning out the project and how they would introduce it. When they finally felt they had a good enough plan, they had set to work.
Delta leapt out into the clearing from a different side than before. She stopped and sniffed the air once more, a low hiss escaping her mouth. The green raptor lowered her head and moved through the clearing more slowly, sniffing the ground intensely. He sensitive nostrils flared again and with a triumphant bark she leapt back into the brush once more.
Delta was thorough. She was following the trail Owen had left with exact precision and dogged perseverance. Initially the raptors had been corralled into the smaller holding pens to the side of the Paddock. Owen had taken a large chunk of fresh, dripping meat and held it up, giving all four girls plenty of time to smell it through the slotted walls.
He then proceeded to run through the paddock itself, carrying the meat with him, ducking under branches, crawling through underbrush and generally leaving a trail of scent crisscrossing through the enclosure. Barry had even joined in with his own chunk of meat, building false trails and dead ends. When Owen was satisfied with the trail, he ducked through a small chute and divided the meat placing the chunks where the raptors could get it.
Delta was now proving to be a meticulous follower. She had followed the entire trail that Owen left, actively ignoring any other scents. Finally Owen watched the raptor duck into the chute and give a bugle of success. He also heard the grating sound of metal on concrete as the chute slid shut behind her.
The trainer took a moment to walk down the catwalk stairs and pull the barred door open, letting him into the gated section they called the 'airlock'. Closing the door behind him, Owen walked over to the darker man who was now checking on Delta.
"These squeeze chutes were a stroke of brilliance Barry." He commented with a triumphant smile. They really were. Barry had tossed out the idea when they were thinking of ways to contain the potentially dangerous predators. Owen could safely walk through the paddock and check his girls, but there was no guarantee that he would always be there when they needed checking, or that the girls would always let him in. Delta was living proof of this. So the two trainers had designed and built their own modified chutes with the help of the local construction firm on the island.
The girls had hated them at first, but even after only a few days of precisely executed training, they seemed to be associating the chutes with rewards more and more.
"I know, don't forget, the muzzles were my idea too." Barry replied in a haughty tone before breaking into a happy laugh..
He waved the comment off. "Yeah, yeah whatever. How is she looking today?"
"She's good, come see for yourself."
Delta was standing in the squeeze chute, her head pressed into the steel muzzles that Barry had designed after their first attempt at using the chutes. The green raptor looked pleased, her eyes half lidded as she tasted the reward of her search. Her jaw opened a little, pressing against the restraint as she attempted to chew on the treat in her mouth. Owen had placed the chunks of meat inside each steel muzzle. It was a training technique that would hopefully condition the raptors to associate the muzzles and chutes positively.
The green raptor really did look good. Her demeanor was calmer, and she looked less agitated as Barry felt along the side of her snout. It was honestly the most 'normal' that he had seen the Delta since her recovery from the virus.
"You're right, she looks really good. She did a fantastic job with the training today too. I don't think she strayed from the trail once."
"That's my girl Owen, perfect in every way." Owen rolled his eyes, amused at how attached Barry had gotten to the raptor since helping her recover.
"Not every way, still need to work on that attitude."
"Hey now, Delta is a lady! She certainly wouldn't be giving you shit if you didn't deserve it!"
"Right, and the scars on your arm tell me she thinks you're the perfect gentleman."
Barry fixed Owen with a flat stare before both men fell into easy laughter as they finished the visual check on the green raptor.
Ten minutes later and Owen was back on the catwalk watching as Charlie stepped into the paddock clearing. After watching her run the training a few times, he had quickly realized that she had a very different approach from Delta's meticulous one. Charlie was much more relaxed in her pursuit, willing to think through the problem.
The eldest raptor would make a large circle around the clearing. She held her snout to the ground and moved slowly, taking in every scent at the edge of the clearing. When she had made a full round, she would return to what she believed was the strongest scent, pursuing it quickly, and usually straight into her reward, this time located at the end of the next chute.
Her methods certainly turned quicker results than Delta, but she would occasionally fall victim to one of Barry's false trails if it was strong enough.
Echo on the other hand seemed content to follow the path of whatever raptor moved before her. The one time Barry had released her first, the raptor had followed a number of 'trails' before finally getting tired and giving up. She had decided to lay down in the center of the paddock clearing, content to doze in the warm sunlight and snap at the occasional horsefly.
Blue was the trickiest. The first time they had released her into the paddock, the blue streaked raptor had bolted to the center of the clearing and begun to pace around. She held her head up and let her eyes scan everything around her as she tested the scents in the air. Owen had been surprised to watch her pinpoint the meat lying in her steel muzzle just beyond the barred gate to the 'airlock'. Ignoring every scent trail, she had made a beeline for the meat.
She had spent nearly ten minutes pacing the length of the barred gate, pushing her snout between the bars and even giving frustrated barks to Owen as he stood above her.
The raptor had even managed to give him a mild heart attack when she had gotten frustrated enough to reach through the bars and press the button controlling the gate with her long talons. Owen had practically jumped off the catwalk stairs in order to make sure the exterior gate was locked.
Blue on the other hand, stepped smugly inside the open gate and daintily picked each piece of meat off of the steel muzzles including the ones set aside for her sisters. Making eye contact with the trainer, she had snapped the last morsel in her jaws before contently stalking back through the gate and into the paddock.
When the two trainers had recovered from the shock of the situation, they spent the rest of the afternoon moving the control pad further back from the gate interior and out of reach from inside the paddock.
The training had taught Owen that Blue was a straightforward problem solver, preferring to take a direct approach rather than Delta's methodical approach or Charlie's deductive approach. It had also reminded him that he needed to be watch what he did around the paddock more closely. He had heard the horror stories about raptors learning to open doors, but this was the first time he had really believed it.
After Blue's mischievous success, they had introduced vanilla extract into the training. Owen dumped an entire bottle of the fragrant liquid in a line along the closed gate. They hoped that it would eventually become a learned deterrent. Anything coated in the strong fragrance would be considered off limits and none of the raptors would receive rewards for crossing vanilla lines.
The blue streaked raptor of course didn't know that initially and had spent the next several runs pacing along the gate, looking for new ways to get to her treats. She would give Owen a frustrated bark after a few minutes, but she never gave in. The trainer had to watch her carefully as she searched for any weaknesses to exploit. Anytime she did retreat from the gate, Owen would toss her a treat, hoping to reinforce the avoidance behavior.
Today though, it had finally begun to pay off. Owen felt a swell of pride as the cobalt streaked raptor had sniffed the vanilla line and stepped away, ignoring the meat visible through the bars, looking for another way to get to the food. He could tell that she was figuring the problem out as she darted around the paddock. The grey-blue raptor stayed near the walls, sniffing a little but keeping her head up and eyes alert, focused more on visual cues than olfactory ones.
When she had finally found the chute opening, she paused to examine the tunnel. The raptor took a few steps in and then backed out with a snort. Owen watched as she swung her neck around to look back towards the gate and then back to the chute opening. With another heavy snort, she finally ducked into the chute and Owen was a little relieved to hear the elated bugle echo through the paddock from beneath him.
With all four raptors secured in the squeeze chutes, Owen made his way down to the gate. They needed to clean the paddock, and at least dull the scent trails so his girls wouldn't be following dead ends all evening. Calling to his coworker he grabbed a large bucket and walked into the paddock. "That's it for today! Barry, let's grab the hoses and scrub the place down, I wanna get out of here before dark."
"What's the rush? Got a date?"
"Actually, for your information, I do." Owen replied with a smug grin. "We're meeting tonight in the park center."
"Oh so you finally found her assistant then."
"Damn right I did, her assistant was tricky to track down, but I finally cornered her and got a date and time set up."
Barry snorted, grabbing the long hose and dragging it into the paddock. "It sounds to me like she's giving you the runaround. You sure she really wants to go out with you?"
Owen scoffed, kneeling down to pull some half buried bones from the dirt. "If she is, then at least I'll get to have one dinner with a pretty lady. That's more than you can say. Besides, who do you know that can resist my charm?" He paused his work, making a ridiculous pose.
Barry let out a good natured snort. "Charm! I feel bad for you Owen. It is not healthy to lie to yourself like that. But, if you need an example, I'm sure Delta will be happy to resist your charm any day."
Dropping the bones into a pile near the gate, the trainer huffed. "What do you know? She said yes to dinner after all. Besides, we're talking humans here, raptors don't count."
Barry's face dropped into a tight frown. "From what I hear, Claire Dearing is a raptor. One dressed in a fancy suit dress sure, but a raptor none the less."
"What are you talking about?"
"Just some keeper gossip. Apparently since the day she started she has been going through each enclosure looking for any infraction and any inefficiencies. She's fired at least three people already." The trainer let out a long sigh. "Look, all I'm saying is that she's making herself very difficult to reach and maybe it's not the best idea to go on a date with your boss. Stick to the prehistoric predators my friend, not the corporate ones."
"Barry, she's just a busy woman trying to fill big shoes. Besides, she's so far up the ladder that we're practically in different businesses."
"Mon Dieu." Barry muttered with a shake of his head. "Fine. Just remember that I warned you."
"Relax, it'll be fine." He paused. "Wait, what keepers have you been talking to?"
"Most of them, they meet every Wednesday. It's kind of a park tradition."
"You never invited me?"
"And let you 'charm' the ladies from me? Hell no." Barry replied with a light chuckle before getting a little more serious. "I've invited you several times Owen. You just work late most nights. You should come next week, give Blue and the girls an evening off."
Owen only muttered, the defensive look on his face causing his friend to laugh. Finally he snatched the hose from Barry, twisting the nozzle open with a jerk. "Come on, let's just get these walls hosed down, I need to get back, clean up, and change. These work pants aren't going to cut it, it's just too damned hot for that."