GETTING TO KNOW YOU
Working at Jurassic World was going to be very interesting.
Lindy was busy scribbling down notes whilst she sat beside Barry; Owen stood at the whiteboard in front of their desks which had four pictures of the raptors stuck over the surface by magnets. Using a backscratcher, Owen pointed at the picture of the raptor known as 'Blue' with a hotdog in his other hand.
"This here's Blue. You'll recognize her straight away because of the distinctive blue pattern on her body hence her name. She's infused with Black-Throated African Monitor Lizard DNA so she stands out from her siblings. Blue is also the Beta, the oldest of the pack." Owen explained, munching on his food, "When she was born, I imprinted on her, along with her sisters Delta, Charlie and Echo."
Lindy nodded, writing down everything he had said in bullet points on her pad. The 'office' was a small port-a-cabin that stood near the paddock and a port-a-potty that lacked air conditioning – Owen stood at the whiteboard with a little fan on his desk rotating in a one hundred and eighty degree ankle whilst Barry and Lindy sat at two desks before him. It was identical to a mini classroom, complete with dinosaur posters taped on the walls all conveying exciting facts and diagrams.
"Next, we have Delta. She was created using more avian DNA so from observations, her movements and actions are more bird-like – " Owen paused to take another large bite from his equally large hotdog, "She's more aggressive compared to her packmates and she's also the quickest."
Nodding, Lindy quickly wrote down the raptor's names and the key focal points: Aggressive and quick. "Got it."
"Now we have Echo. She and Blue once fought for control of the pack but unfortunately did not emerge victorious – " Again, he stopped halfway to take another bite. Tapping at the photo of Echo, he then said, "You'll recognize Echo from the scar across her face."
Echo – scar across face. Lindy thought to herself as she jotted down as much notes as possible.
He pointed to the fourth and final picture. "And this lovely lady is Charlie. You'll recognize her from her green skin; this is because of her Green iguana DNA. Charlie is the youngest of all the girls and she's the most curious. She also respects Blue the most."
"We have the most problems training Echo and Charlie, because they are the youngest." Barry said, unfolding his arms from his chest to stretch.
"Ahh, but that's all gonna change." Owen said, pointing the backscratcher at his two-person audience, "We're going to try solo training. One on one. When they're all together, it's difficult to engage their attention and interest. I'm not saying we're going to completely disengage and separate the younger raptors from their sisters, but for now, we need to get them used to our instruction too before we bring them all together. When they're ready, we'll slowly merge more advanced training techniques so we'll cover all four at once."
"So...what kind of training do you carry out? What kind of methods do you use?" Lindy asked.
"Glad you asked, Miss Lindy." Owen replied, now using the backscratcher to rake at his back, "We use all kinds – obedience training, including nonaggression and socialization with humans. We also use positive reinforcement, which includes using primary reinforcers such as food or social reinforcer such as vocal...well, you know: "Good girl" and all that...or tactile ones, such as stroking, to get them used to human touch. Bridges to positive reinforcement include vocal cues, whistling and clickers – as you've seen by now." Owen proceeded to pluck out his clicker from his pocket and hold it up.
"How is 'nonaggression' coming along?"
"It could do with some improvement." came Owen's comment. "During your first week, Miss Lindy, we're not expecting you to jump right in and start walkin' and talkin' with the girls. For now, we'll have you conduct some research, carry out some observation, and perform some minor caretaking duties...Barry, that sound okay to you?"
Barry, who had been listening to Owen's lecture the entire time, nodded in agreement. "Of course. I wouldn't mind an extra pair of hands at all." With that, Lindy and Barry exchanged a smile.
"Great, then it's decided. Every week, we have these...er...get-togethers to discuss the girl's progress. Usually it's just me and Barry but now you'll be coming along too. Every Monday at 2pm. Don't forget, or else we'll have to drag ya."
"I won't."
Owen seemed pleased with her response. "Right then, let's cover some security measures." With pen in hand, she waited as Owen went to a space on the whiteboard and pulled off the lid of a green marker. "So, what do you think is the first thing you do if you accidentally find yourself in the paddock with the girls and there's no-one with you, no-one around you?"
Lindy glanced at Barry, then to Owen. "Um...Run and...Find a place to hide?"
He contemplated her answer for a brief moment, "Yeah, I guess that's right." He went to the board and wrote down 'Run' and 'Hide' in green marker and drew a tick. "You should find a place to hide. You can climb a tree, for instance. You could run... but it's still an enclosed area, so what else would you do?"
"Get someone's attention."
"How?"
"I don't know, yell or – "
"Wrong." Owen said immediately, slamming his fists over the table lightly, "Never yell. Never make any loud noise. You will get detected and they'll head straight for your direction."
"Okay." And she felt sheepish for her answer.
Using a red marker pen, Owen wrote 'Noise'. Above it, he drew a big fat cross. "No noise. You should try and be as quiet as possible." Turning to her, he said, "C'mon, Miss Lindy, what else should you do?"
She pondered for a few seconds then said, "Find a way to disguise your scent?"
"Bingo." He wrote in green, 'Disguise smell'. "And how would one disguise their scent?"
"Depends." Lindy said, "...On what kind of resources are available."
"That's true." Owen replied, "If you're near any vehicle, for example, best thing to do is to douse yourself with fuel; cut it from the pipe or something. If you're near a body of water, jump in."
"...What if there are no cars or water around?"
Owen put down the markers on his desk in front of him. "That's a damn good question, Miss Lindy. That's a damn good question."
...
Lindy's duties began immediately after she was issued an employee pass in the form of a swipecard and a key to her new locker in the office. Owen had gone over the raptor's paddock and activities in full detail, including their feeding schedule, the types of food they were fed, their sleeping times, daily exercises, the pig exercise, cleaning times, dental checks, body checks, paddock checks and the training. The training took most of the daily schedule, so the raptors were in contact with Owen pretty much 24/7. Her induction and training would take at least one to two weeks.
Once they returned to the paddock, Owen split up from the group. Assisting Barry, she was walking alongside him and holding two heavy buckets of water whilst Barry carried a few heavy-looking grainy sacks over his shoulder when she saw Owen a distance away, standing in front of a tall and beautiful woman with short ginger hair. Lindy paused in her tracks; they appeared close, although the woman had her arms crossed and she seemed to be berating him in some way.
"That's Claire Dearing, the park Operations Manager. She doesn't come here often, and if she does, it's never good news." Barry said to her in hushed voice, as though reading her mind, "Owen's fancied her since day one, but he's too stubborn to admit it."
As she followed Barry to the awaiting raptors, she couldn't help but throw a curious glance over her shoulder and suddenly – her foot got caught in a large grassy bump sticking out of the ground and her ankle went slant. "Eep!" She squeaked, as she tripped over with the bucket in hand but before she toppled to the ground, Barry grabbed her, preventing her from spilling some of the contents of the bucket over the grass.
The noise was enough to summon both Owen and Ms Dearing to her direction where they could see Barry helping her up. "You should be more careful, Miss Lindy."
"Sorry." She replied; glancing up, she could see Owen and the woman staring at her direction. Her face burned red with embarrassment. "Thanks."
"No worries. C'mon, let's go."
Once they approached the raptor enclosure, she could see that some of Owen's men had already managed to get the raptors inside a contraption where the magnificent creatures were stationed side by side only with their heads sticking out – all four raptors had their snouts within a steel muzzle that didn't appear to faze or hurt them. Instead, the raptors appeared to be rather used to this treatment and were allowing the caretakers to tend to them. As Barry and Lindy approached, the raptors appeared to have noticed their presence, their amber eyes following their every move. The raptor called Blue in particular, was gazing at Lindy.
"They know you're new." Barry said, "Don't underestimate their intelligence."
It was a little unnerving to be watched by a predator but as Barry stopped beside one of the raptors which she believed to be 'Charlie' and dropped the sacks to the ground, she stood beside him limply. "What is this anyway?"
"To perform routine check ups. Dental, eyesight, their senses. Sometimes we use this for feeding or drinking or we use it to take samples to bring to the lab."
She nodded and went up to Blue, peering at the raptor inquisitively. The raptor seemed to react to her presence by lifting its top lip, exposing her massive fangs and emitting a low snarl; she could see her reflection in Blue's amber eye and knew the raptor was watching her keenly. She put down her buckets of water and slowly reached forwards with her hand but then abruptly retreated. She wasn't sure if she was allowed to touch them yet or if she should even be thinking about wanting to touch them...
"If you want to touch her, go ahead."
Lindy gasped and turned round only to come nose to chest with none other than Owen. "Owen!" She exclaimed, stepping backwards slightly. He merely grinned as she threw a quick glance behind him. Looks like Ms Dearing has left... Turning to Owen, she said, "Do they like being touched?"
"It's okay. Here, I'll help." He maneuvered himself behind her and took her arm; she blinked wide-eyed at the gesture and stared at him wordlessly as he scooped her hand in his.
"Owen, am I allowed to do this?"
"'Course you are. Blue doesn't mind. Isn't that right, baby?" Owen murmured affectionately.
Staring at the nearing hand, Blue struggled slightly in her confinements but when Owen guided Lindy's hand with his and let her palm plop atop the raptor's head, the raptor ceased her wriggling and stood very still. Lindy was startled by how smooth the skin texture was as Owen made her hand rake over the head gently. The raptor's body temperature was surprisingly warm, but she presumed it was potentially from the weather. She couldn't believe; she was stroking a raptor. Never in her life would she imagine that she was doing such a thing.
"Cool, huh?"
Lindy snapped out of her thoughts to realize that Owen had let go of her and she had been unconsciously stroking the raptor on her own. Immediately, she pulled her hand back, cradling it to herself and Blue emitted a low but shrill shriek. "Yeah...That was so cool. Now I can score this off my bucket list."
Whilst Owen grinned at her, Barry suddenly called from over his shoulder, "Miss Lindy just got here, Owen. Stop flirting with her."
"You're just jealous 'cos she's prettier than you, Barry." Owen remarked and in response, his companion let out a bark of laughter and as Owen passed, they exchanged a high five; Lindy watched as he sidled away from her side to check up on the other raptors before averting her gaze to her palm.
Oh yes, working at Jurassic World was definitely going to be very interesting indeed...