by Channel 2 News staff
Monday, June 28, 2010
ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- At the Alaska Zoo, keepers are busy training harbor seals -- but you won't be seeing them in a show any time soon.
The zoo says the seals are being trained for practical rather than entertainment reasons. Keepers are teaching the seals things to come when called, remain still, and turn over.
Zoo director Patrick Lampi says the training makes caring for all the seals' needs a little easier.
"Like if you were going to eventually do a blood draw there, some training you can do -- if you do enough training, you can do a blood draw without sedating the animal, which is great," Lampi said. "And so, it's just getting them used to being touched in certain ways."
The public can watch the keepers training and feeding the seals every day, at 2 p.m.
