Meet the Canterbury bison who are vaccinating themselves

Two young bison bulls have been taught to vaccinate themselves, an animal park in Kent says.

Keepers at Wildwood, near Canterbury, say they have trained the two animals to lean on needles “entirely of their own accord”.

The method is being used to replace the darting approach, which Becky Copland, animal behaviour management officer, said “hadn’t proved popular with the animals in the past”.

She said: “Darting can be quite stressful and not the most pleasant process so it’s something we had wanted to move away from.”

Ms Copland said her team wanted to give their new two-year-old bison, Fury and Haze, “an extra level of choice”.

She said: “We’ve trained them to lean into their own injection syringe so they’ve got control over that movement and that procedure, which will hopefully make things much smoother for them.”

Following an extensive training programme the team began working with the bison over a period of months to get them used to the procedure.

Ms Copland said: “We started off with reinforcing calm behaviours and positive associations between their trainers and keepers and themselves.

“We progressed on to target training and that’s where we got that turning movement that we wanted so they presented the side of their body to the fence.

She said: “The pair came straight back into the training session after the procedure, reinforcing that it was not as stressful for them as previous methods.”

The plan is now to use the vaccination method on other animals in the park including elk and wolves.