Description
Train marine mammals for husbandry, research, public presentations, rescue, or open-water work. Acclimate animals to human presence and water-based cues, conditioning responses to whistles, hand signals, targets, or tactile prompts. Develop and maintain behaviors to prescribed standards for shows, enrichment, welfare, or scientific protocols. May train animals for transport, medical procedures, or cooperative behaviors with divers or boats.
- • Observe animals' physical conditions to detect illness or stress requiring veterinary care.
- • Cue or signal animals during presentations, training sessions, or research trials.
- • Administer prescribed medications or supplements under veterinary direction.
- • Evaluate animals for temperament, abilities, and suitability for training or social groupings.
- • Feed, enrich, and exercise animals; clean habitats, pools, haul-outs, and equipment.
- • Interact with animals to build trust and desensitize them to human touch, gear, and environments.
- • Keep detailed records of health, diet, water quality notes, behavior, and training progress.
- • Advise management on animal acquisitions, transfers, or compatible pairings.
- • Train marine mammals for show behaviors, husbandry tasks, research activities, or educational demos.
- • Use whistles, hand signals, targets, bridge markers, and tactile cues to shape behaviors.
- • Train cooperative medical behaviors such as blood draws, ultrasound, sampling, and physical exams.
- • Retrain animals to extinguish undesired behaviors such as mouthing, aggression, or station breaking.
- • Plan and conduct public presentations, guest interactions, or outreach events.
- • Develop and run training programs to establish, maintain, and generalize behaviors across settings.
- • Assess animals for trainability, motivation, and readiness to perform in shows, research, or open-water sessions.
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Agriculture
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Tasks & skills:
O*NET occupational data (work activities, skills, knowledge).
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This site includes information from O*NET by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA), used under the CC BY 4.0 license. Career Clutch has modified some of this information for student readability. USDOL/ETA has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA.
Last reviewed: Jan 2026
