Moorpark College Exotic Animal Compound : Lots of Yaks at Beastly Gig for Students

A 30-pound baboon named Rosie gingerly handled a rubber ball “bomb,” then gleefully tossed it to her trainer, dressed like Indiana Jones. He juggled it in mock horror and tossed it back.

These antics drew youthful giggles from a crowd of 200 at Moorpark College’s Wildlife Theater. A few little faces leaned forward to see if Indiana’s cave girl nemesis, co-trainer Janine Turlik, who ended up with the “bomb,” had discovered the prop in enough time to save herself.

Not to worry. She discovered it and, in true melodrama fashion, even lifted her own “BOOM” sign as she fled. The children were delighted and the show went on.

Rosie, co-trained by David Allsberry, is featured in the college’s 10th annual Spring Circus, which began Sunday and plays again March 9, 16 and 23 at 3 p.m. in the Exotic Animal Training and Management, or EATM, compound.

Costumed second-year Moorpark College students present 15 circus acts with a cougar, lemur, llama, pony, camel and fox, along with macaws, parrots and a raven. First-year students sell popcorn, colas and animal coloring books. Throughout the show, clown-suited students, goats and chickens provide comic relief.

Besides its educational role for the students and entertainment value for the audience, the open-air circus has a fund-raising aim. Through its admission fee of $3 for adults and $2 for children and concession sales, last year’s event raised $6,000 for the program, according to Leslie Pon Tell, a part-time instructor and full-time staffer.

But the event primarily is a way to showcase animal-training skills that graduating students have honed.

“A lot of the animals already have the behaviors on them,” Pon Tell said. “It’s just a matter of putting the behaviors together. But every year the circus is different because the students and animals are different.” And, although the teaching staff contributes ideas for the acts and approves them, “We basically leave it to the students’ imaginations,” Pon Tell said.

After starting with a few courses in 1971, EATM became a degree-granting program in 1975 and remains the only such college program in the country. Each year, more than 1,000 applicants worldwide are pared down to an entering class of about 60, according to program founder William Brisby, 61.

A former marine biologist, Brisby, who was the program director until last year, still teaches at the college part time.

EATM students must take courses such as Exotic Animal Management and Supervision, Biology of Marine Vertebrates and Animal Park Planning and Design. They gain zoo-keeping field experience at Los Angeles Zoo and Santa Barbara Zoological Gardens.

The attrition rate ranges up to one-third of the entering class, escalating in the first few weeks of school and at the end of the first semester. A rigorous curriculum that demands about 40 hours of work a week in the 1-acre compound in addition to a full-time class schedule exacts its toll.

Beyond the academic schedule, chores involving cleaning and feeding animals are required the first year. Techniques for training and handling the animals are practiced the second year.

Several instructors are EATM graduates. Director Gary Wilson, a 1977 graduate who later earned a master’s degree in biological sciences at UC Santa Barbara, has taught there for five years. Pon Tell, a 1976 graduate who did movie and TV work and studied wildlife management in Africa, has worked at the compound for more than six years. Lynne Doria, a 1975 graduate, has been a member of the staff for 11 years.

A visitor to the highly protected enclosure sees students, most of them women, hosing cages, dishing out Purina Monkey Chow, working with animals and pulling dirt-filled wheelbarrows. They take turns each week staffing the compound on the graveyard shift.

Asked why women students outnumber men 55 to 15, Pon Tell said: “I don’t know if it’s the mother instinct or that women are more interested in doing this kind of work. Could be, too, that the animal field is the wrong field to be in if you want to make your first million--maybe that discourages a lot of men.”

On weekday mornings, some students help instructor Doria in the 40-foot ring by staging educational shows geared to specific age groups.

“It’s more of an ecology-entertainment show where we bring out a variety of animals and describe where they live and come from,” Pon Tell said. “We do shows for preschoolers all the way up to high schoolers and retirees. We’re booked every day.”

Starting with one Canadian timber wolf, Kiska, the animal population once swelled to about 600, including birds and rats.

“At one time, we had in excess of 150 species, to give the students as great a variety of experience as possible and to lead to all sorts of employment opportunities,” Brisby said.

But in January, 1985, independent reports written by a Moorpark College committee and an outside consultant criticized the compound for allowing so many animals on the relatively small site.

In addition, the latter report charged that drainage, food storage and cage sizes were inadequate.

Both reports recommended reducing the animal population by one-third and building a facility on a larger site.

“We were getting overcrowded and realized we had to cut back a bit,” Pon Tell said. “But also, we wanted to cut back so it would be easier for the final move. A lot of animals had been added to our collection because we had been anticipating moving for quite a while. Since the move kept getting postponed, we decided that we had better keep our collection down.”

The compound now houses 340 animals, Wilson said. Chickens, ducks, goats and rabbits live in a petting zoo, which is open to the public on Sundays. There also are year-round educational shows Sundays at 3 p.m.

The current circus will be among the final such events at this location. In June, ground breaking is scheduled for an eight-acre teaching zoo on hills overlooking the compound. When the $500,000 project is completed, the zoo will be the fifth largest in California, according to Brisby, and the only zoo in Ventura County.

The estimated 120,000 visitors a year who now peer through a metal fence at the lions, tigers, leopards and bison will be able to walk and look closer to the cages. They also will be able to see antelope and deer graze in hillside paddocks.

For the students, there will be a working arena connected to the cat cages by tunnel. For the audiences, there will be a new show facility that will seat far more than the current 300.

But until then, audiences will sit on the college’s pale blue benches and watch a llama named Fernando jump hurdles, a cougar named Kitty jump through hoops to the strains of “Stray Cat Strut” and a pony named Sparky “waltz” to one of Tchaikovsky’s symphonies.

“Most people who come love it when the animals don’t do what they’re supposed to do,” ring announcer Doria said. “People coming realize it’s not Ringling Brothers, so we try to make it as much fun for the students and audience as possible. A straight act can turn into a comedy routine.”