Cincinnati zoo trainer brings out best in beasts  JOHN JOHNSTON
The Cincinnati Enquirer Published:  CINCINNATI (AP) -- Without
whispering a word or touching its tush, Megan-Kate Ferguson gets
Cinder the pig to sit.  A simple hand signal -- followed by a
tasty reward -- does the trick. "Good boy!" says the Cincinnati
Zoo & Botanical Garden's 31-year-old curator of animal
development and training.  They've been working on it for only a
day, but Cinder -- a nearly 3-month-old Juliana pig, the
smallest of all miniature pigs -- is quickly catching on. Which
isn't surprising, given Ferguson's success in training timid
cougars, a head-butting miniature cow and an ornery camel, among
others.  Zoos have long relied on operant conditioning -- a
fancy term for techniques that modify animal behavior. But with
Ferguson's hiring last year, "we're taking it to another level,"
said David Oehler, the Cincinnati Zoo's director of animal
collections.  The zoo said she was overqualified when she
applied for a job in late 2010.