In Zoological facilities, keepers were historically viewed as little more than animal janitors. In many facilities elephants were housed individually and training was not a priority. Keepers were not often required to be in life or death situations due to past elephant keeping practices and ordinarily did not receive guidance in learning how to read those nuances of behavior critical to training success. At that time there was no real need to. Now keepers are fulfilling numerous roles that require skills in many areas.
People entering the field today have the intent to enter into keeping as a career.
They usually are academically versed in theory and trends with some having acquired practical skills as apprentices at the same time. Each sector of the wild and exotic animal field have skills that served their purpose and that were appropriate for certain applications. As the Zoological Industry evolves more of these skills will need to be integrated. In this evolution of knowledge and awareness, there were techniques developed for behavior modification. They materialized in the marine mammal community and then became more known throughout the terrestrial animal training community and became the trend.