Karen Pryor
Karen Liane Pryor (Wylie; May 14, 1932 – January 4, 2025) was an American author who specialized in behavioral psychology and marine mammal biology. She was the founder and proponent of clicker training. She was formerly a Marine Mammal Commissioner to the U.S. government.
Also recorded as Karen Wylie · Karen Lindbergh
Karen Pryor
Universal Newsreel · Library of Congress collection · Public domain
- Name
- Karen Pryor
- Birth Name
- Karen Liane Wylie
- Born
- 14 May 1932
- Birthplace
- New York City, U.S.
- Died
- 4 January 2025
- Place of death
- Santa Clarita, California, U.S.
- Occupation
- Author
- Full name
- Karen Wylie.
- Nationality
- United States.
- Fields
- psychology, marine mammalogy, ethology and behaviorism.
- Education
- Cornell University.
- Languages
- English.
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
VALÉORINE documentary reading
Documentary summary
Karen Liane Pryor (Wylie; May 14, 1932 – January 4, 2025) was an American author who specialized in behavioral psychology and marine mammal biology. She was the founder and proponent of clicker training. She was formerly a Marine Mammal Commissioner to the U.S. government.
Admitted source layer · organised and presented by VALÉORINE
Reference Check
Propose documentary evidence for Karen Pryor. A contribution is never written directly as fact: identity, source, rights and evidence gates still decide.
Sign in to contribute
World of VALÉORINE
Documentary connections
Only confirmed graph relationships appear here. Images are shown only when their identity and reuse rights both pass the documentary gate.
Documentary evidence
Documentary basis
Authority files
wikidata · Q1729272 · wikipedia · Karen Pryor
In this article
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Karen Pryor • Birth Name — Karen Liane Wylie • Born — 14 May 1932 • Birthplace — New York City, U.S. • Died — 4 January 2025 • Place of death — Santa Clarita, California, U.S. • Occupation — Author • Children — 3 • Parents — Philip Wylie (father) • Relatives — Charles Lindbergh (father-in-law) Anne Morrow Lindbergh (mother-in-law)
Life and career
Life and career
Pryor was the daughter of author Philip Wylie and antiques dealer Sally Ondeck Wylie. Her uncle was Max Wylie, co-creator of The Flying Nun. Her cousin, Janice Wylie, was murdered in 1963 along with her roommate Emily Hoffert in what became known as the Career Girls Murders. She was first married to Tap Pryor from 1954 until their divorce in 1975. They had three children: Ted, Michael and Gale. Her second marriage was to Jon Lindbergh, son of aviator Charles Lindbergh and writer Anne Morrow Lindbergh; they divorced in 1997. In 2007 she created the Karen Pryor Academy which offers certification programs for animal trainers. Pryor died at a care facility in Santa Clarita, California on January 4, 2025, at the age of 92 from complications of dementia.
Publications
Books and Articles: • On My Mind: Reflections on Animal Behavior and Learning – 2014 • Reaching The Animal Mind: Clicker Training and What It Teaches Us About All Animals – 2009 • Click to Win: Clicker Training for the Show Ring – 2002 • Dolphin Societies: Discoveries and Puzzles –ed. with Kenneth Norris; University of California Press, 1998 • Don’t Shoot The Dog: The New Art of Teaching and Training – 1984, 1999, 2002, 2006 • A Dog & a Dolphin 2.0: An Introduction To Clicker Training – 1996 • Getting Started: Clicker Training for Cats – 1999, 2002, 2004 • Getting Started: Clicker Training for Dogs – 1999, 2002, 2005 • Lads Before the Wind – 1975, 1994, 2000 (Harper & Row 1975) • Nursing Your Baby – 1963, 1973, 1991, 2005 (HarperCollins Publishers 1963) • On Behavior: Essays and Research – 1994 • Crunch and Des: Classic Stories of Saltwater Fishing – 2002 • How To Teach Your Dog To Play Frisbee – 1985 • Pryor, K. (2014). A dolphin journey. Aquatic Mammals 40th Anniversary: Special Issue, 104–115. • Pryor, K. & Chase, S. (2014). Training for variable and innovative behavior. International Journal of Comparative Psychology, 27, 218–225 • Pryor, K. & Ramirez, K. (2014) Modern Animal Training. In The Wiley-Blackwell Handbook of Operant and Classical Conditioning. McSweeney, F.K and Murphy, E. S. (Eds.). • Pryor, K.W (2001). Cultural transmission of behavior in animals: How a modern training technology uses spontaneous social imitation in cetaceans and Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 24, 352–352 • Pryor, K. & Shallenberger, I. (1991). School structure in spotted dolphins (Stenella attenuata) in the tuna purse seine fishery in the Eastern Tropical Pacific. In Dolphin Societies: Discoveries and Puzzles. Pryor, K. & Norris, K.S. (Eds.). Berkeley: University of California Press • Pryor, K. (1981). Why Porpoise Trainers Are Not Dolphin Lovers: Real and False Communication in the Operant Setting. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 364, 1, 137 • Norris, K.S., Pryor, K. (1970). A Tagging Method for Small Cetaceans. Journal of Mammalogy, 51, 3, 609–610 • Pryor, K.W., Haang, R., & O’Reilly, J. (1969). The creative porpoise: Training for novel behavior. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 12, 653–661 • Lang, T.G., Pryor, K. (1966). Hydrodynamic Performance of Porpoises (Stenella attenuata). Science, 152, 3721, 531–533. • Pryor, T., Pryor, K.,& Norris, S.K. (1965). Observations on a Pygmy Killer Whale (Feresa attenuata Gray) from Hawaii. Journal of Mammalogy, 46, 3, 450–461.
Identifier: subturriundertow1980bost (find matches)
Boston College · https: Source book page
Primary material
Documents and archives
reference work
- “Karen Pryor”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
authority record
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q1729272: Karen Pryor
General reference · Wikidata
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
reference work
Secondary witnessauthority record
General reference
People, houses and institutions
Knowledge graph
People, houses and institutions
Teachers, collaborators, publishers and institutions recorded against this person, each on a stated basis.
Studied at
1- Cornell UniversityOrganisation
Established from a fact already recorded on a verified source.
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 18 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Books
38,988 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
- Karen Mac CormackAuthor
- Karen McCarthy WoolfAuthor
- Karen MulhallenAuthor
- Karen PressAuthor
- Karen RussellAuthor
- Karen SolieAuthor
- Karen TravissAuthor
- kari edwardsAuthor
Best supported in this field
For owners
Own a work by Karen Pryor?
A specialist will read what you send and tell you what the house can establish, what it cannot, and whether the object is suited to sale. There is no charge and no obligation. The object stays with you throughout; nothing is shipped to us unless it is arranged in writing beforehand.