Behavioral effects of enrichment on pair‐housed juvenile rhesus monkeys

Abstract

Among captive primates, inanimate environmental enrichment can lead to measurable changes in behavior indicative of an improvement in psychological well‐being. Although this has been demonstrated repeatedly for singly caged primates, the relationship is not as well studied for pairhoused animals. Study of the pair‐housed setting has become increasingly relevant because of the social housing mandate of the Animal Welfare Act regulations. We therefore observed 68 juvenile rhesus monkeys born in 1988 and 1989 and living in mixed‐sex pairs from the ages of 2 to 3 years. All pairs were compatible. Half of the pairs received two types of enrichment, while the remaining pairs served as controls. Enriched and control juvenile subjects differed in the amount of time that they spent being inactive, playing, and drinking, but did not differ in the amount of time they spent interacting with their partner. Grooming and play were the two most common socially directed activities in both groups, a species‐appropriate pattern. Males played more and vocalized less than did females. Overall, enriched and control subjects spent equivalent amounts of time located within a social distance of one another, but there was some difference between groups in allocation of behaviors while near the pairmate. Environmental enhancers were frequently utilized, and led to relatively small changes in behavior between control and enriched subjects, suggesting that the presence of a partner for juvenile rhesus monkeys acts as a form of enrichment that may dilute the effects of inanimate environmental enhancements. © 1994 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.

Variation in the emission rate of sounds in a captive group of false killer whales Pseudorca crassidens during feedings: possible food anticipatory vocal activity?

“…The vocalizations of animals are relatively easy to record (Dawkins, 1998 (Crowell and Comuzzie, 1993;White et al, 1993;Krishnamurthy, 1994;Mulligan et al, 1994;Schapiro and Bloomsmith, 1994;Warris et al, 1994;Schwartzkopf-Genswein et al, 1997;Grandin, 1998;Ruiz-Miranda et al, 1998;Weary et al, 1998;Zimmerman and Koene, 1998;Taylor and Weary, 2000;Zimmerman et al, 2000Zimmerman et al, , 2003Schön et al, 2004;McCowan and Rommeck, 2006). Yet, the potential use of this method as a measure of wellbeing in captive dolphins is still limited (Castellote and Fossa, 2006;Akiyama and Ohta, 2007;Therrien et al, 2012).…”

Videotapes as enrichment for captive chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes)

“…These behaviors are often difficult to extinguish, even after the animals are socially grouped or are introduced to more stimulating environments [Pfeiffer and Koebner, 1978;Walsh et al, 1982;Clarke et al, 1982;Fritz, 1986]. To help avoid the development of such behavioral problems, increased attention has been devoted to developing enrichment programs for individually housed primates [Brent et al, 1989a;Fajzi et al, 1989;Schapiro and Bloomsmith, 1994].…”

Effects of Environmental Enrichment on the Social Behaviour of Javan Slow Loris, Nycticebus javanicus

“…Possibly, the slight decrease of proximity in both cages was due to restricted viewing during observation, which could have led to some unseen incidences of proximity. Yet the study of pair-housed juvenile rhesus macaques by Schapiro & Bloomsmith (1994) found that enrichment did not affect the time spent in proximate locations of each other (within 8cm).…”