Do chimpanzees enjoy a virtual forest? A pilot investigation of the use of interactive art as a form of environmental enrichment for zoo‐housed chimpanzees

Abstract

Environmental enrichment is essential for the well-being of zoo animals. Recent advances in sensor and video technologies may contribute to improvements in enrichment in terms of their flexibilities and time constraints. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether interactive movie art can be used as a form of environmental enrichment. We implemented interactive movies designed by a professional artist, a visual art aiming to reflect naturalistic forest habitat, in an indoor chimpanzee enclosure at Kyoto City Zoo in Japan. Motion-tracking sensors embedded in buoys were installed at several locations around the indoor enclosure; the chimpanzees could change the movie contents by physically interacting with these objects. We recorded behaviors by observing entire troop of chimpanzees (six) between March 16 and 20, 2020 (control condition), then recorded behaviors when the interactive movie was presented (experimental condition) between March 21 and 29, 2020. Behaviors were recorded via direct observations and video recordings to examine any changes after the installation of interactive art. The chimpanzees spent more time in the indoor enclosures during the experimental condition than during the control condition. Activity budgets did not change substantially during the study period. There was no evidence of habituation to the movie during the study period. Three chimpanzees, including two young chimpanzees, interacted with the movie more frequently than the others; these young chimpanzees occasionally showed playful expressions when interacting with the movie and exhibited different reactivities to the movie scenes. These results demonstrate, first, that the interactive art did not negatively affect chimpanzee behavior, and second, that some of the chimpanzees indeed showed positive responses to the art. This study, therefore, introduces a novel possibility for environmental enrichment in zoos, involving a collaboration between science and art.

An Evaluation of Ethograms Measuring Distinct Features of Enrichment Use by Captive Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes)

“…In general, we found that our ethograms were effective in capturing the range of enrichment objects, manipulation behaviors, and social contexts observed in our sample. Enrichment studies tend to investigate one form or category of enrichment [ 11 , 13 , 17 , 23 , 24 ] rather than multiple enrichment categories simultaneously [ 12 ]. The current findings indicate that captive chimpanzees will voluntarily interact with a wide variety of objects when available.…”

“…For example, while neither social interactions nor aggressivity have been shown to vary in relation to the number of enrichment objects present [ 9 ], how those objects were used in larger social contexts was not examined. It is also rare for studies to categorize a wide range of device types, with studies often measuring behaviors in relation to only one type or category of enrichment (e.g., [ 11 , 13 , 17 , 23 , 24 ]). This is unfortunate given that, to fully understand how enrichment objects are used in social settings, it may be necessary to introduce and investigate a wide range of enrichment object categories.…”

Apex and ApeTouch: Development of a Portable Touchscreen System and Software for Primates at Zoos

“…More recently, the growing field of animal-computer interaction (ACI), which emphasizes iterative user-centric design processes and consent on the part of the animal [24], has spawned a variety of projects that use electronics as an enrichment for primates, often without the practice of provisioning food rewards. Efforts along these lines include systems involving projection screens and sensors at Kyoto City Zoo [25] and Melbourne Zoo [26] to create immersive interactive activities for great apes, and touchscreen-based musical, video, and puzzle apps for orangutans at Zoo Atlanta on a screen embedded in a large fake tree in their enclosure [27]. Giving primates choice and control over environmental factors has also been investigated in a study with white-faced sakis using proximity sensors to activate different sounds and videos in their enclosure [28].…”

Primatology in zoos: Studying behavior, cognition, and welfare

“…Moreover, zoos from America (e.g., Martin & Shumaker, 2022;Vonk, 2022), Europe (e.g., Laméris et al, 2022;Spiezio et al, undefined 2022), and Asia (e.g., Yamanashi et al, 2022) are represented, reflecting the global interest in zoo-based primatological research (Hopper, 2017).…”

“…for this special issue I wanted to invite contributions from researchers studying zoo-housed monkeys and prosimians (e.g., Cairo-Evans et al, 2022;Hayden et al, 2022;Spiezio et al, 2022) in addition to those studying apes (e.g., Laméris et al, 2022;Martin & Shumaker, 2022;Motes-Rodrigo & Tennie, 2022;Vonk, 2022;Yamanashi et al, 2022).…”