Rehabilitation and Socialization of Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) Used for Entertainment and as Pets: An 8-Year Study at Fundació Mona

Abstract

Abstracts Primates are at times used as performers in circuses, advertisements, films, and as pets. Most of these animals are socially isolated from their peers. They exhibit behavioral problems and lack important skills for living in a group environment. One of the main challenges primate rescue centers face is creating groups to socialize rescued individuals and promote the development of species-typical behaviors. We monitored a group of 15 chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) housed at Fundació Mona, a primate rescue and rehabilitation centre, for 8 yr. The aim of the study was to study the rehabilitation process and to establish variables that may influence the behavioral recovery of the chimpanzees. We used scan sampling to assess behavior and two welfare indices over the study period. Our results show that both desirable behaviors and welfare indices increased over time, while nondesirable behaviors decreased. We found no differences between pet and performer chimpanzees, but captive-born subjects recovered better than wild-born. We also established that chimpanzees that were younger at the onset of rehabilitation reached higher levels of social and behavioral competence than those that were older. We conclude that both social group housing and opportunities for the development of species-typical behaviors have a positive effect on the welfare and rehabilitation of performer and pet chimpanzees, but that their previous history influences rehabilitation. Int J Primatol

Early life experience and alterations of group composition shape the social grooming networks of former pet and entertainment chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes)

“…For example, Freeman and Ross [4] found that chimpanzees, living in accredited zoos and sanctuaries, who had more exposure to humans as infants exhibited less social grooming and sexual behaviours than chimpanzees with more conspecific exposure during infancy. Likewise, Llorente and colleagues [10] found that chimpanzees living in a sanctuary who were younger at the onset of rehabilitation spent more time with social play and affiliative behaviours, less time inactive, and reached higher levels of behavioural and social competence than individuals who started their rehabilitation at an older age. Furthermore, former pet and entertainment chimpanzees, living in accredited zoos and sanctuaries, who were mainly exposed to humans in infancy showed lower levels of extraversion and exhibited deficiencies in social bonding [38].…”

“…Adverse experiences in early infancy affect the behaviour as well as the physical and mental health of human [1][2][3] and non-human primates [4,5] in the long term [6][7][8][9]. This applies to individual as well as social behaviour [10]. Wild infant chimpanzees spend their first two to five years of life either attached to or in close proximity to their mothers [11][12][13], and develop their social skills by interacting with their mother and other members of their group [12,14].…”

“…The recovery from early life adversities is a long lasting process, but can, at least in part, be achieved through social, psychological, emotional and environmental interventions in specialized institutions like primate rescue and rehabilitation centres [10,47]. These centres strive to recreate living conditions similar to that of wild living conspecifics, i.e.…”

Bushmeat trade consequences predict higher anxiety, restraint, and dominance in chimpanzees

“…Nevertheless, due to the genetic, biological, and psychological proximity, nonhuman primates have been preferred as a comparative animal model to understand what triggers early life stress products in humans (Gilmer & McKinney, ; Nelson & Winslow, ). Decades of studies revealed that early impoverished, neglected, and abused primates show long‐term effects on cortical organization (Bogart, Bennett, Schapiro, Reamer, & Hopkins, ), cognitive deficits (Davenport, Rogers, & Rumbaugh, ), greater expression of abnormal and stereotyped behaviors (Birkett & Newton‐Fisher, ; Kalcher‐Sommersguter, Franz‐Schaider, Preuschoft, & Crailsheim, ; Latham & Mason, ), less social and sexual behaviors (Freeman & Ross, ; Kalcher‐Sommersguter et al, ; Llorente, Riba, Ballesta, Feliu, & Rostán, ), attachment disorders (van Ijzendoorn, Bard, Bakermans‐Kranenburg, & Ivan, ), anxiety (Botero, Macdonald, & Miller, ), increased inactivity (Llorente et al, ), neophobia (Ueno & Matsuzawa, ), and higher stress sensitivity (Reimers, Schwarzenberger, & Preuschoft, ), than mother‐reared and normal developed chimpanzees.…”

Investigating the relationship between welfare and rearing young in captive chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes)

“…We focused not only on abnormal and stress-related behaviours often used to gauge welfare (e.g., Llorente et al, 2015;Pomerantz and Terkel, 2009) but also on a potential positive welfare indicator, play, in line with the increased interest in welfare science paradigms that include positive outcomes (Mellor et al, 2009;Mellor, 2015). Play has been proposed as one of the most promising positive welfare indicators because it is more likely to be performed when animals are experiencing positive affective states, the behaviour is linked with positive emotions, and it is reduced when animals are faced with poor conditions (Boissy et al, 2007;Held anď Spinka, 2011).…”