The Four Cs of Psychological Wellbeing: Lessons from Three Decades of Computer-based Environmental Enrichment
Three decades ago, the Animal Welfare Act was amended to require researchers to provide environments that promoted the psychological, as well as the physical, wellbeing of nonhuman primates maintained for research purposes. We developed a computer-task paradigm with the goal of promoting and assessing the psychological wellbeing of rhesus monkeys. Some lessons learned in the […]
Social and spatial relationships in captive southern white rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum simum)
Abstract 10.1002/zoo.20143.abs Although critical to the conservation of white rhinoceros, captive breeding has proven challenging because of the poor and irregular reproductive health of many captive rhinos, and social interactions may play a significant role. This research investigated the social and spatial relationships of two captive groups of southern white rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum simum) by […]
Determining the Value of Social Companionship to Captive Tufted Capuchin Monkeys (Cebus apella)
This study used a method similar to one introduced by Dawkins in 1990 to assess the magnitude of the psychological need for social companionship in pair-housed tufted capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella). This method permits classification of commodities as necessities or luxuries. The study directly compared the commodity of social companionship to the commodity of food, […]