The Comparative Effect of Occupational and Musical Enrichment on Fecal Glucocorticoid Metabolite Levels in a Captive Colony of Stumptail Macaques (Macaca arctoides)

Environmental enrichment improves captive animal welfare by reducing stress-related behaviors. Previous studies in a captive colony of stumptail macaques (Macaca arctoides) reported a reduction of aggression, coprophilia, and stereotypic behaviors after an occupational enrichment program; however, the effect on stress hormones such as glucocorticoids has not been investigated yet. The goal of this study was […]

What time is feeding?: How delays and anticipation of feeding schedules affect stump-tailed macaque behavior

Everyday animal care routines are essential to an animal’s physical well-being, but the effects of husbandry routines on the animals’ psychological well-being are not often considered. The scheduling of animal care routines may have an important impact on how they are perceived by the animals involved. It was the objective of this study to assess […]

The Effects of Caretaker–Primate Relationships on Primates in the Laboratory

As contact with caretakers is likely to make up the majority of human-primate interactions in laboratories, caretakers represent an important influence in the lives of captive primates. The aim of this study was to determine how caretaker-primate relationships affected the behavior of primates in the laboratory. We examined whether stump-tailed macaques (Macaca arctoides) who were […]

Novelty-seeking temperament in captive stumptail macaques (macaca arctoides) and spider monkeys (ateles geoffroyi)

Novelty-seeking temperament is defined as the reaction to novel or risk situations and objects, and by the global disposition to explore such stimuli. Our purpose was to describe and compare this trait in primates. For this purpose, a risk-taking Index, a curiosity index, and a novelty-seeking index were correlated to several biosocial variables using 22 […]