Do Monkeys Want Audio or Visual Stimuli? Interactive Computers for Choice with White-Faced Sakis in Zoos
Interactive systems were built to give monkeys a choice over when and where to trigger stimuli as a way to control their environment to improve their welfare indices. Typically, systems only support the triggering of one stimulus – either audio or visual. In this study, a system was developed for monkeys that allowed them to […]
Do zoo visitors induce attentional bias effects in primates completing cognitive tasks?
While previous research has focused on the impact of visitors on zoo-housed animals’ behavior, here, we evaluated the impact of visitors on the performance of four zoo-housed Japanese macaques (Macaca fuscata) in a cognitive task. The macaques completed a touchscreen-based match-to-sample task in glass-sided booths at the perimeter of their enclosure, adjacent to a visitor […]
Assessing the potential impact of zoo visitors on the welfare and cognitive performance of Japanese macaques
The influence of visitors on zoo-housed primate behavior and welfare is relatively well-studied but less is known about the possible impact of zoo visitor presence on primates’ cognition. The Japanese macaques (Macaca fuscata) at Lincoln Park Zoo, USA, participate in voluntary cognitive research sessions in two touchscreen testing booths adjacent to their home enclosure, which […]
Happiness, Welfare, and Personality in Rhesus Macaques (Macaca mulatta)
When we treat an animal’s welfare as an individual experience, we should consider the possibility that it may be associated with individual differences in personality. We tested for such associations in 44 socially housed rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) that lived at the California National Primate Research Center. For each macaque, we obtained ratings on a […]
Mechanisms underlying cognitive bias in nonhuman primates
Recent research in nonhuman animals highlights the exciting possibility that performance on cognitive bias tasks might indirectly measure an individual’s subjective, affective state. Subjects first learn to perform a conditional discrimination task with two differentially reinforced responses, and then intermediate, unreinforced stimuli are introduced. Differences in affective state have been related to changes in the […]
Preferences among four species of local browse offered to Colobus guereza kikuyuensis at the Central Park Zoo
Abstract 10.1002/zoo.20051.abs The objective of this study was to document the browse preferences of five adult Colobus monkeys (one male and four females, fed a nutritionally sound diet) among four local and readily available temperate browse types at the Central Park Zoo. The four browse species used in part A of the study were nasturtium […]
Decrease in nasal temperature of rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) in negative emotional state
We established an infrared thermographic system for the detection of emotion-related temperature changes in rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta). We continuously measured temperatures of various facial regions of four rhesus monkeys during the presentation of a potentially ‘threatening’ person, i.e., a person in a laboratory coat with a catching net, who entered the experimental room and […]
Estradiol effects on behavior and serum oxytocin are modified by social status and polymorphisms in the serotonin transporter gene in female rhesus monkeys
Despite the well-documented relation between estradiol (E2) and behavior, exposure to stressors may modify sensitivity to E2. The effects of E2 on behavior are, in part, likely related to their modulation of the serotonin (5HT) and oxytocin systems. The short allele (s-variant) polymorphism found in the promoter region of the SLC6A4 gene that encodes the […]
Prenatal origins of individual variation in behavior and immunity
The in utero environment plays a critical role in initiating the normal ontogeny of many physiological systems. As a consequence, disturbances during prenatal life can affect the baby’s maturational trajectory and sometimes cause chronic alterations that influence health postpartum. Our review summarizes a series of studies in rhesus monkeys supporting these conclusions. Psychological disturbance or […]
Relational Matching in Baboons (Papio papio) With Reduced Grouping Requirements
Analogical reasoning is a corner stone of human cognition, but the phylogenetic origins of this skill are still unknown. Recent animal studies have suggested that only apes can solve the 2- by 2-item relational matching (RMTS) analogy problem, with potential benefits of language- (Premack, 1983) or token-training procedures (Thompson, Oden, & Boysen, 1997). In this […]