Clarence Wendy M, Scott Jennifer P, Dorris Michael C, Paré Martin
Department of Physiology, Centre for Neuroscience Studies, Ontario, Canada.
J Am Assoc Lab Anim Sci. 2006 Sep;45(5):31-4.
We assessed space use by 2 pairs of captive female rhesus monkeys recently transferred into 2 enclosures moderately larger than their former traditional research cages and providing elevated perches at or above human eye level for all monkeys. This new space did not affect the ongoing biomedical research in which these captive monkeys were involved, and we sought to determine whether they used the elevated positions preferentially, as do wild animals. The frequency and duration of visits at each of the 9 distinct regions within these enclosures was calculated during 30-min morning and evening sessions over 20 d. We found that the monkeys frequented all regions of their enclosures in a similar manner during both morning and evening sessions. However, the duration spent at each region varied significantly between morning and evening sessions, with high perches being chosen preferentially in the evenings. Overall, the monkeys spent the majority of their time at elevated positions. These results support the view that access to functional vertical space provides a preferred environment for species- specific behavior and is an option that should be considered by other research facilities.
我们评估了两对最近被转移到两个比它们以前的传统研究笼子稍大一些的圈舍中的圈养雌性恒河猴的空间利用情况，这两个圈舍为所有猴子提供了与人眼齐平或高于人眼水平的高架栖木。这个新空间没有影响这些圈养猴子所参与的正在进行的生物医学研究，并且我们试图确定它们是否像野生动物那样优先使用高架位置。在20天里，每天早晚各30分钟的时间段内，计算了这些圈舍内9个不同区域中每个区域的访问频率和持续时间。我们发现，猴子在早晚时间段内以相似的方式频繁出入圈舍的所有区域。然而，每个区域在早晚时间段内的停留时间差异显著，晚上猴子会优先选择高架栖木。总体而言，猴子大部分时间都待在高架位置。这些结果支持了这样一种观点，即获得功能性垂直空间为特定物种的行为提供了一个适宜的环境，并且这是其他研究设施应该考虑的一个选择。
