Huber Hillary F, Lewis Kerrie P
Department of Anthropology, Texas State University-San Marcos, San Marcos, Texas, USA.
Zoo Biol. 2011 Jan-Feb;30(1):71-8. doi: 10.1002/zoo.20321.
In the wild, many primates consume gums exuded from trees, and many species are gum specialists. In spite of this, few data exist concerning gum feeding in captivity. Using a web-based survey of 46 zoos in 12 countries, we evaluated the extent to which zoos feed gum to primates. We found that although callitrichids and galagos receive gum-based enrichment, cercopithecines generally do not. Environmental enrichment is important for stimulating naturalistic behavior to promote the psychological wellbeing of animals. Thus, gum-based enrichment is important for captive gummivores. Our study highlights the need to improve environmental enrichment for captive gummivores, in particular that of cercopithecines. This is most striking for the patas monkey (Erythrocebus patas), an obligate gummivore. The exchange of ecological data between field research and captive settings is crucial, and is just one way primate caretakers can contribute to the conservation and welfare of some of our closest living relatives.
在野外，许多灵长类动物会食用树木渗出的树胶，并且许多物种是树胶专家。尽管如此，关于圈养环境下灵长类动物食用树胶的数据却很少。通过对12个国家的46家动物园进行基于网络的调查，我们评估了动物园向灵长类动物投喂树胶的程度。我们发现，尽管绢毛猴和婴猴会接受以树胶为基础的环境丰容，但猕猴通常不会。环境丰容对于激发动物的自然行为以促进其心理健康很重要。因此，以树胶为基础的环境丰容对于圈养的食胶动物很重要。我们的研究强调了改善圈养食胶动物环境丰容的必要性，尤其是猕猴的环境丰容。对于赤猴（Erythrocebus patas）这种专性食胶动物来说，这一点最为突出。野外研究与圈养环境之间的生态数据交换至关重要，这只是灵长类动物饲养员为我们一些最亲近的现存亲属的保护和福利做出贡献的一种方式。
