Gilbert Margaret H, Baker Kate C
Division of Veterinary Medicine, Tulane National Primate Research Center, Covington, LA, USA.
J Med Primatol. 2011 Apr;40(2):71-8. doi: 10.1111/j.1600-0684.2010.00447.x. Epub 2010 Sep 8.
The purpose of this study was to test whether long-term pair housing of male rhesus macaques ameliorated negative responses to stressful events that can occur in the course of routine husbandry or research procedures.
Twelve singly housed individuals were videotaped during two potentially stressful events before and after social introduction into pairs. During each stressor, abnormal behavior and anxiety-related behavior were quantified from videotape.
When visually exposed to the restraint and anesthesia of other monkeys, subjects showed significantly reduced frequencies of abnormal behavior when pair-housed in comparison to their reactions when housed singly. Noisy and disruptive conversation between technicians standing immediately in front of the subjects' cage did not elicit the same reduction in abnormal behavior. Neither test showed a significant difference across housing settings for anxiety-related behaviors.
These findings suggest that pair housing buffers adult male rhesus macaques against common stressors in the laboratory setting.
本研究的目的是测试雄性恒河猴长期成对饲养是否能改善对日常饲养或研究过程中可能出现的应激事件的负面反应。
12只单独饲养的个体在成对饲养前后的两个潜在应激事件期间被录像。在每个应激源期间，从录像中量化异常行为和焦虑相关行为。
当视觉上暴露于其他猴子的约束和麻醉时，与单独饲养时的反应相比，成对饲养的受试者异常行为的频率显著降低。站在受试者笼子正前方的技术人员之间嘈杂且具有干扰性的对话并没有引起异常行为的同样减少。两项测试均未显示在不同饲养环境下焦虑相关行为有显著差异。
这些发现表明，成对饲养可保护成年雄性恒河猴免受实验室环境中常见应激源的影响。
