Goulart Vinícius Donisete Lima Rodrigues, Young Robert John
Transportation Research and Environmental Modelling Laboratory-TREM, Institute of Geosciences, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte 31270-901, Brazil.
School of Science, Engineering and Environment, Peel Building, University of Salford Manchester, Salford M5 4WT, UK.
Animals (Basel). 2024 Jul 4;14(13):1979. doi: 10.3390/ani14131979.
Zoos are an important repository of animals, which have a wide range of visual systems, providing excellent opportunities to investigate many comparative questions in sensory ecology. However, behavioural testing must be carried out in an animal welfare-friendly manner, which is practical for zoo staff. Here, we present a proof-of-concept study to facilitate behavioural research on the sensory ecology of captive primates. A system consisting of a tablet computer and an automated feeder connected wirelessly was developed and presented to captive primate species to evaluate interactions with and without previous training. A colour stimulus, analogous to the Ishihara test, was used to check the level of interaction with the device, supporting future studies on sensory ecology with zoo animals. Animals were able to use the system successfully and displayed signs of learning to discriminate between the visual stimuli presented. We identified no risk for small primates in their interactions with the experimental setup without the presence of keepers. The use of electronic devices should be approached with caution to prevent accidents, as a standard practice for environmental enrichment for larger animals (e.g., spider monkeys). In the long term, the system developed here will allow us to address complex comparative questions about the functions of different visual systems in captive animals (i.e., dichromatic, trichromatic, etc.).
动物园是动物的重要储存库，动物具有各种各样的视觉系统，为研究感官生态学中的许多比较问题提供了绝佳机会。然而，行为测试必须以对动物福利友好且动物园工作人员可行的方式进行。在此，我们展示一项概念验证研究，以促进对圈养灵长类动物感官生态学的行为研究。我们开发了一个由平板电脑和无线连接的自动喂食器组成的系统，并将其展示给圈养的灵长类动物物种，以评估有无预先训练情况下的互动情况。使用类似于石原氏色盲测试的颜色刺激来检查与该设备的互动程度，为未来关于动物园动物感官生态学的研究提供支持。动物能够成功使用该系统，并表现出学会区分所呈现视觉刺激的迹象。我们发现，在没有饲养员在场的情况下，小型灵长类动物与实验装置互动时没有风险。对于大型动物（如蜘蛛猴），作为环境富集的标准做法，应谨慎使用电子设备以防止事故。从长远来看，这里开发的系统将使我们能够解决关于圈养动物（即双色视觉、三色视觉等）不同视觉系统功能的复杂比较问题。
