Duncan Luke Mangaliso, Pillay Neville
Department of Psychology, University of Warwick, 6 University Rd, Coventry CV4 7EQ, UK.
School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, 1 Jan Smuts Avenue, Braamfontein, Johannesburg 2000, South Africa.
Animals (Basel). 2025 Mar 11;15(6):799. doi: 10.3390/ani15060799.
Non-human primates (hereafter 'primates') constitute a common group of animals in captivity but their captive maintenance involves ethical and husbandry issues, many of which can be addressed through environmental enrichment (hereafter 'enrichment'). Enrichment is often applied in a trial-and-error fashion or based on subjective assessments of efficacy. Thus, a predictive framework for enrichment is necessary to ensure it achieves the desired outcomes. As one of the initial steps towards the development of a predictive enrichment science, we aimed to identify the most effective enrichment approaches for captive primates. We conducted a comprehensive meta-analysis of the peer-reviewed literature and extracted information on methodological approaches, experimental design, species and environmental context. We developed and applied a novel efficacy index score to each study protocol as a comparable metric of enrichment efficacy in order to appraise current enrichment practices. Our findings suggest that captive primate enrichment approaches vary in their efficacy, with training-based enrichment being the most effective. Furthermore, the social context of subjects appears to influence efficacy, with primates housed alone deriving the most benefit from enrichment. A species' natural minimum group size may also influence enrichment efficacy but this relationship requires further investigation. Testing and reporting trends for captive primate enrichment are presented and discussed, highlighting important gaps in the literature and avenues of future research while identifying the beneficial effects of different enrichment practices.
非人灵长类动物（以下简称“灵长类动物”）是圈养中常见的一类动物，但对它们的圈养涉及伦理和饲养问题，其中许多问题可以通过环境富集（以下简称“富集”）来解决。富集通常以试错的方式应用，或者基于对效果的主观评估。因此，需要一个富集的预测框架来确保其达到预期结果。作为发展预测性富集科学的初步步骤之一，我们旨在确定圈养灵长类动物最有效的富集方法。我们对同行评审文献进行了全面的荟萃分析，并提取了有关方法学方法、实验设计、物种和环境背景的信息。我们为每个研究方案开发并应用了一种新颖的功效指数得分，作为富集功效的可比指标，以便评估当前的富集实践。我们的研究结果表明，圈养灵长类动物的富集方法在功效上存在差异，基于训练的富集最为有效。此外，受试动物的社会背景似乎会影响功效，单独饲养的灵长类动物从富集中受益最大。一个物种的自然最小群体规模也可能影响富集功效，但这种关系需要进一步研究。本文展示并讨论了圈养灵长类动物富集的测试和报告趋势，突出了文献中的重要空白和未来研究的方向，同时确定了不同富集实践的有益效果。
