Gottlieb, D. H., Maier, A., Coleman, K. 2013. The relationship between environmental enrichment, temperament, and stereotypy in captive rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta). American Journal of Primatology 75(S1), 91. (36th Meeting of the American Society of Primatologists Scientific Program, Abstract #193)

Stereotypic behaviors are common in captive primate colonies, and it would be beneficial to know effective methods of remediation, and which animals are most likely to express the behavior. The first goal of this research was to determine the relationship between stereotypy and enrichment in indoor-housed rhesus macaques at the Oregon National Primate Research Center (ONPRC). Since 2002 our lab has performed annual 5-minute assessments on all indoor-housed monkeys at the ONPRC, totaling 10,990 observations on 4058 animals. Retrospective data analysis revealed that animals were significantly less likely to perform stereotypy when a foraging device was present than not, and significantly less likely to perform stereotypy when full contact pair-housed than single-housed, with no significant difference in stereotypy between single-housed and grooming contact-housed animals [GLMM, alpha=0.05]. The second goal of this research was to determine if temperament predicted stereotypy expression. At the end of each assessment, subjects were presented a novel food object. Animals that quickly took the object were significantly more likely to show stereotypy than individuals that hesitated or never took the object [GLMM, alpha=0.05]. Overall these results help underscore the benefits of foraging devices and full contact-housing as enrichment, while providing evidence that grooming contact-housing may not be equivalent to full contact-housing. Enrichment may be particularly important for bold individuals, who appear at highest risk for expressing stereotypy.