Chapter 4.4. Coconuts (2007)

LAREF [Laboratory Animal Refinement and Enrichment Forum]

Abstract

Rhesus don't care much about coconuts, but stump-tailed macaques are fascinated by them and do not get tired working on them until the last morsel has disappeared in the drop pan. It never occurred that one of the monkeys somehow became injured while processing a nut.I give whole coconuts to our individually caged cynos. More than anything, they like them for grooming purposes. It gives them something else to do besides bite themselves. I also had a female who carried her coconut around as if it was a baby, constantly clutching it to her chest, and lip smacking to it, grooming it, etc. She was a chronic alopecia case. The coconut alleviated some, unfortunately not all, of her stereotypical hair pulling behavior.