Chapter 4.5. Mirrors (2007)

LAREF [Laboratory Animal Refinement and Enrichment Forum]

Abstract

All of our single-housed long-tailed macaques have mirrors mounted on swivels that are attached to the outside of their cages, low enough so that an animal can chose to either bend down and intentionally look into the mirror or to make no extra effort, hence not be confronted bothered by the mirror reflection. Our monkeys use their mirrors frequently.Our rhesus love mirrors too. They like to check us out by looking at us through the mirror. I guess they don't feel so threatened when they can look at us without being seen. They also like to check out the room, by looking at the reflections in the mirror. We have one male who never looks at people directly, but holds up a polished stainless steel mirror to watch people who have just entered the room. Of course, we named him Mirror Man.We have found an acrylic sheet mirror that we can cut into different-size pieces. Some get hung on the walls, using double sided tape, while other pieces get hung right inside the enclosures, using zip ties. We also cut small pieces and give these directly to the primates. Our rhesus macaques often combine the wall and hand mirrors to get extra viewing advantage! Its really fun to watch them. The acrylic leaves no sharp edges when it breakes; this means it is safe for the animals. We never encountered a problem.Our singly housed baboons get the most enjoyment from their mirrors, while pair- and group-housed animals show little interest in them.I have a male olive baboon in my charge who regularly sits for long periods at a time looking at himself in a mirror. He is housed with two females but appears to prefer looking at his own mirror reflection versus the nice tumescent females hovering around him! He also uses his mirror to see reflections of what is going on behind him, sitting diagonally with his back facing the main traffic area for techs, as if he was spying on us! I do believe he is entertaining himself quite a bit with the mirror.