Environmental challenges in groups of capuchins (1991)

Fragaszy, D. M. , Adams-Curtis, L. E.

Abstract

Small food items, such as seeds and diced vegetables, are regularly strewn in the straw bedding, which provides the monkeys with infinite opportunities to produce change. Each time the bedding is sifted, the configuration of the straw is changed and new surfaces are exposed. ... We regard straw bedding as our most important single means of providing benign environmental enrichment change and challenge in our groups... The introduction of objects also stimulates the expression of social and cognitive characteristics, which are obscured in less challenging situations.