Factors predicting increased incidence of abnormal behavior in malepigtailed macaques (2002)

Bellanca, R. U., Crockett, C. M.

Abstract

Abnormal behavior was unrelated to the subject's housing location (biocontainment vs. other facility) or invasiveness of research. Nursery-reared subjects displayed more abnormal behavior than mother-reared subjects. Across and within rearing categories, the proportion of the first 48 months of life spent singly housed was positively related to the amount of abnormal behavior at maturity. This effect was stronger for subjects separated from the mother for clinical rather than experimental reasons, and least for mother-reared subjects. Locomotor stereotypy, by far the most frequent form of abnormal behavior, was positively related to time in single housing but was unrelated to rearing. These results reinforce the importance of tactile social contact during juvenility for the prevention of abnormal behavior in social primates.