Preferred contents of movies as an enrichment method for Japanese macaques (2008)

Ogura, T., Tanaka, M.

Abstract

In order to improve the quality of life of captive Japanese macaques (Macaca fuscata), we investigated the effective content of movie presentations, which we expected would satisfy a need for visual and social stimuli. Because Japanese macaques are popular experimental animals in Japan, most captive Japanese macaques are housed in single cages with poor sensory and social stimuli. Japanese macaques use visual information to build social relationships in the wild. Thus, presentation of visual stimuli was expected to be effective enrichment. The subjects were 3 male Japanese macaques housed in single cages. We placed a touch sensitive monitor in front of each subject's cage. Touching the monitor was followed by presentation of a movie. Six kinds of movie contents were presented on the monitor: Japanese macaques, rhesus macaques, chimpanzees, human beings, animations, and view/control stimuli. When a subject touched a movie, it was enlarged and played. The selected movie continued to play for as long as the subject was touching the movie. We gave the subjects one 2-hour session per day, and continued for 40 sessions. We recorded the subject's choice of content of the movie and play duration of selected movies. In two subjects, touching responses were maintained for 40 sessions without any food rewards. The results suggest that movies may be helpful in alleviating boredom of singly-housed macaques. The preferred content of the movie was different between the subjects but consistent for each subject. Providing macaques with choice over movies appears to be effective as an enrichment device.