Research and animal welfare needs when studying social learning: the case of a colony of captive common marmosets The Housing of Non-Human Primates Used for Experimental Research and Other Scientific Purposes: Issues for Consideration (1997)

Queyras, A., Scolavino, M., Vitale, A.

Abstract

In our first research we wanted to observe the animals' responses to new objects, focalizing our attention on the behaviour of the adult females, in relation to food-related new tasks. Then, another research concerned the social transmission of food preferences in relation to the particular social repertoire of our study species. In these researches we considered both our experimental aims, and the animals' requirements. For example, the use of new tasks and new foods as a part of an experimental protocol, represent also an environmental enrichment for the captive animals, and a good possibility to break the monotony of laboratory life. Furthermore our experiments, considering the social nature of the study species, never contemplated an individual tested in isolation. In conclusion, the ethical considerations in conceiving our experimental protocols are important both for the welfare of the animals, and for the quality of our research.