The ethologist's viewThe Housing of Non-Human Primates Used for Experimental Research and Other Scientific Purposes: Issues for Consideration (1997)

Deputte, B. L.

Abstract

Ethologists always keep in mind what is natural for a subject of a given species and so to what extent the monkey is able to cope with a very different environment, given his species-specific constraints. To be considered as beneficial for the subject's well-being the features of an environment have to remain within the subject's range of adaptive mechanisms. I will present two ethological analyses: one experimental, dealing with the effects of an environmental enrichment on the social behavior of a group of captive grey-cheeked mangabeys and another one stressing that, within a given species, biological needs are dependent on the age and the sex of the subjects.