Primate Enrichment
Enrichment can be defined as any activity that helps an individual to live a better life. Introducing your children to fine books, bringing them to the theatre, encouraging their artistic endeavours or to think on their own to solve practical problems are great ways to enrich their lives and develop their brains.
In the wild, animals find themselves in many situations that require them to adapt and find solutions to daily life problems. In order to eat more termites, a chimpanzee somewhere once came up with the idea of delicately introducing a twig in a termite mound to collect more with less effort. This required an ability to observe the object of desire, state a problem clearly, come to a conclusion on how best to solve the problem at hand and thereby use what was readily available in the environment to reach the ultimate goal.
All this thinking makes a chimp's life much richer than if all he had to do was wait for his daily platter of termites to be served.
Coming up with enrichment ideas to keep animals in enclosures busy and give them a thrill is not an easy task.
One has to understand how the animals perceive the world around them and what appeals to them.
For most, food is a great motivator and making access to food challenging is not only enrichment for the primates but also for the humans who try to come up with different ideas on a regular basis.
PVC pipes (in which holes have been drilled) tied up to branches are an easy contraption to make. Food rewards can be placed in the pipes and monkeys will usually have a good time climbing up and reaching inside with their slender fingers.
Boxes filled with shredded paper with a few treats inside are OK but not very challenging. As a matter of fact the monkeys I deal with are so used to them that they eat the treats in less than a minute.
To make it more fun, one can hide a paper bag filled with shredded papers, inside a box which is itself inside another box. Following the same principle, you can lay a large wooden tray with wood shavings and some treats inside that primates will have to find by combing through the wood shavings.
Hiding food around the enclosure provides for exercise - mostly physical because monkeys are very good at observing people and if they see you hide the items, they remember very well where each of them is.
Hanging socks with stuff in them, such as aromatic herbs and a couple of gummy worms. Some of my spider monkey friends like to rub their entire body with lavender, or cherry scented socks. Garlic can be a great hit too!
Wooden blocks with holes filled with peanut butter, mashed potatoes or any other mushy food seem to be a favorite of a few baboon acquaintances of mine. One of them likes it so much that he usually tries to embrace the wood block when someone tries to untie it to clean it up.
Big sturdy colored plastic balls can be hung inside or outside the enclosure as well.
I recently bought a piece of faux-fur and hooked it up to the enclosure of my best baboon friend. I sprinkled crushed nuts and a little bit of sugared water with jelly to make them stick. This provided my friend with a good few hours of "grooming". Since she is alone in her cage, I thought it might be good for her.
Sturdy plastic toys for toddlers are great - the capuchin monkeys seem to have endless hours of entertainment with the toys they have. They can throw them around, climb on them, bite them, shake them and anything else they want. These toys never break.
Balls with several holes and filled with food can be thrown around the enclosures. The food they contain will fall out, leaving a big smile on your monkey friends' faces.
If you have any ideas you would like to share about enrichment, please feel free to comment on my page or email me sylnande@ymail.com.
In the wild, animals find themselves in many situations that require them to adapt and find solutions to daily life problems. In order to eat more termites, a chimpanzee somewhere once came up with the idea of delicately introducing a twig in a termite mound to collect more with less effort. This required an ability to observe the object of desire, state a problem clearly, come to a conclusion on how best to solve the problem at hand and thereby use what was readily available in the environment to reach the ultimate goal.
All this thinking makes a chimp's life much richer than if all he had to do was wait for his daily platter of termites to be served.
Coming up with enrichment ideas to keep animals in enclosures busy and give them a thrill is not an easy task.
One has to understand how the animals perceive the world around them and what appeals to them.
For most, food is a great motivator and making access to food challenging is not only enrichment for the primates but also for the humans who try to come up with different ideas on a regular basis.
PVC pipes (in which holes have been drilled) tied up to branches are an easy contraption to make. Food rewards can be placed in the pipes and monkeys will usually have a good time climbing up and reaching inside with their slender fingers.
Boxes filled with shredded paper with a few treats inside are OK but not very challenging. As a matter of fact the monkeys I deal with are so used to them that they eat the treats in less than a minute.
To make it more fun, one can hide a paper bag filled with shredded papers, inside a box which is itself inside another box. Following the same principle, you can lay a large wooden tray with wood shavings and some treats inside that primates will have to find by combing through the wood shavings.
Hiding food around the enclosure provides for exercise - mostly physical because monkeys are very good at observing people and if they see you hide the items, they remember very well where each of them is.
Hanging socks with stuff in them, such as aromatic herbs and a couple of gummy worms. Some of my spider monkey friends like to rub their entire body with lavender, or cherry scented socks. Garlic can be a great hit too!
Wooden blocks with holes filled with peanut butter, mashed potatoes or any other mushy food seem to be a favorite of a few baboon acquaintances of mine. One of them likes it so much that he usually tries to embrace the wood block when someone tries to untie it to clean it up.
Big sturdy colored plastic balls can be hung inside or outside the enclosure as well.
I recently bought a piece of faux-fur and hooked it up to the enclosure of my best baboon friend. I sprinkled crushed nuts and a little bit of sugared water with jelly to make them stick. This provided my friend with a good few hours of "grooming". Since she is alone in her cage, I thought it might be good for her.
Sturdy plastic toys for toddlers are great - the capuchin monkeys seem to have endless hours of entertainment with the toys they have. They can throw them around, climb on them, bite them, shake them and anything else they want. These toys never break.
Balls with several holes and filled with food can be thrown around the enclosures. The food they contain will fall out, leaving a big smile on your monkey friends' faces.
If you have any ideas you would like to share about enrichment, please feel free to comment on my page or email me sylnande@ymail.com.
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