ADAPTATION OF LABORATORY REARED MONKEYS TO FIELD ENVIRONMENTS

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This project investigates how rhesus monkeys and other nonprimate species born and raised under different laboratory conditions adapt to placement into naturalistic outdoor environments that contain specific physical and social features of the monkeys' natural habitat. Adaptation is assessed by examining behavioral repertoires and by monitoring a variety of physiological systems in these subjects, yielding broad-based indices of relative physical and psychological well-being. During FY93 a new shelter facility for the LCE's 5-acre outdoor enclosure at the NIHAC was completed and occupied by the resident rhesus monkey troop, greatly expanding the opportunities for carrying out experimental manipulations and physiological sampling in these free-ranging monkeys. Initial data collection focused on documenting the differential behavioral and physiological reactions of individual troop members to this major change in their physical habitat. A second study investigating spatial memory capabilities regarding the location of familiar and novel objects within the 5-acre enclosure was begun, while a third study compared the nature and rate of triadic interactions (involving mothers, infants, and other adult females) observed in this free-ranging troop with those seen in wild troops of rhesus monkeys on Cayo Santiago, PR. Pioneering studies of complex tool use and its relationship to laterality and object manipulation propensities in capuchin monkeys were completed in FY93, and a new experimental paradigm for evaluating complex cognitive and perceptual-motor capabilities that utilizes video game technology was developed and standardized for this monkey species.