ADAPTATION OF LABORATORY REARED MONKEYS TO FIELD ENVIRONMENTS

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This project investigates how rhesus monkeys and other primate 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 FY92 detailed longitudinal comparisons between members of a rhesus monkey trop living in a 5-acre outdoor enclosure and similarity aged members of groups living in indoor pens over a comparable period were carried out in order to evaluate the behavioral consequences of providing the indoor groups with a substrate that promoted foraging activity, as well as toys that increased exploratory and manipulative behaviors. Other analyses focused on habitat utilization by members of the rhesus monkey troop living in the outdoor enclosure, comparing traditional ecological and functional approaches with analytic techniques derived from social attachment theory. A cross-sectional study of normative behavioral repertoires of capuchin monkeys living in three different physical and social settings was completed. Finally, several studies focusing on the unique tool- using properties of capuchin monkeys were initiated.