Establishing a Predictable Cue for Catches to Reduce Reactivity to Management Events for Captive Rhesus Macaques...

Area of Science:

• Animal Behavior
• Animal Welfare
• Applied Ethology

Background:

• Psychological duress in captive animals can stem from unpredictable aversive events.
• Predictable signals for negative stimuli allow for behavioral and physiological preparation, mitigating stress.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate if a reliable, unique signal cue for an aversive management event reduces reactivity to subsequent, less predictable events.
• To assess the impact of signal implementation on the stress responses of rhesus macaques.

Main Methods:

• Recorded behavioral and physiological responses of outdoor-housed rhesus macaques in two large groups.
• Introduced experimental periods with a signal consistently paired with catch events.
• Compared animal responses to signaled vs. unsignaled management events of varying directness.

Main Results:

• Catch events were more disruptive than indirect management events but comparable to direct interactions.
• Signal use significantly reduced aversive responses to routine management events sharing unreliable cues with the signaled catch events.
• The implementation of the signal led to detectable improvements across multiple measures of disruption.

Conclusions:

• A reliable predictive signal can mitigate the negative impact of unpredictable aversive management events on rhesus macaques.
• Signaling strategies offer a practical approach to enhance animal welfare by reducing psychological duress in captive environments.
• This intervention demonstrates a valuable improvement in managing animal stress in research settings.