Re finem for Annot ment a Prima tated nd En ates K Biblio vironm ...

"The area covered by the floor was 3 times larger than that covered by elevated structures;nonetheless the animals were located significantly more often (89.8% of 108 scan samples) onelevated structures than on the floor (8.6% of 108 scan samples). ... The higher an animal's rankposition, the more pronounced was its habit to utilize high-level (>130 cm above floor)structures of the pen, while low ranking animals had to be content with low-level structures (40cm above floor) and the floor. .. All members of the group would inevitably take to elevated siteswhenever they heard or saw fear-inducing personnel. ... The animals huddled together withregularity on high-level structures but never on low-level structures or on the floor. ... It wasconcluded that laboratory rhesus macaques prefer the vertical dimension over the horizontaldimension as primary living space."Reinhardt V 2003. Legal loophole for subminimal floor area for caged macaques. Journal ofApplied Animal Welfare Science 6, 53-56http://www.awionline.org/Lab_animals/biblio/jaaws9.html"The USDA regulations pertaining to the minimum space requirements of nonhuman primatesand the fitting of elevated resting surfaces are contradictory. They implicitly condone theprevailing perch design that allows maximal usage of animal room space by stacking the cageson top of each other but fails to address the animals minimal spatial needs for normal posturaladjustments with freedom of movement. An amendment to the regulations is needed to clarifythat perches, ledges, swings, or other suspended fixtures have to be installed in such a way thatthey do not block part of the minimum floor space that is needed by an animal to make speciestypicalpostural adjustments with freedom of movement."Ricker RB, Williams LE, Brady AG, Gibson SV, Abee CR 1995. Environmental enhancementfor laboratory-housed squirrel monkeys: Fifteen-year retrospective analysis of procedures.Contemporary Topics in Laboratory Animal Science 34(4), 55 (Abstract)"Two types of perching material were tried: polyvinyl chloride and hemp (rope). The PVC waspreferred by the animals and was set up in multiple levels, allowing use of vertical as well ashorizontal space."Schmidt EM, Dold GM, McIntosh JS 1989. A perch for primate squeeze cages. LaboratoryAnimal Science 39, 166-167Modification of single squeeze-cages is described allowing the installation of a perch that doesnot interfere with the normal operation of the cage. "The monkeys make use of their perch forfeeding, grooming and sleeping" for 30% to 95% of the day.Seier JV 2000. Usefulness of wooden material for environmental enrichment for rhesusmacaques. Primate Enrichment Forum (electronic discussion group), February 12, 2000"We have been using wood extensively in our vervet monkey colony (about 300 monkeys,indoors) and communal cages we make climbing apparatus from wood. Wood perches forresting were also installed but they use the metal perches equally well. ...The vervets use thewood as described for other species, stripping the bark and climbing. They eventually reduceand medium branches to a single pole. We find this desirable since it keeps them occupied forhours. ... They do not loose interest in the wood as they do in other objects which we have tried.... There is obviously the problem of sanitation but we replace the wood regularly and autoclaveit before we place inside the cage (luckily we have a very large autoclave). Clogging of drainsand mould has not occurred, neither have problems such as injury through splintering. ... Weconsider wood as our most important enrichment tool."121