Until the day when nonhuman primates are no longer used as research subjects, they are entitled to the the highest possible standards of care that their facilities allow. Employees who work with nonhuman primates in the laboratory must do everything within their power to improve the well-being of the prosimians, monkeys, and apes in their care. Caregivers and technicians must go above and beyond simply providing food, water, and clean cages to nonhuman primates. Provision of environmental enrichment, and implementing a behavioral training program are two ways in which caregivers and technicians can have a profound positive impact on the lives of nonhuman primates condemned to live a biomedical research institution. LPAG hopes that laboratory employees find the following information useful in their efforts to improve the lives of laboratory primates.

Environmental Enrichment

Caregivers and other laboratory employees who work with laboratory primates face an enormous challenge to try to better the lives of nonhuman primates living in extremely confining and barren conditions. But it is our duty to rise to that challenge and provide our primate friends with opportunities to engage in "species-typical" behavior, to the extent that such behaviors can be exhibited in laboratory conditions. Not only is provision of environmental enrichment the law, it is our moral duty as caregivers and research technicians to provide enrichment daily – food treats, destructible items, toys, bedding, foraging opportunities, and friendly, positive social interaction. In addition to daily enrichment provision, caregivers and technicians must constantly advocate for improvements in the animals’ living conditions, be it social housing, addition of perches and swings, an increase in the variety of approved enrichment items, retirement to sanctuaries or zoos, etc. The life of a laboratory primate can always be improved, and it is up to those who work with them daily to constantly demand change.

Unfortunately, there is often resistance to providing environmental enrichment by many laboratory employees. Any individual responsible for the care and well-being of a laboratory primate who refuses to provide environmental enrichment (because it is too difficult to clean up, because it is too time-consuming to prepare, or for any other reason) should not be working as a caregiver or technician. Every single human being working in a laboratory is there by choice. The monkeys and apes living in a laboratory are forced to be there and do not have the freedom to leave. They do not get to leave the lab at the end of an eight-hour day and go home to family, friends, a comfortable couch, or warm bed. The cold metal or cement cages, their dull view of the world always obstructed by bars, and the loneliness and fear is the reality of laboratory primates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Those humans who choose to work in a laboratory have an obligation to try to make that reality a little less cold, a little less lonely, and a little more interesting.

This site includes numerous resources such as books, periodicals, articles, and web sites that provide information about environmental enrichment for nonhuman primates. These resources provide instructions, ideas, as well as scientific documentation of the benefits of various forms of environmental enrichment. Please use these resources, and share your own ideas for environmental enrichment in the forums available. The more inventive ideas that are shared and implemented, the better off our nonhuman primate friends will be. If you know of a resource on environmental enrichment not listed below, please contact us.

Behavioral Training

Behavioral training is a means by which caregivers and technicians can help reduce the stress and anxiety experienced by laboratory primates as they are subjected to research, veterinary, or husbandry procedures. Through techniques which use positive reinforcement, laboratory primates can be trained to voluntarily cooperate with various procedures, rather than forcing the animals through negative means to "cooperate," either through punishment, physical restraint or chemical immobilization. Facilities that have incorporated behavioral training have successfully trained their monkeys and apes to allow physical examinations without the use of anesthesia (the monkeys or apes are trained to present various body parts, sit and hold still while a veterinarian listens to their heart and lungs, present their abdomen for an ultrasound, and put their arm into a sleeve for a blood draw), to voluntarily enter a transport cage (and even shut the door behind them!), and to accept intramuscular injections, eliminating the need to use a squeeze cage or dart gun to administer medication or anesthesia. The monkeys and apes enjoy the training sessions because they involve positive social interaction, a mental challenge, and food rewards – and thus the training sessions themselves are a form of environmental enrichment. The training sessions themselves need only be approximately five to ten minutes long, and once an individual monkey or ape is familiar with the behaviors and verbal cues, the training sessions can occur only a few times a month, if necessary. Many caregivers and technicians feel that there is not enough time in their already busy day to add a training program. However, training sessions that last just a few minutes a day can greatly enhance a laboratory primate's life.

The principles of behavioral training are relatively simple – determine the behavior you wish to train the individual to do, and reward the individual whenever they perform the behavior in question, eventually coupling the behavior with a verbal cue which will elicit the behavior – but the application of the principles can be quite challenging. Implementing a training program is a learning experience both for the human trainer and the animals being trained. A successful training program will not happen overnight – it requires time, patience, and more patience. But in time, the result will be less stress for both humans and nonhumans during procedures that would otherwise cause fear and anxiety.

Included on our Mental Health page are resources which will help caregivers and technicians learn more about behavioral training techniques, in particular a popular technique known as clicker training. Again, if you are familiar with a resource not listed here, please contact us.