Captive primates rarely have to spend as much time searching for, obtaining and processing food as do their wild counterparts. Enrichment techniques designed to encourage captive primates to spend more species-appropriate amounts of time in foraging behaviours have been successful. The present study measured the behavioural effects of four feeding enhancements: two devices (mats and puzzles) and two foods (produce and frozen juice), on four cohorts (n = 63) of single-caged, yearling rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta).
The Elephant in the Living Room is a compelling documentary that examines the little-known yet widespread problem of exotic pet ownership in the U.S. - in particular the practice of making pets out of dangerous wild animals such as lions, tigers, elephants, bears and venomous snakes.
High in the clear blue skies over the Grand Canyon, California condors wheel slowly, searching for their next meal. In the shortgrass prairie of Wyoming, the dark eyes of black-footed ferrets peek out from the safety of old prairie dog burrows.
In September, the Environmental Protection Agency announced a plan to reduce and eventually eliminate its reliance on animal testing to assess the danger of chemicals. Currently, the EPA performs, or requires chemical companies to perform, tests on rabbits, mice, rats, and fish to assess chemical toxicity.
Some politicians in Washington feel that restarting a horse slaughter industry on American soil is a good idea. We’d like to offer a small window into how the horse slaughter industry currently operates, as shady players make deals amongst themselves while duping innocent people into giving up their horses to be butchered.
In recognition of April as Animal Cruelty Awareness Month, the Animal Welfare Institute announces the availability of the Animal Cruelty Crime Statistics: Findings from a Survey of State Uniform Crime Reporting Programs. For the first time, a snapshot has been taken of whether and how states collect and report animal cruelty crime data. Knowing this is the first step towards having such information available on a national level.
Loro Parque, Tenerife, has housed western lowland gorillas since 1992. Initially we were to have two groups. One was to contain animals from an under-represented bloodline in Europe, which we were to house on a temporary basis. The other group was to contain selected males to form a bachelor group. What follows is a history of the gorillas at Loro Parque from 1992 to the present time.
Squirrel monkeys (Saimiri spp.) have always been a common sight in zoos, but this seems to have changed in the past few years. Breeding is often poor, and zoos have discovered that this genus is not as easy to keep as has always been assumed.
The Great Apes: A Short History, recently translated from French into English, is a comprehensive history of primatology. Many readers may not know that the roots of primatology lie in the exploits and adventures of early travelers and explorers in the 1600s and 1700s. Author Chris Herzfeld recounts the myriad ways humans have pursued their fascination with apes—from early collections of bodies for museums to collection of living beings for zoos, breeding colonies, and laboratories.
This summer, I traveled to Vietnam to help facilitate and document a snare removal workshop for rangers from Vietnam’s Forest Protection Department (FPD) as part of the Emerging Wildlife Conservation Leaders (EWCL) initiative.
The Hidden World of the Fox is a concise, yet broad overview of the fox. The author, British mammal ecologist Adele Brand, has been studying foxes for 20 years, and though her primary focus is foxes resident to England, she is interested in foxes around the globe. Her research has included travel to Yucatán’s rainforest, the Thar Desert in India, Subarctic Canada, and Rock Creek Park in Washington, DC. Foxes are widespread because of their incredible ability to adapt to a variety of environments and take advantage of opportunities available because of location or circumstance.
The Homes for Horses Coalition, a resource and representative voice of the nation’s horse rescue and sanctuary community, announced the appointment of Cindy Gendron as the program’s new coordinator. The coalition was formed in 2007 by the Animal Welfare Institute, the Humane Society of the United States and the ASPCA (The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals®) to serve as a recognized national network of experts in equine care and government policy affecting equines.
The Homes for Horses Coalition today launched http://www.homesforhorses.org. The Web site is a resource tool for equine rescue personnel, members of the media, and anyone interested in equine protection efforts.
Humane treatment of farm animals is of increasing importance to consumers, according to a tracking poll conducted to help the food industry keep up-to-date on evolving consumer trends.
I used to associate cruelty against monkeys with pictures of individual animals subjected to experimental procedures that obviously inflicted extreme pain. Personally I see no ethical justification for any research which inflicts pain, distress or suffering on animals, and primates in particular.
In The Inner Life of Animals: Love, Grief, and Compassion— Surprising Observations of a Hidden World, author Peter Wohlleben expertly blends anecdote, personal observation, scientific conclusion, and inference from physiology and behavior to show us that a wide variety of animals experience a broad range of thoughts and feelings, many of which are very similar to our own.
Thomas McNamee provides a window into what makes cats tick in The Inner Life of Cats: The Science and Secrets of Our Mysterious Feline Companions. Anecdotes centering on his own cats, especially beloved Augusta, are interspersed with cat history, behavioral studies, linguistic analysis of the meow (you read that right), and even discourses on cat-related controversies, such as feral cats and the keeping of wild animals as pets.
Amy Hatkoff makes clear in her new book, The Inner World of Farm Animals: Their Amazing Social, Emotional, and Intellectual Capabilities, that these animals feel pleasure and sadness, excitement and resentment, depression, fear and pain.
Having been removed from the wild as an infant in 1982, the gorilla Julia became the focus of much controversy when bought by Dutch journalists and smuggled from Belgium into the Netherlands as part of an exposé on trade in endangered species. The ownership of her was eventually passed to the WWF Netherlands, and under their direction she was returned to Africa to lead a semi-wild existence in the Gambia in readiness for participation in an envisaged pilot gorilla rehabilitation project.
The International Whaling Commission, established in Washington, DC, and headquartered in the United Kingdom since the 1950s, celebrated its 75th anniversary on December 2, 2021.
The Killer Whale Who Changed the World, by Mark Leiren-Young, tells a fascinating story. Everything has to start somewhere, and captive display of this or that species is no exception. In most cases, the first time a wildlife species was displayed to amaze the public—especially a species that is extremely popular as an exhibit animal today.
Both the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate have passed versions of the 2013 Farm Bill, and the two chambers of Congress must now reconcile their respective bills and agree upon the provisions that will become law.
In The Last of the Butterflies: A Scientist’s Quest to Save a Rare and Vanishing Creature, Dr. Nick Haddad explores his journey to becoming a butterfly biologist and discusses how butterflies are the proverbial canary in the coal mine for species decline.
