Palmer, S. 2017. Rescue-Enrich-Release: The environmental enrichment program for three species of captive primates at Colobus. Canopy 17(2), 27-30.

It is widely known that the psychological wellbeing of captive animals can become compromised by a captive environment that lacks proper environmental stimulation. Environmental enrichment programs have become the norm in captive environments yet research conducting evaluations on the effectiveness of certain enrichment programs is lacking. My research was designed with the purpose of evaluating the environmental enrichment program at a rehabilitation facility in Kenya. The enrichment program at Colobus Conservation consists of 10 enrichments that occur on a repeated schedule. They consist of both feeding/foraging enrichment and manipulative enrichment. My study showed that there was a species specific preference for enrichment type. The most commonly used enrichments across the whole group were the leaf litter, branched floors and sand piles. The most utilized enrichments differed between species showing that the colobus monkeys preferred the hammocks and ice block enrichment whilst the sykes and vervet monkeys preferred the leaf litter, branched floors, sand piles, elevated forage and the rock piles.

Year
2017