Legal Loophole for Subminimal Floor Area for Caged Macaques
2003
Reinhardt, Viktor
Macaques are biologically adapted to an arboreal or semiarboreal lifestyle. They spend much or most of the day and all of the night in elevated locations well off the ground as a safeguard against predators including humans. When they are on the ground during an alarming situation, they inevitably flee upward on trees, roofs, and other elevated, safe places (Chopra, Seth, & Seth, 1992; Lindburg, 1971; Roonwal & Mohnot, 1977). Free access to an elevated refuge is an essential security factor for them and, hence, a precondition for their emotional well-being. When they are kept in laboratories without proper access to the vertical dimension of their enclosure, macaques "might perceive the presence of humans above them as particularly threatening" (National Research Council, 1998, p. 118). Given the choice, captive macaques will prefer high over low resting surfaces (O'Neill-Wagner, 1994), and dominant animals will be privileged to occupy high ones whereas subordinate individuals have to be content with low ones (Reinhardt, 1992).
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