Space and time: dimensions of captive apes well-being

SPACE AND TIME: DIMENSIONS OF CAPTIVE APES WELL-BEING Monica Carosi1, Barbara Simeoni1, Cristina Sagnotti2, Pietro Ciaccia2, Maria Ricotta5, Ilaria Orlando6 1 Roma Tre University, 2 Safari Ravenna, 3 University of Florence, 4 Zoosafari di Fasano In captivity space and time represent two main axes around which the quality of life and variability of social interactions may find the proper amount of degrees of freedom to express. Environmental enrichment, arising from a proper space/time interplay, should aim at allowing an animal behavioral choice, therefore increasing sense of control, which in turn may lower stress and grant well-being. These are the stories of four chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) who have been rescued from an inhibited and human-like life, and the last gorilla (Gorilla gorilla) left in Italy. In collaboration with the hosting safaris (Safari Ravenna and Zoosafari di Fasano, Italy) we provided them enriched space and time. We carried out a strictly planned environmental enrichment program and studied ape behavioral response over a control and an enrichment period. Enrichment included varied substrates for locomotion; an assorted diet; diversified food provisioning and unpredictable schedule; chances to freely express agonistic behaviors (chimps), and interaction-with-operator sessions (gorilla). Behavioral categories analyzed were displacement activities, abnormal behaviors (including stereotypies), prosocial behavior, agonism and activity budget (AB), with air temperature, amounts of public and noise as covariates. Although high chimpanzee inter-individual variability and differences in housing and social conditions between species, two main common outcomes of enrichment were: changes in AB (mainly locomotion), and the decrease of stress as measured by both displacement activities and abnormal behaviors. Further success for the gorilla was the healing of a long lasting self-induced wound.