Behavioral management: it's everyone's job.

In this day and age of regulatory demands and with the ever-increasing flow of environmental enhancement data and opinions, it can become very confusing for animal programs to create and maintain a successful behavioral management program. Behavioral management as a concept provides a common ground from which animal facilities may start to build a successful facility behavioral program. In addition, the implementation of a behavioral management program can help to break down barriers between members of the various disciplines within the biomedical community.

Effective Strategy for Evaluating Tactile Enrichment Devices for Singly Caged Macaques.

Since the mandate for providing environmental enrichment for nonhuman primates was included in the Animal Welfare Act, numerous articles and suggestions have been put forth covering tactile devices and creative cage arrangements. For larger primate facilities and research programs environmental enrichment evaluation is usually accomplished by enrichment technicians or behaviorists. However, for the smaller facilities or programs, the ability to formulate and document an enrichment program can be very difficult due to budget or personnel constraints.