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. We present a simple, yet effective, tactile device scoring system used with singly caged macaques indicating that creating and documenting enrichment ideas can be accomplished without a large personnel and budgetary commitment. We believe this strategy will help programs meet the regulatory requirements with relative ease.