A novel approach for documentation and evaluation of activity patterns in owl monkeys during development of environmental enrichment programs.

Documenting and evaluating the appropriateness of environmental enrichment programs has posed a challenge to many institutions. This paper describes a method for documenting and evaluating activity patterns for developing an environmental enrichment program. A colony of owl (or night) monkeys (Aotus lemurinus griseimembra) at the University of Hawaii were videotaped using infrared sensitive cameras and the duration and frequency of numerous activities were scored using an ethological analysis software program (Hindsight). A number of activity patterns could be observed by using this method, and a baseline was established for the current environmental enrichment for this colony. Videotaping and computer analysis is a convenient method for documenting and objectively evaluating activity patterns for use in the development of environmental enrichment programs for captive primates and other species.