Técnicas de enriquecimento ambiental aplicadas para primatas cativos no Brasil: Uma revisão bibliográfica

Abstract

Environmental enrichment consists of a set of animal management techniques and strategies used to improve the quality of life and well-being of animals in captivity. Zoos often lack stimulation and diversity, resulting in a reduced quality of life for animals and jeopardizing their well-being. This includes enrichment techniques that aim to ensure that animals express natural behaviors, have access to sensory stimuli and promote their cognitive abilities. Thus, the present study proposed and analysis of the literature on environmental enrichment techniques applied to captive primates in Brazil, with the objective of identifying the state of the art of these studies and summarizing the main conclusions reached. A bibliographic survey was carried out with works published in Brazil from 2006 to October 2018. The inclusion criteria followed were a minimum observation of 20 hours and the completion of the three observation stages (pre-enrichment, during enrichment and post-enrichment). For the review, 21 works related to the application of techniques were used, a greater number of works (n=17) were published from 2011 onwards, with 2012, 2014 and 2016 being the years with more works. Most of the works analyzed were published in the Southeast region between 2011 and 2018 with only one author. The most studied genus was Sapajus followed by Alouatta and Callithrix and the most studied species was Sapajus apella. Each publication studied an average of seven subjects with an average of 137 hours of observation. The most used enrichments were food and physical. Eight behavioral categories were identified, with stereotypy, lethargy and inactivity being the most frequent, lethargy and inactivity being the most frequent. The most used observation methods were focal animal and ad libitum. Another method that was also used in some works was the Instant Scan. In the works surveyed (81%), the implementation of environmental enrichment techniques demonstrated and improvement in the quality of life of animals in captivity, such as a decrease in stress reported in 76% of the works, thus recommending the use of these techniques in captive animals.