Month: March 2012

I was reading a story the other day related to primate enrichment at the National Zoo in South Africa.  Their goal was to create an enrichment program for their baboons in an effort to increase activity and decrease aggression within the group.  The group consisted of 1 male and 3 females.  To deal with the aggression they gave contraceptives to the females which definitely helped with the aggression but they felt they could do more to enrich the lives of these baboons.   This article will show you some very inexpensive ways to enrich the lives of primates kept in captivity.

(more…)

Primate Trapeze Swing Materials

I’m always looking for new ideas related to primate enrichment and was pretty excited when I bumped into a trapeze monkey swing that David created for Sammy, his capuchin.  All materials (including the trapeze styled pvc pipe) were purchase at home depot.  The total project cost was around $9 (cost of chain not included).  Chain itself was around $12 but since he only used about 10% of the total chain link, the actual cost of the chain for this project would be around $1-$2.   Once you have all the materials it’s a 10 minute project so let’s get started!

(more…)

IOS apps for monkeys

When Benji was only a few months old, he clearly showed some interest in my iPod Touch. I always have my iPod Touch on me, and often read my email when I’m in the monkey room with him since it is kinda sturdy. He always loves to grab this thing out of my hands and if I don’t watch out, he’ll run towards the water bowl to give it a bath. Yes it is a miracle my iPod Touch is still alive!

Just recently I decided to find out which program seems to peek his interest the most.  Anything that flashes on this device clearly seems to interest him, but there are 2 programs he actually likes to play with.

(more…)

Monkey Cereal Balls

I guess the proper term for monkey balls would be monkey cereal balls but that’s not what we call them in our house.  They’re a pretty healthy snack but can also be fed as part of their main diet.  Creativity is key when creating monkey balls.  As long as you have the two main ingredient (baby formula and baby cereal) in your mix, you’re golden!  I used to feed monkey balls to my marmosets and now my capuchin and they truly enjoy it.   I actually got the original recipe (similar to mine but not as creative)  from one of the largest zoos in Belgium.  They used to feed these monkey balls to all their primates.

(more…)