Perlman, J. E., Chace, K. E., Jordan, J. et al. 2017. High-density polyethylene artificial turf is a durable foraging substrate for rhesus macaques. Laboratory Animal Science Professional 5(4) (December), 40-43.

In the wild, rhesus monkeys and other macaque species spend a majority of their waking hours searching for and eating food. For monkeys housed in runs and in caged settings, making species-typical foraging tasks available can be challenging and expensive, but is nonetheless an important aspect of a well-rounded primate enrichment program. Among the wide range of forage devices our facility employs to encourage this behavior, only artificial turf boards encourage foraging by rhesus monkeys at high rates similar to their wild counterparts. In a recent pilot study at our facility, forage boards occupied rhesus for 65% of their time, compared to peanut and challenger balls, which occupied them for 29% and 40% of the time, respectively. However, while artificial turf is an excellent foraging substrate, it presents many challenges in application. Macaques can be destructive, and artificial turf and the hardware on the forage boards must be regularly monitored, maintained, and replaced. To help reduce these time- consuming challenges, our center has designed a new type of foraging device using high-density polyethylene (HDPE) black artificial turf, which is described in this article.