Chimpanzee Enrichment Activity within a Sanctuary Environment

In the last decade, captive chimpanzees have been designated as an endangered species as well as being retired from biomedical research in the United States. Most enrichment research is conducted in zoo settings which differ from sanctuary settings in multiple ways. Therefore, the current study examined how chimpanzees interacted with a variety of enrichment objects in a sanctuary environment. This study coded behaviors in 615 randomly sampled archival videos of enrichment interactions of 10 chimpanzees at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest in Cle Elum, Washington. Enrichment use was analyzed for behavior (i.e., carry, examine, oral, play on, vocalize, active tactile, wear, nest, rest, and out of view), social context (i.e., solitary, affiliative, proximate, aggressive, and submissive), and type of object (i.e., foraging, toys, structural, nesting, technology, art, and other). Results indicates that, of the various types of enrichment devices present, chimpanzees interacted the most with foraging objects (34.9%, M = 12.8 ± 34.4 sec) and toys (30.0%, M = 14.2 ± 28.6 sec), followed by structural (21.0%) and nesting objects (11.4%). Furthermore, chimpanzees frequently engaged in oral (43.3%, M = 2.3 ± 3.6 per occurrence) and active tactile (31.1%, M = 1.7 ± 2.9 per occurrence) manipulation behaviors while interacting with objects. Solitary settings were associated with more foraging behaviors, while social settings promoted play-like behavior with toys. These findings suggest that chimpanzees will interact with a variety of objects of interest, especially if available enrichment devices offer foraging or play-like opportunities that foster expression of species-typical behaviors