Behavioral Management as a Coping Strategy for Managing Stressors in Primates: The Influence of Temperament and Species

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Species, motivation, and temperament are characteristics that influence environmental perception and learning in animals, and consequently, welfare. We investigated the relationship between these individual traits and training success in primates to acquire skills for cooperation and participation with medical care including sample collection, drug administration, vitals monitoring, and examination. Despite behavioral differences related to temperament, all animals successfully completed the training program without significant differences in time required to acquire target skills. Training time was significantly different between rhesus and cynomolgus macaques, likely reflecting species differences in memory, motivation, reasoning, and learning. However, with the perspective of typical study duration and long lifespan in primates, this difference in time to completion was clinically irrelevant. A well-designed training program that is properly applied can establish positive coping skills in primates across temperament and other traits to strengthen psychological resilience, improving welfare and reducing stress confounding for more accurate scientific translation. ABSTRACT: Primates involved in biomedical research experience stressors related to captivity, close contact with caregivers, and may be exposed to various medical procedures while modeling clinical disease or interventions under study. Behavioral management is used to promote behavioral flexibility in less complex captive environments and train coping skills to reduce stress. How animals perceive their environment and interactions is the basis of subjective experience and has a major impact on welfare. Certain traits, such as temperament and species, can affect behavioral plasticity and learning. This study investigated the relationship between these traits and acquisition of coping skills in 83 macaques trained for cooperation with potentially aversive medical procedures using a mixed-reinforcement training paradigm. All primates successfully completed training with no significant differences between inhibited and exploratory animals, suggesting that while temperament profoundly influences behavior, training serves as an important equalizer. Species-specific differences in learning and motivation manifested in statistically significant faster skill acquisition in rhesus compared with cynomolgus macaques, but this difference was not clinically relevant. Despite unique traits, primates were equally successful in learning complex tasks and displayed effective coping. When animals engage in coping behaviors, their distress decreases, improving welfare and reducing inter- and intra- subject variability to enhance scientific validity.