A new method of walking rehabilitation using cognitive tasks in an adult chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) with a disability: a case study

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• 作者：Yoko Sakuraba ; Masaki Tomonaga ; Misato Hayashi
• 刊名：Primates
• 出版年：2016
• 出版时间：July 2016
• 年：2016
• 卷：57
• 期：3
• 页码：403-412
• 全文大小：2,003 KB
• 刊物类别：Biomedical and Life Sciences
• 刊物主题：Life Sciences
  Zoology
  Animal Ecology
  Behavioural Sciences
  Evolutionary Biology
  
• 出版者：Springer Japan
• ISSN：1610-7365
• 卷排序：57

文摘

There are few studies of long-term care and rehabilitation of animals which acquired physical disabilities in captivity, despite their importance for welfare. An adult male chimpanzee named Reo at the Primate Research Institute of Kyoto University, developed acute myelitis, inflammation of the spinal cord, which resulted in impaired leg function. This report describes a walking rehabilitation system set up in a rehabilitation room where he lives. The rehabilitation apparatus consisted of a touch monitor presenting cognitive tasks and a feeder presenting food rewards at a distance of two meters from the monitor, to encourage him to walk between the monitor and the feeder repeatedly. Initially, Reo did not touch the monitor, therefore we needed adjustment of the apparatus and procedure. After the habituation to the monitor and cognitive tasks, he started to show behaviors of saving food rewards without walking, or stopping participation to the rehabilitation. Finally it took seven phases of the adjustment to determine the final setting; when the monitor automatically displayed trials in 4-h, AM (1000–1200 hours) and PM (1400–1600 hours) sessions through a day, Reo spontaneously walked from the monitor to the feeder to receive rewards, and returned to the monitor to perform the next trial. Comparison of Reo’s locomotion in a no-task period and under the final setting revealed that the total travel distance increased from 136.7 to 506.3 m, movement patterns became multiple, and the percentage of walking increased from 1.2 to 27.2 % in PM session. The findings of this case study suggest that cognitive tasks may be a useful way to rehabilitate physically disabled chimpanzees, and thus improve their welfare in captivity.KeywordsChimpanzeePhysical disabilityWalking rehabilitationAnimal welfareCognitive task