Science Alert We all had to make adjustments as the COVID-19 pandemic unfolded – even zoo animals who were suddenly not seeing crowds of visitors pass by every single day.
In a study published in 2022, researchers discovered how primates reacted to that shift, looking at the behavior of bonobos, chimpanzees, western lowland gorillas, and olive baboons, and finding that the animals changed their habits in a variety of ways, including the amount of time they spent resting and eating. Visitor interactions are thought to be crucial to the welfare of zoo animals. Yet these interactions have the potential to be either positive or negative. So the researchers were keen to see the difference when the crowds weren’t there.