Peter Singer-Animal Liberation

(BlackTrush) #1

AfterleavingWisconsin,GeneSackettcontinueddeprivation
studies at the University of Washington Primate Center.
Sackett has raised rhesus monkeys, pigtail macaques, and
crab-eating macaques in total isolation to study the
differences in personal behavior, social behavior, and
exploration behavior. He found differences among the
different monkeyspecieswhich “questionthegenerality of
the‘isolationsyndrome’acrossprimatespecies.”Ifthereare
differencesevenamongcloselyrelatedspeciesofmonkeys,
generalization from monkeys to humans must be far more
questionable.^16


Martin Reite of the University of Colorado conducted
deprivation experiments on bonnet monkeys and pigtailed
macaques.HewasawarethatJaneGoodall’sobservationsof
orphanedwildchimpanzeesdescribed“profound behavioral
disturbances,withsadnessordepressiveaffectivechangesas
major components.” But because “in comparison with
monkey studies, relatively little has been published on
experimental separations in great apes,” he and other
experimenters decided to study seven infant chimpanzees
whohadbeenseparatedfromtheirmothersatbirthandreared
in a nursery environment. After periods ranging between
seven and tenmonths, some oftheinfants wereplaced in
isolation chambers for five days. The isolated infants
screamed,rocked,andthrewthemselves atthewallsofthe
chamber. Reite concluded that “isolation in infant
chimpanzees may be accompanied by marked behavioral
changes”butnotedthat(youguessedit)moreresearchwas
needed.^17


Since Harlow began his maternal deprivation experiments
somethirtyyearsago,over 250 suchexperimentshavebeen

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