Swing it On: Design of Responsive Acoustic Environments for Zoo-housed Colobus Monkeys

David Habboosh, Mohamed El Nayal, Sean Guiru, Aamer Syed, Ilyena Hirskyj-Douglas, Sarah Woodruff, Rebecca Kleinberger.

ACI '25: Proceedings of the ACM 12th International Conference on Animal-Computer Interaction, PDF, DOI

ABSTRACT

Traditional zoo enrichment methods often lack flexible, non-food-based interactive elements that support animal autonomy, agency, and meaningful engagement. Enrichment that responds dynamically to animal behavior offers promising alternatives to support species-typical activities while giving animals meaningful choices in their experience. We present the design and evaluation protocol for an interactive acoustic enrichment system that transforms a familiar swing into an agency-based interface for zoo-housed black-and-white colobus monkeys (Colobus guereza). Our system maps swing amplitude to progressive soundscape layers—stream, insect, and bird sounds—allowing monkeys to control the complexity of their auditory environment through natural swinging behavior. Unlike passive enrichment, this approach gives animals direct control over their sensory experience, rewarding physical activity with increasingly rich acoustic feedback. The system offers dual audio outputs: an embedded speaker for direct animal enrichment and an external speaker for visitor education, with zookeepers controlling configuration through a mobile application. We propose a three-phase evaluation protocol comparing passive and interactive swing usage through sensor data, behavioral observations, and keeper assessments. This work contributes to Animal-Computer Interaction (ACI) research by illustrating how zoo infrastructure can be augmented into responsive interfaces, providing a methodological framework for developing species-specific, enrichment systems that give animals meaningful control over their environment.