Background: Non-human primates play a critical role in neuroscience research. Though they are social animals, laboratory study requirements can sometimes require single housing and thereby prevent social housing.
New method: To eliminate single housing and promote well-being within our squirrel monkey colony, we used positive reinforcement training in combination with magnetic/mechanical clasps and custom jackets to permit pair housing of catheterized squirrel monkeys used in behavioral studies.
Results: Adult Saimiri boliviensis boliviensis monkeys (n = 7) readily progressed through a six-stage training procedure for cooperative handling and transport from the home cage to the experimental testing rooms.
Comparison with existing methods and conclusions: Given the evidence of isolation induced stress and neurobiological consequences in multiple species, and consistent with an increased regulatory emphasis on social housing of non-human primates, the methods presented herein provide a method for handling squirrel monkeys in behavioral studies that is compatible with social housing.
Keywords: Behavioral neuroscience; Positive reinforcement training; Social housing; Squirrel monkey.
Published by Elsevier B.V.