The Squirrel Monkey in Biomedical Research

Abstract

Squirrel monkeys are the most commonly used South American primates in biomedical research. Members of the genus Saimiri , they are native to equatorial South America and a small part of Central America. The squirrel monkey–s natural range extends from coastal areas of eastern Brazil and French Guiana (east) to Peru (west); Columbia, Venezuela, and Guyana (north); and Bolivia and central Brazil (south). There are also two small, isolated habitats of squirrel monkeys in Central America on the western coasts of Panama and Costa Rica. Squirrel monkeys consist of four species and nine subspecies ( Hershkovitz, 1984 ); however, only two species ( S. sciureus and S. boliviensis ) comprising three subspecies have been used to any great extent in biomedical research.