TPC NEWS Spring 1988 Vol.7 No.1
(Whole Number 13)
(
English Summary)
Page-3
Essay: A comment on the
public movements against animal experiments and on the guidelines for animal
experimentation
I presented my short opinion titled "Animal experiment and animal
protection" (TPC NEWS Vol.3 No.1 1984).
After that, Professor Sugiyama of the Primate Research Institute of Kyoto University, expressed his opinion
on animal experiments from the standpoint of an ecologist (Kagaku (Science) Feb.
1985). I, in those days, had
focused my interest mainly on the difference in thinking between the researchers
working with primates as laboratory animals and the scientists carrying out
ecological studies on primates.
And I had thought that the difference might be cleared up through
thorough and objective discussions between these two groups of scientists.
In fact the activities of the
Primate Society of Japan and of the International Primate Society have resulted
step by step in mutual understanding between them.
Recently, however, the movement against animal experiments has expanded
into a part of citizens, scientists
and medical doctors, also in Japan. The
state of the controversy on animal experiments has become further complicated.
The assertion of the movement is rich in variety, involving quite
emotional opinions and radical ones aiming at the establishment of animal
welfare as well as animal "right". The thought of "Animal
Right" is based on the view point
of "anti-Speciesism", which says
that using living creatures except man for human benefit should not be allowed
and animal experiments mostly violates animal right. Animal rightists, accordingly, declare to protest against all
animal experiments, devoting themselves to the total abolition of
animal experiments.
But, everyone knows that the conceptions, "animal right", "animal
welfare" and "speciesism",
are ideal products by man. Interpretaion and opinion on those conceptions differ
very much with different persons. For
example, when the concept, "welfare", originating in human society
applied to animal world it is a problem what the sandard is.
Naturally, scientific data obtained from animal experiments are needed to answer objectively to the
problem.
Those animal rightists insist to use alternatives.
Though "alternatives" is worthy to be studied, it is no more
than one of the experimental methods.
It an not entirely be substituted for animal experimentation.
Moreover, I think it is a dreadful matter that radical activists even say
"Use man!". I am afraid
the view of the radical activists may reach to the thought approving such cruel
experiments on human bodies that once Nazi and the 731 Corps of ruined Japanese
army had conducted.
On the other hand, the movement to prepare guidelines for animal
experiments has rapidly become
active in some of scientific organizations, institutes and universities
concerned with animal experiments as well as laboratory animals.
I, however, think that the guidelines should not be made to respond
merely to the movements of anti-animal-experiments, but be made to expect sound
development of researches, being based on the patient efforts and opinions of
those who have worked with laboratory animals for a
long time.
Any way, it is one of further problems whether or not every researcher
well observes "the
guidelines" on which he/she depends.
Additionally speaking, some foreign scientific journals do not accept
contributions without a certificate proving that the experiments have been
out in accordane with "guidelines".
Only on this point is apt to be focuset in Japan.
Many people may, consequently, have an impression that the guidelines are
prepared only for contribution of papers to foreign
journals. It is
needless to say that the criterion of adoption or
rejection for the scientific
papers contributed is essentially in the validity of their
purpose, method, result, discussion and whole composition. The certificate should be regarded as one of the
materials to judge the validity.
Page-4
A survey on the incidence of
viral antibodies in the squirrel
monkey colony at TPC
Now TPC maintains 130 squirrel monkeys.
A serological survey on natural
infections with four viral species related to squirrel monkeys,
Herpesvirus saimiri, Herpesvirus
tamarinus, Simian adenovirus Sq M-1 and Foamyvirus type 4, was carried
out. All viral antigens were
kinkly supplied by Dr. S. S. Kalter of Southwest Foundation for Research and
Education.
Blood was taken from 56 wild-originated squirrel monkeys which were
imported from Bolivia and kept at TPC for four to six years after importation,
and from 55 colony-bred monkeys aged one to five years (111 in total).
Sera were diluted ten times. The
antigens were cultured ith OMK(owl
monkey kidney) cells generously given by Dr. Kalter.
The second antibody was FITC- labelled anti-monkey IgG.
Antibodies were measured by
an indirect immunofluorescent method.
The results obtained are shown in the Table.
The wild-originated monkeys
had been infected with three viral species except Herpesvirus tamarinus at a
high-ratio before their arrival at TPC. On
the other hand, the colony-bred monkeys were hardly infected with the viruses
except Simian adenovirus. It
is noteworthy that no transmission of Herpesvirus tamarinus fatal for the monkey
species of Callithricidae occurred between the wild-originated monkeys and the
colony-bred ones. But, since
Herpesvirus saimiri is oncogenic for the new world monkeys
except squirrel monkeys, we must pay careful attention to its infection
in colony-bred monkeys.
Page-5
Introduction of Facilities- New
computer to further works
Having been short of its memory capacity, we changed the computer which
we had introduced in TPC NEWS, Vol.3, No.2, (NEC 100/85), to a new type of
higher-ranking(NEC 150/88VS).
The central processing unit (CPU) of the new computer can process data
twice as rapidly as the old one.
The size of its user's memory increased eight times larger, thereby the data transmission from animal rooms and
processing some other programs can be carried out at the same time.
Since the memory capacity of magnetic disks increased from 256MB to
750MB, magnetic tapes in which the data and record of
animals had been stocked became unnecessary.
Two work stations were placed newly in a laboratory and in a room for
cynomolgus monkeys, so that the fresh data can be computerized, and also
be input/output directly from
our animal front. These work
stations will be very useful for
making new systems which meet various needs in animal rooms and laboratories.
Page-6
On the Techniques of Care and Managemen of Cynomolgus Monkeys:
Treatment for mother monkeys after abortion
Usually, pregnant monkeys pass safely through their gestation period and
give normal births. But some of them give stillbirths or abortion.
Incedence of the abortions and stillbirths at TPC is 7% and 8%,
respectively. Abnormal fetal
position is an important direct cause of stillbirth, although the fundamental
reason of abortion has been still unknown.
Treatments for the monkeys who aborted are as follows:
The aborted monkey is caught with a net, and administrated HCl-Ketamine.
The fetus is put on a laboratory dish.
Conditions of the uterus of the mother monkey are examined by an
ultrasonic apparatus. Wnen
placental retention is recognized, the monkey is observed for a few days and
rechecked. With the case in which
placental retention is still observed, we perform a surgical treatment or use
some medicine so that the persistent placenta are rtificially discharged.
Materials for virological examinations
(throat and vaginal swabs, stool of finger tip size and blood of 5 ml)
are collected. After that the
mother monkey is returned to her cage. The
date of the abortion is shown in a card on the cage.
The monkey is not mated for about two months.
It has became possible to detect dead fetuses of an early gestational
stage, since we have used an
ultrasonic apparatus for the managment of pregnancy.
Usually we expect natural
excretion of the dead fetus, observing the monkeys for one or two weeks;
otherwise treatments by medicines or surgical
emoval are performed. The
materials for virological examinations are collected in these cases, too.
Page-8
Quarantine Report of Cynomolgus Monkeys Recently Imported and Natural
infections of pathogenic agents in tamarins
Examinations of pathogenic agents were carried out with newly imported
cynomolgus monkeys. The
results obtained are shown in the Talbes.
Bacteriological surveys of shigella and salmonella were carrried out with
36 newly introduced tamarins. All
of the tamarins were negative.
Virological surveys in 31 tamarins revealed that none of them had
antibodies to Herpesvirus tamarinus and Herpesvirus saimiri.
An examination for 22 tamarins about antibody to HSV which has a common
antigen to Herpes B virus showed that all of the tamarins were negative.
Page-9
A Comment on My Research: Breeding of primates and developmental biotechnology
Recently, a scientific realm named "HASSEI KOGAKU" in Japanese,
which we can translate into an English term, "developmental
biotechnology", has been advanced
extensively in JAPAN. The
Japanese term, HASSEI and KOGAKU, represent
development and engineering respectively. In short, it means to create useful bio-materials with the
help of knowledge and techniques in developmental biology. This field of science consists not only of techniques in
developmental biology, but also of another several kinds of scientific knowledge
and technology which are called gene engineering, cell engineering and
reproductive physiology. These technologies combine one after another and result
in the creation of a new scientific area providing many
useful materials in biomedical industry and stock raising.
It is well known that there have been a huge accumulation of basal data
concerning murine experiments in this area of science since 1960s.
In addition,
earlier experiments using amphibian embryos in the early part of this
century by Spemann are seemed to be the starting point of this realm of
science. Embryologists in
this period were pioneers who tried to manipulate embryos artificially.
However, they had no informations about the role of cell organella,
especially about nucleus as the origin of all the ontogenetic phenomena, so that
they tried to explain these phenomena by some
temporal epigenetic factors generated locally in embryo so called
"field". This theory has not yet been cleared in these days, but as more and
more knowledge about genetically
controlling mechanisms were accumulated by the rapid advancement
of molecular biology,
manipulation of fertilized eggs has become a strong tactics for
discovering developmental mechanisms at cellular and molecular level.
Traditional experimental embryology grew up to a new one, which can
analyse mechanisms of embryogenesis and manipulate embryos artificially in
mammalian species, by thechnologies belonging to molecular biology and cell
engineering. In the 1970s,
scientists interested in manipulation of mammalian embryos made effort to apply
embryological techniques to mammalian system.
But they faced a barrier. Mammalian embryo develops in such a closed
environment as the oviduct and the uterus, so that it was needed to establish in
vitro fertilization method, culture system for fertilized ova, and embryo
transfer technique, etc.. Many
scientists represented Brinster developed and
improved these in vitro culture techniques, therefore we became to be
able to manipulate mammalian
embryos, mainly mice embryos, with high reproducibility. These technologies were applied to reproductive
sciences in domestic animals and
human patients, making it possible to produce genetically superior animals and
to get children for infertile couples or to prevent giving birth to a
genetically defective child.
Nowadays transgenic animal, which is an exellent fruit of developmental
biotechnology, has become a powerful tool for biomedical research where
many researchers try to
produce useful gene products using these animals and to reveal the role or
expression mechanisms of a certain gene. Animal
models of human diseases can also
be produced by this technique and they are useful in research for therapy of some diseases. We could expect,
production of medical drugs into cow's milk instead of bacterial production
being actively done in gene engeneering field.
APPLICATION OF A NEW EMBRYOLOGICAL TECHNOLOGY, DEVELOPMENTAL
BIOTECHNOLOGY, TO NONHUMAN PRIMATE REPRODUCTION
Efficient reproductive performance is the most
important problem in breeding colonies not only with domestic animals but also in
experimental animals involving
nonhuman primate species. Breeding
efficiency of nonhuman primates is lower than that of other domestic and
experimental animals, because
primate species require relatively longer time to sexually mature and they
usually deliver of only one offspring at a time. This point becomes more serious
as evolutional level of the primate species becomes higher.
For these reasons, it is a very useful technology not only in laboratory
nonhuman primate species but also in wild primate species being on the
way of extinction to reproduce artificially them by the new technology called
biotechnology.
In Tsukuba Primate Center for Medical Science (TPC), most of monkeys are
bred and reared under a uniform environmental condition.
This care system seems to be ideal one for sustaining experimental nonhuman
primates. However, inefficiency
in nonhuman primates breeding may not be overcome no matter how many
methodological improvements are introduced into the breeding system of
TPC. It is certain that laboratory-bred nonhuman primate for medical use will be
more important according to the development and expansion of biomedical
research. Therefore,
it seems realistic to apply
a new embryological technology called developmental biotechnology to breeding
system of nonhuman primate
for medical use.
When these technologies work well in this field, their fruits might be
applicable for conservation programs of wild nonhuman primates being on the way
of extinction.
DEVELOPMENT OF EMBRYOLOGICAL
TECHNOLOGIES IN NONHUMAN PRIMATE : THE
PRESENT CIRCUMSTANCE
Embryological techniques involved in developmental biotechnology has
aimed to produce experimental models of nonhuman primates which enable us to
search more suitable conditions for manipulation of human embryo.
All the methods used in human
patient have been introduced into nonhuman primates, for example, are
ovulation induction by gonadotropic
hormones, artificial insemination, in vitro fertilization and embryo culture,
freeze storage of gamete and
embryo, and embryo transfer technique. In this field, some primate species such
as baboon, rhesus macaque, squirrel monkey,
chimpanzee, and cynomolgus monkey have been used for model study.
Experiments using squirrel monkeys
that were started in early part of 1970s by such researchers as Gould, Kuehl,
and Dukelow seem to be relatively basic study. In the rhesus macaque,
Bavister and his coworkers so actively searched optimal conditions for in
vitro embryogenesis that they
succeeded in obtaining live births of infants riginated from in vitro fertilized
ova which were transferred into uterus. Live
birth was also reported in the baboon experiment by Clayton et al..
In the cynomolgus monkey, Balmaceda and his co-workers reported two live
births of a transferred embryo which was from in vitro fertilized ovum.
For the success of these experiments , the big limiting factors are the
number of ova obtained by the ovulation induction and their maturity.
When we treat a female monkey
with an adequate schedule of gonadotropin
administration, ten or more ova will be obtained from the female at a
time. However, all of the ova are
not completely matured. Because these ova are artificially collected
by follicular suction, and many of them are in the stage waiting for the
stimulus of ovulation, they need more time for the
completion of further maturation under in vitro culture conditions.
In vitro capacitation
of sperm is rather easy than the maturation induction of ova in vitro.
If we can improve methods concerning superovulation and maturation
induction of ova, better results
will be obtained in embryo transfer and cryopreservation of embryo.
PURPOSE OF DEVELOPMENTAL
BIOTECHNOLOGICAL STUDY IN TPC
The main purpose of these
studies in TPC is to get efficient reproductive
performance and to sustain specific families having certain genetic
characteristics such as diabetes mellitus and hyperlipidemia.
In addition, to conquer infertility problem in the breeding colony is one
of the aims. In TPC, several monkey families with biomedically important genetic
traits have been identified, so efficient breeding to keep those families is
strongly desired. Since there
are not a few female monkeys which have been infertile
these years, how to get children from these monkeys is also a troublesome
problem. Ordinary breeding
system seems unable to give us enough power against these
problems. An application of
biotechnological techniques to monkey breeding system
may be a favorable answer to this kind of problems.
We have been studying these technologies in cynomolgus monkey breeding
for these two years. We have succeeded in setting up culture conditions of
cynomolgus monkey embryo up to early blastocyst
stage and are trying to get live birth by embryo transfer. In cynomolgus monkey,
and also in another nonhuman primates, culture conditions after in vitro
fertilization are not yet so perfectly
determined that we must search
optimal condition to make this system more useful. We have not tried
cryopreservation of unfertilized ova and embryo so far.
When optimalization of these
techniques listed above are achieved, we will carry out cryopreservation
in the near future.
We hope these technologies become useful for conservation of many kind of
experimental and wild nonhuman primates.
Page-12
A Special Article: A report
of the conference "Arashiyama East and West:
33 Years of Study"
A conference titled "Arashiyama East and West: 33 Years of
Study" was held from August
29 to September 3, 1987, in Banff, Canada.
"Arashiyama", this
word has a special meaning both for primatologists in Japan and for, more
or less, those in America and Canada.
Feeding of Japanese monkeys inhabiting Arashiyama area, near Kyoto, was
successful, in
1954. Since then, the place
has been one of the
bases for
primatological field studies in Japan.
Every monkey born so far in Arashiyama
has been
identified and its kinship
has been known, too.
Ethological and
behavioral studies
on this monkey troop have been carried out
for over 30
years, having
been rewarded
with good fruits. In
1963, this
troop was
naturally divided into two. One
of them was sent to Texas, the USA. New life
of the Japanese monkeys in a vast prairie of Texas began, and at the same
time a history of studies by American and Canadian researchers
commenced concerning Japanese
monkeys living in America.
The purpose of the
Conference in Banff was that the people working
with the
monkeys of both Arashiyama
and Texas troops met each other to talk
and discuss
about the
next stage
of studies. The
Banff Center
where the
conference was
held was
located at a hilly section
of the city, being
surrounded with beautiful landscape of the Rocky Mountains.
Every participant
(nine from
America and
Canada, eight
from Japan)
presented their own report
for the first two days. As the
middle day of the session was
set aside for a day of recreation, we enjoyed
fully the great
landscape of the Rocky, fostering our spirit.
For two
days of the latter half, we discussed freely in a room
of which
walls were hung with paneled pictures of Arashiyama monkeys, sitting
around a
large table so that every
body could see each other. The
conference, unlike
ordinary ones, was full of
familiarity, and everybody could talk and discuss
frankly.
One of
the reason we could
have such a good atmosphere
was that
the conference consisted
of the members who had "actually" experienced working
with Arashiyama
monkeys of both troops or, at least, either of
the two,
I think.
And another reason was an
excellent interpretation by two
Japanese ladies.
It made
all members fully exchange
their thought
and knowledge
without any frustrations.
The number of personal presentations was 17.
Except two theoretic and one
genetic studies, all were ecological and ethological studies.
The title of my presentation was
"Aging and
behavior in female Japanese
monkeys of
two Arashiyama troops
in Texas and Kyoto".
In 1983, I was given a
chance to observe the Arashiyama monkeys of
Kyoto from
spring to summer, and of Texas in fall.
Having had a simple
question, "What
are aged monkeys doing in their troops?", I decided to observe
behavior of old female monkeys. In
those days, two monkeys aged 29, born in 1954,
had been still alive
in each troop, and beside them, several monkeys aged
20 or more were living. I
compared their behaviors with those of teen-aged monkeys.
The method of my observation was very simple.
What I had done was only taking their behavioral
records, following
the subjects
for observations,
for example, "A moved, B
was with C, D was alone, etc.".
Incidence of each behavior in the old
female monkeys as, of course, much lower
than that of the younger monkeys. The
older they became, the less they moved. Increasing
the time for rest, they decreased their socially
related behaviors
in troops. This tendency was
seen in both Kyoto and Texas troops,
despite of the differences
in living situations. However, all aged
monkeys did not
necessarily retire. It was a
general tendency.
Troops of
Japanese monkeys consist of
adult males,
adult females
and infants, and the most
important role of troops is firstly to breed.
In those troops, aged
females who do have nothing almost to do with "reproduction"
are still alive, being supported by their life histories they had made
in their troops
for about
20 or more years. They must
still contribute
something social to their troops.
My observation was very short in its term. I only crossed their long
lives and figured
their characteristics of old
age in comparison with
those of younger monkeys.
Continuous observations of longer term will make it possible to grasp
their characters and roles in troops.
Although I had used a statistical method in analyzing the data, my
interest tended toward
behaviors of each monkey. Many
participants from Japan referred, more or less, to individual difference in
behaviors of the monkeys. They
might try to extract monkeys'
individuality hidden
by statistical
analyses, feeling that even
analysis of individuality was indispensable for understanding a sophisticated society of Japanese
monkeys. And, before everything, to
obsereve faces of each monkey surely makes us have affections for the monkeys.
Next morning of a farewell
party, I left Banff, thanking the monkeys for
having given me such a good chance as this conference.
Page-14
A Clinical Commentary by a Veterinarian:
A balloon like African
green
monkey
"Dr. Tanaka, a green monkey died.
Its body is inflated like a balloon."
The words from an animal
technician remineded me of a canine case I
met ten
and several years ago.
In those days, I belonged to other institute and
was sent from the institute to a department of pharmacology
of Medical shool. One
day a surgical operation was performed on the throat of several beagles.
Some hours
later, I
went to the beagles' cages to
check their
recovery from
anesthesia. I was
startled at one of the dogs. It was dead, being inflated like
a balloon. The cause of its death revealed by autopsy.
Air was breathed
in through a small hole of
the trachea punctured by the tip of
an electric
surgical knife, and reached the dog's whole body.
Well, this green monkey looked at first sight to be almost the same as
the beagle
case. But this case was much
more serious, driveling a viscous fluid
which was not seen in the beagle case.
Moreover, a large amount of foam from the nose,
bullae containing serous
fluid and rectal prolapse
as well
as hemorrhage in the
eyes were seen.
What happened with this monkey? There
had been no premonitory signs until
the previous day. I thought
that the cause of this disease might be bacteria
of Clostridium genus
known to be the causative agent of human gas
gangrene. Autopsy
was performed immediately for pathological studies.
Gas came out when the skin was cut with a surgical knife. The monkey's
body deflated
like a
vinyl doll. Air vesicles
were seen everywhere
under the
epidermis. Markedly distended stomach leaped to the eyes when the abdomen was cut
and opened.
The stomach was full of diets and gas.
The surface
of abdominal
organs such
as liver and kidney changed
to whitish
in color,
presenting severe
postmortem changes. There was little
change arround
the trachea.
No Clostridium but Lactobacillus
was isolated from the lesions contrary to my expectations.
The cause of this disease has not been known yet.
However, we have experienced
seven similar cases with African green monkeys and have isolated
Lactobacillus in all cases.
The relationship between the cases and Lactobacillus
will be analyzed.
( I, the auther of this A
Clinical Commentary by a Veterinarian, am going to
be transferred to a new post
of other institute. So this is the last Commentary. I express
my hearty gratitude to the readers of this page, thank you and good bye.
)
Page-15
The Sepilok Orang-utan Rehabilitation Center
The orang-utan is an
indigenous great anthropoid ape living in Borneo
and Smatra.
Recently, it has been
regarded as one of endangered animal
species since
its population has markedly
decreased due to forest exploitation
and poaching.
Last summer I visited the Sepilok Orang-utan Rehabilitation Center
located on
the edge of the Sepilok
Forest Reserve of 4000 hectares, near
Sandakan, Sabah,
Malaysia. It
is administered by the Wildlife Section
of the
Sabah Forest
Department, and
is known as a facility which was set
up to return
orphan and pet orangs to the
wild. Dr. Kitaura, a member
of Japan Overseas
Cooperation Volunteer, has
been working there as a chief veterinarian
since January in 1986.
When I visited the Center,
about 20 orangs aged 3 months to 3 years
were being
kept. Infant orangs
were undergoing artificial nursing and
malaria suspects
were given a medicine. These
infants are reared until they become
three to four years old in the center, learning tree climbing and other
skills for survival in the
wild. Then they are released back
to the forest.
At present,
the biggest problem of the
Center is how
to decrease
the mortality
of the infants. A medical
building is now under construction and the
facilities for surgical
operations and X-ray diagnosis and a
computer system for
data processing will be completed by the end of 1988.
Activities for the orang-utan rehabilitation have some problems.
One of them
is a possible infection of human disease during or after the
quarantine period.
The establishment of
breeding colony consisting of only
released orangs is
proposed so that disease transmission to wild orangs can be avoided.
Another problem
is how much degree the
rehabilitation is
useful for
the conservation
of orangs.
My opinion on this point is as
follows: It
is evident that the
recovery of forest is essential for the protection of orangs.
However, the know-how and information accumulated concerning nursing of
infant orangs
to release
them back
to the wild are
useful for
promoting the
protection of orang-utans.
Page-16
Overseas Topics: Financial support of Deutshes Primatenzentrum
GmbH in
Gottingen (German Primate Center)
Deutshes Primatenzentrum GmbH (DPZ) founded in 1977 as a company of
limited liability cerebrated
its tenth aniversary last year.
Its budget is basically
sponsored by the community of the Federal
States (50%)
and the Federal Ministry of
Research and Technology on behalf of
the Federal Government
(50%).
The total income and expendidture of DPZ in 1986 is shown in the graphs.
-----Cited from Primate Report 17, June 1987 ---
Page-17
Reports from the Front of Animal Feeding:
Artificial nursing of squirrel monkeys at TPC
We have sucessfully weaned five infant squirrel monkeys through
artificial nursing.
Four out of the five infants
had to undergo
artificial nursing,
because their mother monkyes
had rejected nursing. All of the
mothers were
colony-bred monkeys. Remaining
one mother died two days after delivery.
Room conditions
for artificial nursing were
similar to those
of other
rearing rooms ( room temperature: 25
2 C, relative humidity: 60 10%
). Each
infant was nursed in an
acryl resin box (35 / 40 / 25 cm). Towel
was spread
on the bottom of box, and
hot-water bottle was fixed in the box to
maintain the
tempereture at around 30 C. But
when the infant became five-weeks old and brisky, he/she was transfered into alminium cage.
Being wrapped in towel the
infants were
given 10% milk prepared from dried milk for
human babies six
times a day (from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM) with a syringe of 1 or 2.5 ml.
Crumpled gauze
of a mother monkey's nipple size was set at the tip of the
syringe so
that the infants could suck milk by themselves.
After they became three weeks old,
apple juice and sliced banana were given.
Milk could be given to
them with a water bottle
from the age of six weeks. Sliced
apples were also given. Moistend
baby biscuits were given from ten weeks of age and the infants were gradually
aclimatized to monkey diets.
These infants grew as normally as the infants who were nursed by their
own mothers.
A
brief comment by a tamarin caretaker
Five months have passed since I began to take care of tamarins. I had
been in
charge of caring cynomolgus monkeys before that.
Now I am taking care of 27 red-bellied and eight moustached tamarins.
The tamarin was an entirely new species
for TPC. So there was no one who
had experienced care of tamarins. I
had to do everything by feeling.
I was firstly impressed by agile movements of the tamarins.
They romp about in cages.
And I was surprised at their strong
fighting spirit
that seemed
to be unfit for their funny looks. But
the most characteristic thing
with regard to tamarins is that fathers, not mothers, nurse infants.
We are expecting these tamarins will give many births.