Galago, commonly known as the bushbaby, is a relatively small promising primate representing an important evolutionary stage in primate phylogeny. Already of great significance to comparative neuroanatomy, these lorisiform prosimians are becoming increasingly useful as biomedical models. They have a high reproductive potential at a low maintenance cost compared to other primate models. Higher primate species formerly readily available, such as marmosets, squirrel monkeys, and owl monkeys have recently become more costly, much harder to obtain, and are more difficult to house and breed than Galago. Unfortunately, the future availability of Galago species from the wild is now also in doubt. A positive step to alleviate future shortages of Galago was taken in August of 1981 with the establishment of a large colony of three species of Galago at the Duke University Primate Center. Since then, determination of optimal husbandry techniques has progressed. There have been significant accomplishments in the areas of animal production, exchange and acquisition, as well as caging, diet, identification of medical problems, management of reproduction, and social grouping. We now request funding to follow up on findings in four specific areas which relate to the reproductive output of the colony; the influence of adult males on age at puberty in females, the influence of housing females in trios of one male and two females on reproductive output, the optimal time for removal of subadults from the natal group, and the influence of exogenous hormones on reproductive capacity. Our long-term goal is to improve the efficiency of colony production in order to provide captive-bred Galago at a reasonable cost for American investigators interested in maintaining and breeding Galago.
