Tree shrews at the German Primate Center

Abstract

Abstract. For many years, Tupaia (family Tupaiidae), most commonly known as tree shrews, have been studied almost exclusively by zoologists resulting in a controversial debate on their taxonomic status among mammals. Today, tree shrews are placed in the order Scandentia; they are valuable, widely accepted and increasingly used model animals as an alternative to rodents and non-human primates in biomedical research. After a brief description on how tree shrews entered science and their taxonomic odyssey, the present article describes the history of the tree shrew (Tupaia belangeri) colony at the German Primate Center and selected aspects of our work with special emphasis on the psychosocial stress model in these animals.

The characterization of auditory brainstem response (ABR) waveforms: A study in tree shrews (Tupaia belangeri)

“…presented a genome sequence for the Chinese tree shrew (Fan et al., 2013) and showed that the tree shrew has close affinity to primates by characterizing key factors and signaling pathways in the nervous system and immune system. Compared to other large non-human primates such as monkeys or orangutans, the tree shrew has several characteristics or advantages more suitable for use as experimental animals, such as its small body, easy ability to feed, and short reproductive cycle and lifespan (Fuchs, 2015; Xu et al., 2012). The tree shrew has been proposed to be a viable and alternative animal model to primates in disease studies and drug safety testing.…”

Astroglial atrophy associates with loss of nuclear S100A10 in the hippocampus of aged male tree shrews

“…Tree shrews (Tupaia belangeri) are small body-sized omnivorous mammals that belong to the Scandentia order (Fuchs, 2015). Tree shrews inhabit the tropical forests and plantation areas in Southeast Asia (Fuchs & Corbach-Söhle, 2010).…”