How to obtain individual urine samples from undisturbed marmoset families.

Abstract

An apparatus and a method are described, which allow simultaneous urine collection from all individual members of undisturbed marmoset families. The monkeys have been trained, after leaving their sleeping box, to enter single adjacent compartments where they are rewarded. There the monkeys micturate within minutes and the clean urine runs directly into cryotubes. These simultaneously collected urine samples open up the opportunity for investigation of the relationship between endocrine function and behavioral dynamics within entire marmoset groups. © 1993 Wiley-Liss, Inc.