A professor at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh recently
reported success in the project she began six years ago to breed squirrels in
captivity to aid in studying human eye diseases and other research.

Dana Vaughan, associate professor of the Department of
Biology and Microbiology, was the driving force behind the creation of a ground
squirrel breeding colony, which now provides squirrels to many different
research facilities around the country.

These animals are bred for researching diseases of the human
eye due to the similarities between the human and ground squirrel eye. This
will also allow for research into the process of hibernation the squirrels
undergo throughout the winter months.

Historically, ground squirrels have not been used in
clinical research as frequently as other rodents such as rats or mice because
there has always been an issue of capturing them from the wild, Vaughan said.

?Imagine if you are working in a large hospital setting,?
Vaughan said. ?It may not be very practical to go out and capture squirrels.
[With wild animals] there are so many unknowns. And frankly, wild animals are
not happy in captivity. I think this is why so few scientists have studied
ground squirrel vision. ? There are just too many obstacles.?

According to Vaughan, the project had its fair share of
failures in the first few years.

?We weren?t very successful the first year,? she said. ?We
had only one litter, and the next year we had three or four. But last year we
had 23 litters in captivity.?

Vaughan said success came when they began breeding males and
females that had both been born into captivity. She also attributes
reproductive success with the shifting of the squirrels? diets from a
vegetarian diet to a diet that contained meat.

Many universities and research institutions have contacted
Vaughan with interest in purchasing ground squirrels for different clinical
studies.

The National Eye Institute will receive 20 animals within
the next month, Vaughan said. They plan to have their own breeding colony as
well as carry out experiments with the rodents concerning different aspects of
human health. Because of the similarities between the eyes of ground squirrels
and the eyes of humans, researchers are able to perform relevant experiments
pertaining to humans.

The NEI has hired a new director for their unit of retinal
neurophysiology. Dr. Wei Li will be investigating the mechanisms of
neuroprotection and how the tissue of squirrel?s eye protects itself from damage,
Vaughan said.

UW-Madison also has a research lab set up to examine the
hibernation process that these animals go through. Professor Hannah Carey of
the School of Veterinary Medicine set up the hibernation research program when
she came to the university in 1989.

?I realized that there were great things to learn from these
animals,? Carey said.

Researchers are interested in how the process of hibernation
works. Carey said that when these animals go into hibernation during the winter
their body temperature falls to about zero degrees Celsius, and their heart
beat slows from about 200 beats per minute to about five beats per minute.

Carey said that this research could help to increase the
shelf life of human donor organs by days. Research shows that organs taken from
a body at a warm temperature can be stored on ice for up to a few hours, but
when organs are taken from an animal that is in a state of hibernation, the
shelf life increases from a few hours to a few days.