Squirrel monkey in the context of Allopatric

Animals in space originally served to test the survivability of spaceflight, before human spaceflights were attempted. Later, many species were flown to investigate various biological processes and the effects microgravity and space flight might have on them. Bioastronautics is an area of bioengineering research that spans the study and support of life in space. To date, seven national space programs have flown non-human animals into space: the United States, Soviet Union, France, Argentina, China, Japan and Iran.

A wide variety of non-human animals have been launched into space, including monkeys and apes, dogs, cats, tortoises, mice, rats, rabbits, fish, frogs, spiders, insects, and quail eggs (which hatched on Mir in 1990). The US launched the first Earthlings into space, with fruit flies surviving a 1947 flight, followed by primates in 1949. The Soviet space program launched multiple dogs into space, with the first sub-orbital flights in 1951, and first orbital flights in 1957.

Miss Baker (1957 – November 29, 1984) was a squirrel monkey who in 1959 became, along with female rhesus macaque Able, one of the first two animals launched into space by the United States who safely returned.

Chronic wasting disease (CWD), sometimes called zombie deer disease, is a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE) naturally affecting members of the deer family. TSEs are a family of diseases caused by misfolded proteins called prions and include similar diseases such as mad cow disease in cattle, Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease in humans, and scrapie in sheep. In the United States, CWD affects mule deer, white-tailed deer, red deer, sika deer, elk, antelope, caribou, and moose. The transmission of CWD to other species such as squirrel monkeys and humanized mice has been observed in experimental settings.

In 1967, CWD was first identified in mule deer at a government research facility in northern Colorado, United States. It was initially recognized as a clinical "wasting" syndrome and then in 1978, it was identified more specifically as a TSE disease. Since then, CWD has been found in free-ranging and captive animal populations in 33 US states and five Canadian provinces. In addition, CWD has been found in one Minnesota red deer farm, one wild reindeer herd in Norway (March 2016) as well as in wild moose. Single cases of CWD in moose have been found in Finland (March 2018) and in Sweden (March and May 2019, September 2020). CWD was found in South Korea in some deer imported from Canada. CWD is typified by chronic weight loss and clinical signs compatible with brain lesions, aggravated over time, always leading to death.

The Cebidae are one of the five families of New World monkeys now recognised. Extant members are the capuchin and squirrel monkeys. These species are found throughout tropical and subtropical South and Central America.