Cotton-top Tamarin

Saguinus oedipus

Class

Mammalia

Order

Primate

Family

Callitrichidae

Range

Colombia, South America

Size

Body length: Up to 8 in
Tail length: 10 - 11 in
Weight: 0.5 - 2 lbs

Habitat

Forests

Young

Offspring: Usually 2
Gestation: 183 days

Diet

Insects, ripe fruit, seeds, and nectar; sometimes spiders, small vertebrates, and bird eggs

IUCN Status

Critically Endangered

Sounds of the Forest

With a vocabulary of at least 38 different calls — from barks and chirps to squeaks and growls — cotton-top tamarins have a complex way of communicating with each other. Some of these high-pitched sounds are even beyond the range of human hearing.

Raising Young

Female cotton-top tamarins are pregnant for about five months, typically giving birth to non-identical twins. The father and other members of the group also care for the youngsters, returning them to the mother for nursing. As social animals, the young are raised communally, with older monkeys in the troop teaching them how to hunt and forage.

Status

The cotton-top tamarin is currently found only in the tropical and semi-dry forests of northwest Colombia. Deforestation and the demand for these tamarins in the local pet trade, as well as illegal exportations for biomedical research have greatly affected the populations.

Cotton-top Tamarin