Cotton-top tamarins
The cotton-top tamarin is a small monkey and one of the most endangered primates in South America.
What they look like
The cotton-top tamarin get their name from the long tuft of white hair around their black faces. The fur on their backs is brown and underneath it is white.
They have a long tail, which helps them to balance.
Cotton-top tamarins grow to about 30cm and weigh up to half a kilo (much less than a new-born baby human). Like marmosets and other tamarins, they have claws that they use to climb up trees. A long time ago their ancestors had nails. But over thousands of years tamarins' nails became more and more like claws. (We say their nails evolved into claws. Most primates still have nails.)
What they eat
They eat fruit, nectar, sap, insects, soft vegetation, and bird eggs. They can even eat small vertebrates (animals that have backbone inside their body). They get the water they need by licking leaves that are wet with rain or dew.
How they live
They are active during the day. Like other primates they are highly social and normally live in groups. They spend a lot of time grooming each other. They run their clawed fingers through each other's fur, examining it, and use their teeth, lips and tongue to pick off bits.
They are active during the day. Like other primates they are highly social and normally live in groups. They spend a lot of time grooming each other. They run their clawed fingers through each other's fur, examining it, and use their teeth, lips and tongue to pick off bits.
A group of tamarins will try to stop other animals from entering the area they live in (their territory). They wee where they live because their wee's smell tells other animals that these monkeys live there so they should stay away. When they see predators (such as snakes), they try to scare them away by banding together and fluffing up their fur and making loud noises.
Baby tamarins are born helpless and are carried everywhere by the group, until they are two months old when they become independent. Adult individuals work together to help to rear tamarin young, sharing the feeding and carrying of the young. Also like other primates, baby tamarins form a close bond with their mothers and learn from their family about how to get along with others.
Where they live
They live in forests in Columbia. They move from tree branch to tree branch in search of food, although they will sometimes forage on the ground. Lots of leafy branches near each other form a cover (canopy) that helps hide them from the beady eyes of birds of prey.
Unfortunately, these monkeys have already lost most of the land where they live (habitat) because more and more of their forests are being cut down for timber, and the land is being reused for farming or space for people to live.
They live in forests in Columbia. They move from tree branch to tree branch in search of food, although they will sometimes forage on the ground. Lots of leafy branches near each other form a cover (canopy) that helps hide them from the beady eyes of birds of prey.
Unfortunately, these monkeys have already lost most of the land where they live (habitat) because more and more of their forests are being cut down for timber, and the land is being reused for farming or space for people to live.
Quiz
- Why are they endangered?
- How is a cotton-top tamarin living today different from its ancestors?
- Tamarins band together to stop other animals entering their t.......y
- Tamarins are one animal in the group called primates. How do primates live?