Cotton Top Tamarin Exhibit
Black-Tufted Marmoset – Callithrix Penicillata
Habitat: Black-tufted marmosets are native to South America, mainly Brazil. They live in the canopy of the rainforest.
Adaptations: These animals are arboreal and almost never go to the ground.
Diet: In the wild, they eat tree sap and gum, insects, fruit and small invertebrates. In the zoo, they are fed tree gum, insects, vegetables, fruit and canned food made specifically for marmosets.
Fun Fact: A black-tufted marmoset only weighs about as much as a full can of soda.
Cotton-Top Tamarin – Saguinus Oedipus
Habitat: Found in northern Colombia, cotton-top tamarins inhabit tropical forests, including wetlands and dry thorn forests.
Adaptations: Cotton-top tamarins communicate using their facial expressions, postures, hair reaction and high-pitched vocalizations. Acute eyesight, hearing and smell aid in hunting and in detecting danger. Their long tails help keep balance while jumping and climbing, though they cannot swing or grasp with their tails like many South American monkeys can.
Diet: Tamarins feed on fruit, insects and bird eggs. They obtain their drinking water by licking rain or dew off of leaves.
Fun Fact: A tamarin family consists of a mated pair and their offspring, who stay with their parents to help them raise the next set of young. After the female gives birth, she often passes the babies (usually twins) over to the father or one of her older children to carry. This frees her up to find the food she needs in order to produce milk. Cotton-tops have a specific call associated with food preferences. Cotton-tops have a complex vocal repertoire with at least 38 distinct vocalizations.