Cottontop Tamarin (Saguinus oedipus)

species Cottontop Tamarin belongs to ordo: Monkeys (Anthropoidea)

Our Cottontop Tamarin are kept in :

Southamerican Rainforest

The Cottontop Tamarin, also known as the Pinché Tamarin, is a small New World monkey weighing less than 1lb (0.5 kg). It is found in tropical forest edges and secondary forests where it is arboreal and diurnal. Tamarins are among the smallest of the primates. It is most active between sunrise and sunset (diurnal), it spends a large portion of its activity time foraging for animal prey, searching through leaves and along branches, and peering and reaching into holes and crevices in branches and tree trunks, Its diet largely consists of insects, ripe fruit, seeds, nectar, and gum from trees that has oozed out. Other foods include some tender vegetation, spiders, small vertebrates, and bird´s eggs. Mice, frogs, birds and lizards are skillfully killed by a quick head bite, a learned behavior. It sleeps in broad tree forks or cavities. When alarmed or excited, Cottontop Tamarins raise the hair on the crown of their head and stand up tall to make themselves look bigger. They vocalize with birdlike whistles, soft chirping sounds, high-pitched trilling and staccato calls. Researchers say its repertoire of 38 distinct sounds is unusually sophisticated, conforming to grammatical rules and able to express curiosity, fear, dismay, playfulness, warnings, joy and calls to young. It has loud territorial songs as well as songs when it is excited. Life span in captivity has been as high as 25 years.

Breeding an endangered monkey species

The Cottontop Tamarin (Saguinus oedipus) also known as Pinché Tamarin is threatened by extinction in nature, but has found a rescue haven here in the large rainforest environment of the Tropicarium. That the monkeys feel at home is clear: so far four little monkeys have been born here. Plans for the future are to make the whole family an integrated part of a larger, international breeding project to ascertain that the species will survive, also in nature.

The Cottontop Tamarin is today considered threatened by extinction and therefore included in CITES appendix I.
This classification ensures that commerce and possesion is controlled by both national and international agencies. Within the EAZA (European Association of Zoos and Aquaria) there is an ongoing project named EEP (European Endangered species Programme). EEP consists of 250 breeding programs and one of these programs is focused on the Cottontop Tamarin.