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Fast Facts:

These remarkable little primates derive their common name from the striking shock of white hair on their heads. Each individual has his or her own unique "hairdo" - some longer, some shorter, some sleeker and some fluffier.
Cotton-top tamarins are arboreal, meaning they live in the trees. They are excellent climbers and jumpers.

Cotton topped Tamarin

Scientific Name	Saguinus Oedipus
Classification	Phylum Chordata, Class Mammalia, Order Primates, Family Callitrichidae
Status	Endangered. The cotton-top tamarin is one of the most endangered primates in the world. Today, only 2,000 to 3,000 of these animals exist in the wild. Cotton-top tamarins are also listed by CITES (Appendix I), an international agreement that restricts trade in wild animals and their parts.
Range	Northwest Colombia in South America
Habitat	Tropical Forests
Diet	In the wild, cotton-top tamarins feed primarily on insects and fruits. Their light weight allows them to utilize food sources on the outermost tree branches which are inaccessible to other larger primates. They may supplement their diet with small lizards, birds, eggs, or sap, which they lick as it drips from trees.
Size	Weight: 1-1.5 pounds (400-600 grams) Length: Average body length is 8 inches from head to base of tail. The tail is an additional 12 to 17 inches long.
Lifespan	10-15 yrs.
Location
Print Fact Sheet	Tamarin

Special Features

Cotton-top tamarins belong to a family of Central and South American primates (Callitrichidae) which includes marmosets, another tiny, arboreal monkey, and several other tamarin species. This family of pint-size primates includes the smallest monkey, the pygmy marmoset, which weighs less than five ounces. The largest member of the family, the lion tamarin, usually weighs less than two pounds.
Captive cotton-top tamarins are the only primates that spontaneously develop colon cancer. Therefore, cotton-top tamarins are of interest to the human medical community for cancer research.

Social Structure & Behavior

Cotton-top tamarins live in groups of two to 12 individuals. They are territorial and use scent marking to define territories.

When a group of cotton-tops comes into contact with another group, rather than have a physical battle, they will threaten the other animals with a territorial display.

Cotton-top tamarins have a vocal repertoire of over 30 vocalizations, including chirps, shrill calls, squeaks, and other bird-like calls. Listen now!

Predators of cotton-top tamarins include birds of prey, snakes and small cats.

Breeding & care of young
Cotton-tops reach sexual maturity at 15 to 17 months of age. A female's estrous cycle is 20 days.

Cotton-top tamarins generally form monogamous pairs. Many times, only one reproductively active female and male are present within a group. Reproductive activity of subordinate animals in the group is usually suppressed by the presence of the dominant breeding pair.

Gestation is 180 days. In the wild, most young are born at the onset of the rainy season, during April through June. (SSP Manual) Cotton-top tamarins typically give birth to twins. The average birth weight of an infant tamarin is 40-50 grams, almost 20% of the female's weight. "That is equivalent to a human female giving birth to two 10 pound infants!" (Savage)

All members of a cotton-top tamarin family participate in caring for the young. Young cotton-tops are usually carried by their family members for 70 to 80 days. Parenting behavior is learned in cotton-top tamarins and in many other primates. "In a captive study, females with no experience rearing younger siblings had 100% mortality of their first infants." (Rowe 75) Weaning begins at 4 to 5 weeks of age.