Cotton-top tamarin

Saguinus oedipus · The cotton-top tamarin is a small New World monkey found in tropical forest edges and secondary forests in northwestern Colombia.

Also called Pinché tamarin, Cotton-headed tamarin, Cottontop Tamarin.

Cotton-top tamarin
Photo: Chensiyuan, CC BY-SA 4.0
Cotton-top tamarin
Photo: Harald Hoyer from Schwerin, Germany, CC BY-SA 2.0
Cotton-top tamarin
Photo: T-34-85, CC0

Taxonomy

KingdomAnimalia
PhylumChordata
ClassMammalia
OrderPrimates
FamilyCallitrichidae
GenusSaguinus
SpeciesSaguinus oedipus

Where it lives

Tropical forests of northwestern Colombia.

Fun facts

  • The cotton-top tamarin weighs less than 0.5 kg (about 1.1 lb), making it one of the smallest primates in the world.
  • The dominant female normally gives birth to twins and uses pheromones to stop other females in the group from breeding.
  • Tamarin fathers usually start carrying their newborn babies on the very day they are born.
  • Caring for infants is so demanding that some male tamarins lose up to 10-11% of their total body weight.

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Facts and taxonomy adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).