The cotton-top tamarin (Saguinus oedipus), also called the cotton-headed tamarin, is native to a very small region of northwestern Colombia. Its limited distribution stretches from the Atrato River to the Magdalena River. These uniquely colored, clever primates are found in both humid and dry tropical forests. They are arboreal, those animals that spend most of their life on trees
Roughly the size of a squirrel, Male and female cotton-top tamarins weigh less than a pound (404-417 g). They are 23.2 cm tall with a 26.7 cm long tail. Cotton-top tamarins are strikingly colored and appropriately named, with a soft plume of white hair that encircles their small grey and silver faces in a bright halo. Their legs, belly, and chest are also white, and their backs and tail are a beautiful blend of brown and black. Most of their body is covered in long fur, with the exception of the very fine, short grey hair that covers their face and ears. They have claw-like nails, which help them leap, climb, and cling to trees.
Due to the small size of their digestive tract, cotton-top tamarins must only consume the highest quality food to stay healthy. Insects and fruits make up the bulk of their diets. Unlike marmosets, who have a long set of lower incisors to chew holes in tree trunks and eat the gum inside, tamarins lack the adaptations to pierce the bark. Therefore, they must rely on other animals or natural processes to open up holes in trees so they can reach the gum.
Cotton-top tamarins have been observed consuming reptiles and amphibians. They can be seen stealthily hunting for insects by scurrying across, up, and down tree trunks, leaping across the canopy and exploring potential hiding spots for their prey. Like many other primates, cotton-top tamarins choose their feeding site based on the amount of food it provides, and usually forage in the middle layer of the canopy.
Cotton-top tamarins also play an important role in spreading seeds in tropical ecosystems. These tamarins commonly eat seeds that are fairly large, bigger even than those consumed by their more sizable fellow primates such as chimpanzees and baboons. Those seeds are eventually digested into feces that has proven an excellent fertilizer with a high success rate for germination.
Like their golden lion relatives, cotton-top tamarins form social family groups that include breeding parents, their adult offspring, and even unrelated adults who have migrated to the group. Since tamarin young are commonly born as twins and tend to be disproportionately heavy-they weigh in at about 15 to 20 percent of their mother’s body weight-these adult group members quite literally help tamarin parents shoulder the load. Cotton-top tamarins spend a lot of time grooming each other, leaving their coats clean and soft.
Since nursing and caring for their young requires so much energy, cotton-top tamarins typically give birth during the early half of the rainy season when the fruit is most abundant. Only the dominant female in each group gives birth to young. Though cotton-top tamarins reach sexual maturity between 15 and 18 months of age, researchers have observed that mother tamarins suppress the fertility of their daughters and other adult females in the group. When the mother dies or leaves the group, the oldest and highest-ranking daughter becomes fertile and takes over the dominant role.
Due to their small size, and the fact that they are active during the day, cotton-top tamarins are prey for many different predators. Their predators can include snakes, cats, and a variety of birds of prey. Tamarins try to avoid predators by staying in thick vegetation in the lower layers of the forest, and by working as a group to look out for danger and alerting each other by using alarm calls.
Cotton-top tamarins are critically endangered. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, 20,000 to 30,000 cotton-top tamarins were exported to the United States for biomedical research, specifically as subjects of studies related to colon cancer. Although it is now illegal to import cotton-top tamarins into the U.S., they are still being used for medical research and captive tamarins outnumber those in the wild.
Today, deforestation and human activity pose the most significant threats to the survival of cotton-top tamarins. Colombia is losing its tropical rainforest at a dramatic rate to development and agriculture-in fact, the South American country has recorded the fourth-highest loss of rainforest in the world.
#Wildlife #Rainforest #Arboreal
29 окт 2021
