Cotton-Top Tamarins
The cotton-top tamarin is another one of our “miniature monkeys”. There are some cotton-tops living in Birds of Eden. Others can be found in the front cages of Monkeyland, awaiting their special home. They may flick their tongues at you when you go by. This can mean aggression, but it could also be that they are trying to get you to be their mate!

Physical Description: Tamarins are New World monkeys and they are classified into three categories: the hairy-face, the mottled-face and the bare-face. Cotton-top tamarins have the bare-face. The trademark of this species is a tuft of long white hair on their heads. They also have white on their stomach, arms and legs. The rest of their colouring is a mixed red-brown. Males and females do not differ in size. The average height is 232mm. Wild cotton-tops weigh around 415g. Captive cotton-tops are 150g heavier on average. Like marmosets, cotton-top tamarins have claw-like nails (tegulae) which help in their quadrupedal movements. The lifespan of the cotton top tamarin is 13.5 years, although they can live longer in captivity.

Habitat: There are three species of Amazonian tamarin, one of which is the cotton-top tamarin. Cotton-tops are only found in northwest Colombia. Two major areas for cotton-top tamarins are the Paramillo National Park and La Reserva Forestal Protectora Serranía de Coraza-Montes de Marìa. Cotton-tops live in a variety of forest types including humid tropical forest, dry deciduous forest and secondary growth forest. Unfortunately, their habitat is highly fragmented due to human activity. Cotton-tops prefer the lower vertical levels of the forest. They are quadrupedal and arboreal, although they will come to the ground to forage through leaf litter. In addition to quadrupedal running, cotton-tops also travel through the trees by clinging and leaping.

Diet: Cotton-top tamarins rely on a high-energy diet. They primarily eat insects and fruit, but they also like exudates (e.g. gum) and nectar. Although cotton-tops have claw-like nails (tegulae), they do not have the specialized intestine or incisors found in common marmosets for harvesting and eating exudates. Often they will eat from holes made by other organisms. Occasionally cotton-tops eat reptiles and amphibians. They compete with squirrels, other primates, birds and bats for food resources.

Life History: Female cotton-top tamarins typically give birth to fraternal twins. Gestation is 183 days. Both males and females have to learn from other group members how to care for infants. Infants are more likely to survive in the wild than in captivity because captive cotton-tops have fewer opportunities to learn parenting skills. Infants can weigh 15–20 % of the mother’s weight at birth. Since they are so heavy, they are carried together on an adult’s back.

The mother predominantly carries the infants in the first week and thereafter infants are carried by the entire group. Infants more or less move around independently at 14 weeks. A typical day for cotton-tops starts an hour or so after sunrise and consists of varying periods of foraging and resting until dusk. Cotton-tops travel 1.5–1.9km per day.

At night the group will sleep together. Sleeping sites vary from night to night as a defence against raptors, large cats and snakes. When the group is resting, one individual will serve as the “guard” and keep on the lookout for predators.

Associations: No known associations.

Social Structure: The social structure of cotton-tops is not entirely understood. The ideal group size seems to be 5, although group size can range from 2–13. Groups usually contain one or two breeding individuals of each sex. Breeders are dominant over non-breeding individuals. Breeding females are usually dominant over the entire group during feeding. Often individuals stay in the group when they have reached adulthood to help rear infants. However, emigration does occurs in both sexes and may be related to securing mating opportunities.

Cotton-tops are territorial. Females tend to display threats towards all intruders while males generally only threaten male intruders. Cotton-tops exhibit mobbing behaviour in response to predators. Group cohesion is largely maintained through social grooming.

Communication: Cotton-top tamarins use visual, auditory and olfactory signals for communication. An example of a visual signal is tongue flicking. Cotton-tops use tongue-flicking during aggression and mating. They will also raise their trademark white hair through a process known as “piloerection” to display aggression.

Other aggression postures include head flicking and frowning. Cotton-tops lower their heads to signal submission. For vocal communication, they use calls such as “chirps”, “chuck calls” and “slicing screams” during mobbing or feeding. Depending on the distance between each other, they use different calls to communicate between individuals . For long-range communication they use “long calls” and for short-range communication they use “quiet long calls” or “trills”.

Males and females have scent glands in the anogenital region which they use for olfactory communication, territorial marking and to identify others. Females have more developed scent glands and tend to scent mark more often than males. One function of scent marking in females is to announce when they are sexually receptive.

Mating: Both monogamous and polygamous mating patterns have been observed in wild cotton-top tamarins. The dominant breeding female chemically suppresses reproduction in the other females in the group. Occasionally more than one female in a group will become pregnant, but usually only one of them produces viable offspring.

Wild cotton-tops give birth every 48 weeks while captive cotton-tops may give birth every 28 weeks. Female undergo puberty between 15–18 months of age. Females cycle every 15.5 days and can mate at any time, but will only do so when the environment is suitable. In the event that something happens to the dominant breeding female, the next highest ranking and oldest female will take over the dominant breeding position in the group.

Other Behaviour: Tamarins in general are seed dispersers. They swallow seeds that are larger than those eaten by chimpanzees! These passed seeds have a better germination rate than other seeds. Swallowing large seeds may also serve to dislodge intestinal parasites.

Conservation: Cotton-top tamarins are classified as Endangered by the IUCN. It is estimated that less than 2,500 remain in the wild. They have survived in some disturbed habitats, but these areas continue to disappear. Cotton-tops are facing extinction for a number of human-related reasons. Up until the 1970s, they were widely exported for biomedical research.

As many as 40,000 animals were exported from Colombia, with an estimated 35% going to the United States. International trade of cotton-top tamarins is currently illegal but nevertheless still occurs. Their numbers continue to decline due to human abuse of the forest. Logging in Colombia for agriculture, wood products, oil, and the cultivation of illegal drugs has ranked Colombia as one of the top ten countries worldwide for deforestation, with 5% of tropical habitat disappearing per year. This pattern of destruction is alarming and cannot continue.

Groups such as Proyecto Tití (Project Tamarin) work extensively in Colombia to conserve the cotton-top tamarin by inspiring pride in the species and helping communities reduce their forest use. Proyecto Tití teaches families how to build and use binde stoves rather than cooking directly over the fire. With this method, a family of five uses just 5 logs a day instead of 15. Another project involves making traditional Colombian bags called mochilas from recycled plastic grocery bags.

To read more about Proyecto Tití, please visit their website at www.proyectotiti.com. Other organisations involved in cotton-top tamarin conservation include the Sonora Desert Primate Conservancy (USA) and the Jardin Gaia (Costa Rica). The cotton-top tamarin is also a part of the American Zoo and Aquarium Association Species Survival Plan. Captive populations are now carefully maintained in zoos and sanctuaries worldwide in the hopes of one day being used for reintroduction programmes.

Did You Know?
Cotton-top tamarins develop colon problems in captivity and are often used as models to study colon cancer and colitis in humans.