Wild Facts

Photo by Whaldener Endo (Wikimedia)

Happy Tuesday everyone.  Today we are going to look at our third Tamarin species, the Pied Tamarin.  If you remember we also discussed the Emperor and the Cotton-Top Tamarin.  The Pied Tamarin is actually one of the larger tamarin species found in South America.  With that said, they usually only grow to about 30 cm (12″) so that shows you just how small the other primates are.   Well lets grab our outdoor gear and head to the beautiful Amazon Rainforest to learn more about this little monkey.

The Pied Tamarin is an endangered species and can be found living in a restricted area of the Brazilian rainforest.  This area offers them protection from poaching and even habitat destruction.  I am sure they appreciate this little slice of heaven.  In fact, they love this habitat so much that they will become very territorial.  The Pied Tamarin protects its territory and will utilize a variety of noises and calls to ward off any unwanted visitors.  So don’t be offended if this monkey starts making a fuss as you walk by.

This particular monkey is a sociable animal that will participate in troops ranging from three to fifteen members.  Unlike other groups this family is lead by a dominant female while the majority of the group is made up of males.  The Pied Tamarin females are cruel as they could at least make the males think they are in control.   This troop of tamarins are active during the day while spending the nights in the safety of the tree tops.  This is great news for people hoping to catch a glimpse of these funny looking monkey’s.

Photo from Wikicommons

Much like other monkey species the Pied Tamarin is an omnivore that will feed on fruits, green plants but also likes the taste of insects, reptiles, eggs and even tree sap.  Yummmy…. insects and syrup.  Since this monkey is not very large it puts them a little lower on the food chain.  As a result they have to constantly be looking out for wild cats, dogs, snakes, birds of prey and of course humans.   I am surprised they leave the protection of the tree tops at all during the day.  I think my strategy would be to hide among the trees while I outsource my food gathering to other monkey’s.

That does it for funny looking monkey Tuesday.  Make sure you come back tomorrow for another interesting Wild Fact.  Have a great day!

Wooohooo!! Another week of Wild Facts.  I know all of you wish that the weekend would just hurry up and get out of the way so you can start reading these interesting animal facts again.  Pesky weekends! Today we are going to look at the Cotton-Top Tamarin and they personally remind of a Gremlin. Does anyone else see this resemblance? You may remember we discussed a similar animal called the Emperor Tamarin, the one with the big mustache. Like their cousin the Cotton-Top Tamarin is also a small monkey found in the beautiful forests of South America.

The Cotton-Top is only about 18-30 cm (7-12″) long and is different than most monkey’s since they don’t have an opposable thumb or a prehensile tail. Don’t worry since this doesn’t make them any less of a monkey although I am sure they get teased by all of the other monkey’s during recess. This particular tamarin species has claws on all of their fingers and toes except for the big toe, which has the customary flat nail.  I would guess that the claws help this little monkey hang out in the trees with the rest of their friends.

If you want to get a glimpse of these little guys then you are in luck since they are diurnal animals which simply means they are most active during the day.  It is in the bright daylight hours that they will be on the hunt for both plants and animals to consume.  Among their favourites are fruit, insects and lush green plants.  They will also throw in the odd rodent or the eggs of an unsuspecting reptile, and to conquer that sweet tooth they will feast on tree sap.  Once the sun sets the Cotton-Top Tamarin will retreat to the tree tops for some much needed rest.

Photo by: Raimond Spekking

These little “Gremlins” can be a noisy bunch and have about 38 distinct sounds which express joy, curiosity, fear, warnings, playfulness and other important behavioural sounds. I guess we shouldn’t be too surprised to hear that this monkey is a complex animal. After all, we do have common ancestors, right? Judging by the hair I am pretty certain that the famous boxing promoter, Don King is directly related to the Cotton-Top Tamarin. I bet the scientist from Back to the Future is also closely related.

Cotton-Top Tamarin Fast Fact – This beautiful little creature is considered to be critically endangered with a population somewhere around 6000 individuals.  This is no surprise since they have lost about 75% of their habitat due to deforestation.  I am still holding out that someday we will realize that everything on this earth is connected and we are only hurting ourselves by decimating animal populations.

I hope you enjoy the rest of your day.  I have this crazy urge to go and watch Gremlins now.  I wonder what happens if you feed a Cotton-Top Tamarin after midnight?

A Gremlin

Photo by Ghazghul at http://www.flickr.com/photos/ghazghul/223052047/

I can’t believe it is Friday already! To show my appreciation I decided to complete a fact on an animal that is much cuter than the naked mole rat. Although, I guess any animal I wrote about today would be cuter than the mole rat.

So what is an emperor tamarin? Well this little mustache guy is a primate that lives in the southwest Amazon Basin.  They weigh about 400 grams (14 oz) and mostly feed on insects, seeds and fruit. The emperor tamarin lives in families of about 3 to 8 individuals.  They will actually team up with another type of tamarin called the saddlebacks.  What is the purpose of this? Maybe they just like having a diverse family? Actually, this mixed troop of tamarins is a survival technique.  The emperor tamarins are able to detect predators from the sky while the saddlebacks are better at noticing the land predators.  So mixing the two types together seems like a pretty good idea, doesn’t it? Usually, these two type of tamarins will get along without any problems but it is clear that the emperor tamarins are dominant.  My guess is they are dominant because of the wicked mustache!

An interesting thing about the emperor tamarin is the fact that two-thirds of the female population have the ability to see three different colours.  This allows these females to pick out the ripe fruit. The other one-third of the females and all the males can only see two colours.  This gives this portion of the population an advantage to spotting camoflaged predators. Once again, you have a pretty good, well rounded, family when you mix the two together. It is obvious to see that living in a group is a main survival technique for the emperor tamarin.

Before I go I want to give proper credit to the photographer of the Emperor Tamarin in today’s post.  I came across it on Flickr by a person called Ghazghul and I highly recommend checking out some of their photos at http://www.flickr.com/photos/ghazghul/223052047/.

Well that is the week of Wild Facts!  Have a great weekend! I am off to get my very first Christmas Tree tomorrow so wish me luck!

Photo by Ghazghul at http://www.flickr.com/photos/ghazghul/223052047/