Pied tamarins are small New World monkeys with big parenting skills. Group care is very important, with all members of a small group looking after the young. Unusually for primates the males do more than their fair share, providing most of the carrying and foraging but handing over to the female for nursing. Only the dominant female in a group will mate, her pheromones stopping the other females from ovulating.
Twins are often born and they emerge fully furred but quite helpless, unable to even cling to their parents. The young will ride around on an adult's back until they are six or seven weeks old and can fend for themselves. Pied tamarins have an extremely small home range, restricted to a small region of the Brazilian rainforest in and around the city of Manaus.
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Foster parents
Pied tamarin twins are introduced to their new parents.
Pied tamarin twins are introduced to their new parents.
Stranded tamarins
Pied tamarins are marooned as Brazil's cities encroach.
Pied tamarins are marooned as Brazil's cities encroach.
Tamarin twins
Hand rearing pied tamarins is a step towards species recovery.
Hand rearing pied tamarins is a step towards species recovery.
The Pied tamarin can be found in a number of locations including: Amazon Rainforest, South America. Find out more about these places and what else lives there.
The following habitats are found across the Pied tamarin distribution range. Find out more about these environments, what it takes to live there and what else inhabits them.
Discover what these behaviours are and how different plants and animals use them.
Additional data source: Animal Diversity Web
Endangered
Population trend: Decreasing
Year assessed: 2008
Classified by: IUCN 3.1
The pied tamarin (Saguinus bicolor) is an endangered primate species found in a restricted area in the Brazilian Amazon Rainforest.
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