Cotton Top Tamarin

Range

Cotton top tamarins are found in a small area of northwest Colombia in a range bound by the Cauca and Magdalena Rivers and the Atlantic coast.

Facts

Tamarins are highly important seed dispersers in tropical ecosystems. They ingest and void seeds larger than those consumed by much larger species of primates. These voided seeds show high germination success, but there may be another benefit to this seed-swallowing behavior. One function of swallowing such disproportionately large seeds may be to mechanically expel intestinal parasites from their digestive tract.

Cotton top tamarins like to sleep in! They sleep past dawn and then start traveling along established routes to forage for food. This pattern allows them to travel and eat during times many of their predators are sleeping.