Cotton-Top Tamarins

About the size of a squirrel, the cotton-top tamarin is a New World primate that is noted for its shock of white hair. The large shock of white fur on its head gives the cotton-top tamarin its most appropriate name. Males and females are not sexually dimorphic weighing approximately 404-417 g in the wild to 565-700 g in captivity (Savage 1990; Savage et al. 1993). Knee-to-heel length (M=7.26 cm) and head to tail length (M=23.07 cm) appear to be similar for both wild and captive cotton-top tamarins (see Savage 1990 for a complete review). The face of the cotton-top tamarin is black, temples and sides of head are covered with short adpressed silvery hairs. The face is adorned with grayish or whitish supraorbital band, with a grayish fringe across the muzzle to each corner of the mouth. There is a wedge-shaped midfrontal white crest. The dorsal surface of the body is primarily black or brown, while the underparts of the body, arms, and legs are predominantly white (Hershovitz 1977).

The cotton-top tamarin (Saguinus oedipus) is one of the most endangered primates in the world. The species was declared endangered in 1973 following the exportation of 20,000-40,000 tamarins to the United States for use in biomedical research (Hernandez-Camacho and Cooper 1976; Clapp et al. 1982). In the late 1970s and throughout much of the 1980s, cotton-top tamarins were found to spontaneously develop colonic adenocarcinoma. They served as the primary model for indepth studies of this disease throughout much of this decade. Today the greatest threat to the survival of the cotton-top tamarin is deforestation for agriculture, fuel, and housing, in addition to collection for the local pet trade in Colombia (Mast & Patino 1988). Occurrences of the illegal trade of cotton-tops still continues throughout much of the world despite international laws condemning such activity. The tamarin pictured here (taken from Mast et al. 1993) was found for sale in market. The remaining population is unknown and efforts are underway to investigate and census it.

Roads and agriculture threaten the remaining habitat of the cotton-top tamarin

Significant advances have been made in developing self-sustaining captive breeding populations in both laboratories and zoos. Most laboratory facilities have reduced their populations significantly in the last 10 years, however, the U.S. zoo population has continued to thrive. Through the efforts of the American Zoo and Aquarium Association Species Survival Plan more than 300 cotton-top tamarins are cooperatively managed in more than 80 U.S. zoos.  Cotton-top Tamarin SSP

Map created by National Geographic

Map from Mast et al. 1993

Cotton-top tamarins have an extremely limited distribution, occurring in northwestern Colombia between the Atrato River and the Magdalena River, in the Departments of Atlantico, Sucre, Cordoba, western Bolivar, northwestern Antiquoia, and northeastern Choco, from sea level up to 1500 meters (Mast et al. 1993; Hershkovitz 1977; Hernandez-Camacho and Cooper 1976). The tamarins are found in regions of humid tropical forest at an elevation ranging from 200-1000 m, where the annual rainfall is between 2000-4000 mm. Populations also occur in dry tropical forest with low seasonal rainfall.