Personal Information
Our pair of pied tamarins, Tom and Nick, came to us in 2010 from the San Francisco Zoo. These brothers were born on March 17, 2009. In January of 2011, they weighed about 0.9 pounds.
Status in the Wild
International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List status: Endangered. Pied tamarins are one of the most endangered primates in the Amazon. Statistics show there is reason to believe the species has declined by at least 50% over the past 18 years (three generations), due primarily to habitat loss and range replacement by the Midas tamarin.
Habitat
Pied tamarins are an arboreal species that prefers secondary forests, swamps, white sand forests and forest edges. They are usually found on large branches of open and closed canopies.
Diet
These omnivores eat fruit, flowers, nectar, insects, spiders, small vertebrates and eggs. The tamarins need a diet that is high in vitamin D and calcium.