Common marmosets are a kind of a monkey. They are the size of a rat and weigh less than three pounds, usually around 10-8 ounces. Marmosets have long tails and human like hands and arms to climb trees. Unlike most monkeys they have claws instead of nails. They don`t have a claw on their big toe. They have small gray heads with two furry white ears. They have a thin gray coat of hair.
The only place you can find a common marmoset is eastern Brazil. Marmosets enjoy the warm climate. The jungle is the perfect place for marmosets to survive. They find holes in trees to sleep in. However, they don't sleep late. They are active at five in the morning! Although marmosets have many ways of survival, if we continue to cut down rain forests, they may become one of the endangered species.
Marmosets have a diet of snakes, tree frogs , insects, bird eggs , fruit, and natural vegetation. They drink water all the time. They got their nickname the tree vampire because they suck the gum and sap from trees.They have less teeth because of their small body size and because of the food they eat.
Marmosets have 1-2 young. The young hang on their mother's back when they are big enough. The female gives birth every 6 months. The common marmosets travel in groups. There are 8-20 family members in a group. Sometimes some of the groups have 1-2 immigrants or monkeys outside the family traveling with them. The marmoset life span is 1-20 years.
The common marmoset likes to get into mischief by disturbing the other animals in the jungle by making a loud noise. When you visit the Brandywine Zoo, you'll find out how noisy they can be.
For further information, visit:
http://www.atkinson.yorku.ca/~suzanne/marm.html
http://www.primate.wisc.edu/pin/marmoset/
http://mommensj.web2010.com/mgeneral.htm#CommanMarmoset
http://members.tripod.com/uakari/callithrix_jacchus.html
http://www.szgdocent.org/pp/p-mstcom.htm
by Mary
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