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The Cotton-Top
Tamarin
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The hair on the heads of
tamarins come in varieties of ear tufts, manes and
mustaches. These tiny animals scurry around jumping from
branch to branch in tall trees. The most distinguishing
feature of this animal is the puffy crest of white hair on
top of its head.
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The
cotton- top tamarin's enemies are birds of prey, large
snakes, and small dangerous cats which hunt them down while
they are unaware.
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The cotton-top tamarin
lives in tropical rainforests. These tropical rainforests
are mainly located in Northwest Columbia, which is in South
America.
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The
cotton-top tamarin usually eats spiders, insects, frogs,
snails, and lizards. If they can't find those foods, then
they eat fruits, flowers, and
juicy
buds.
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A few interesting
facts about these animals, cotton-top tamarins, are that
they are the smallest south-african monkeys monkey along
with the marmoset. This animal's life span is 10-15 years.
Only 2,000 to 3,000 live in the wild and survive.
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This species, the
cotton-top tamarin is strange looking, but very interesting.
It has a long crest of white hair that is never exactly the
same on each cotton-top. The backs of these mammals are
brown and the underparts arms and legs are a whitish yellow
color. The rump, inner thighs and middle of the tail are a
reddish orange color. The tip of the tail is black and the
base is orange. This critter's tail length is 12 to 17
inches, but their body length (from head to base of tail) is
only 8 inches. This animal's weight is 1-1.5 lbs. This
animal has really long hands and feet used to dig in tiny
but deep holes where their prey was hiding.
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The cotton- top
tamarin gives birth to an average of two young. Gestation
takes130-180 days. The father and the other group members
take care of the young, giving it back to the mother when it
is nursing time. The weight of the newborn infant is 10-30
grams.The infant is carried for 10 to 80 days after birth.
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