TAMARINS

The tamarin genus, Saguinus, the lion tamarin genus, Leontopithecus, and the saddleback tamarins, Leontocebus, include at least forty-five species and twenty subspecies.

TAMARINS

Genus: Saguinus

Photo credit: Miguel Rangel Jr/Flickr/Creative Commons

Saguinus niger

CONSERVATION STATUS: VULNERABLE

Black-handed tamarins, also known as Western black-handed tamarins or black tamarins, are neotropical primates that live primarily in Pará, Brazil. Their home is bordered in three directions by rivers: the Amazon river in the north, the Tocantins River in the east, the Xingu river in the West. In the past, it was believed that the…

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Saguinus oedipus

CONSERVATION STATUS: CRITICALLY ENDANGERED

Also called cotton-headed tamarin, cotton-top tamarins are only found in a small part of northwestern Colombia. Historically, they were more widespread across Colombian forests. However, today their geographic distribution is limited to the area between the Magdalena and Artato rivers in the east and west and the…

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Saguinus imperator

CONSERVATION STATUS: LEAST CONCERN

Emperor tamarins, who go by the nickname “mustache monkeys,” are native to South America. They reside just south of the equator within the southwestern Amazon River Basin in eastern Peru, northern Bolivia, and the northwestern Brazilian states of Acre and Amazonas. Populations are geographically distributed…

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Saguinus geoffroyi

CONSERVATION STATUS: NEAR THREATENED

Once thought to be a subspecies of the cotton-top tamarin, Geoffroy’s tamarin is recognized today as its own species. Known by the aliases Panamanian tamarin, red-crested tamarin, and rufous-naped tamarin, Geoffroy’s tamarin is a small New World monkey native to Panama and Colombia. Its range may have once included….

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Saguinus mystax

CONSERVATION STATUS: LEAST CONCERN

Moustached tamarins, also called Spyx’s moustached tamarins and black-chested mustached tamarins, are native to Brazil and Peru, where they are found in all layers of the Amazonian lowland rainforest, with the exception of flooded forests. They can persist in disturbed forests close to human settlements. There...

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Saguinus bicolor

CONSERVATION STATUS: CRITICALLY ENDANGERED

The pied tamarin, also known as the Brazilian bare-faced tamarin or pied bare-faced tamarin, has one of the smallest ranges of any primate in the world, located in and around the Amazonian port city of Manaus. Pied tamarins thrive best in the continuous old-growth forest that once flourished here. But many are currently…

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Saguinus labiatus

CONSERVATION STATUS: LEAST CONCERN

The red-chested mustached tamarin, also known as the red-bellied tamarin and the white-lipped tamarin, makes its home in the middle canopy of trees predominantly in the Amazon rainforest of Brazil and connecting regions of Peru and Bolivia. Some populations also have been found living north of the Amazon basin in Brazil. In the…

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Saguinus midas

CONSERVATION STATUS: LEAST CONCERN

Also known as golden-handed tamarins, Midas tamarins, and yellow-handed tamarins, red-handed tamarins are found across a large area of northeastern South America. They are endemic to Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana, and found in Brazil, north of the Rio Amazonas and east of the Rios Negro. Red-handed…

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LION TAMARINS

Genus: Leontopithecus

Leontopithecus caissara

CONSERVATION STATUS: ENDANGERED

Black-faced lion tamarins belong to the primate family known as Callitrichidae. They are native to Brazil, where two primary populations occupy two separate regions in Brazil’s Atlantic Rainforest. One population resides on the island of Superagui along the northeast coast of Paraná state. Formerly a peninsula, this artificial island was…

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Leontopithecus chrysopygus

CONSERVATION STATUS: ENDANGERED

The black lion tamarin, also known as the golden-rumped lion tamarin, is endemic to a small area of southern Brazil. Living exclusively in the Atlantic Forest in the Brazilian state of São Paulo, its range has been restricted in recent years due to human alteration of its habitat. Black lion tamarins are limited to just 15 isolated forest patches covering just 190 square miles (490 square km). Unlike its close…

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Leontopithecus chrysomelas

CONSERVATION STATUS: ENDANGERED

Golden-headed lion tamarins—also called golden-headed tamarins and not to be confused with the closely related golden lion tamarins—are endemic to the Atlantic Forest of coastal Brazil. Their preferred habitat is evergreen broadleaf tropical forests and semi-deciduous forests, and they live 10–33 feet (3–10 m) up in trees…

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Leontopithecus rosalia

CONSERVATION STATUS: ENDANGERED

The Atlantic Forest of southeastern Brazil is home to the golden lion tamarin. Once found throughout the lowland coastal regions of the states of Rio de Janeiro and Espirito Santo, centuries of deforestation and encroaching urban development have wiped out 98 percent of their original habitat—nearly causing the golden lion…

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SADDLEBACK TAMARINS

Genus: Leontocebus

Leontocebus fuscicollis

CONSERVATION STATUS: LEAST CONCERN

The saddleback tamarin, also known as the Andean saddle-back tamarin (and previously referred to as the brown-mantled tamarin), is a species of New World monkey whose geographic distribution includes the South American countries of Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. These small primates make their…

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Photo credit: ©Edson Guilherme/iNaturalist/Creative Commons

Leontocebus weddelli

CONSERVATION STATUS: LEAST CONCERN

The Weddell’s saddle-back tamarin is a species of New World monkey whose range overlaps the South American countries of Peru, Bolivia, and Brazil. These highly adaptable tamarins live in the Amazon’s southwestern basin, exploiting the lowland, primary, and secondary rainforests growing there. During the last century, the

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