Class: Mammal
Order: Primate
Family: Marmosets & Tamarins
Found: South America
Size: 35 cm
Weight: 300-500g

Diet: Omnivore (Eats Plants & Meat)
Gestation: 140 days

Conservation Status: VU

Habitats: The Emperor Tamarin occurs in Amazonian lowland and lower montane rain forests, seasonally flooded forest and secondary forest.

Threats: Much of the range of Saguinus imperatoris increasingly subject to deforestation largely as a result of colonization along highways, associated with logging and cattle ranching.

Social Behaviour: Living in groups of two to eight animals where mutual grooming plays an important role for bonding and socializing. The animals often associate themselves with other Tamarins like the Brown-mantled Tamarin. It has various cries which help them to promptly recognize interlopers.

Food: Omnivore, primarily eating fruits, insects and sap. It also eats bird eggs and small vertebrates (such as tree frogs). Due to its small weight it can reach food at the far end of branches, which are not accessible to heavier animals.

Information: The very long tail is not prehensile but it does help to keep the monkey balanced while moving around in trees. It is a diurnal animal, spending the majority of it’s days in the trees.

Range: Restricted to Bolivia; Brazil (Acre, Amazonas) and small areas of Peru

Conservation: Our charity The Wildlife Protection Foundation funds “Proyecto Titi”, conserving the Emperor tamarin’s cousin, the Cotton-top tamarin, in Colombia. To find out more you can go to http://www.wildlifeprotection.info