Pygmy marmoset

(Redirected from Cebuella pygmaea)

Pygmy marmosets are the smallest marmosets and one of the smallest of all primates. They inhabit Brazil, Ecuador, Peru and Colombia. Most pygmy marmosets lives in troops of two to nine individuals, with a dominant male, a breeding female, and up to four successive litters of offspring. The modal size of a standard stable troop would be 6 individuals.[1]

Pygmy marmoset
Dværgsilkeabe Callithrix pygmaea.jpg
Conservation status
Scientific classification
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Binomial name
Callithrix pygmaea

Pygmy marmosets have tawny agouti fur (the tip of the hair is a different color to the base) with an indistinctly dark-ringed tail.

Habitat

They live in flooded forest near rivers, bamboo thickets and the edges of agricultural fields.

Diet

Pygmy marmosets mainly feed on gum (tree exudates, sap), but they also eat fruit, nectar and insects. They gouge holes in the bark of trees, and revisit these holes daily to collect the sap. The marmosets hang on with specially adapted claws.

References

  1. Soini, Pekka. 1992. Ecology and population dynamics of the pygmy marmoset, Cebuella pygmaea. Folia Primatologica 39, 1-21.