Black lion tamarin

Scientific name: Leontopithecus chrysopygus

Country: Brazil

Continent: South America

Diet: Insects - insectivore, fruits - frugivore, small lizards, bird's eggs.

Food & feeding: Omnivore

Habitats: Tropical Rainforest

Conservation status: Endangered

Relatives: Golden-headed lion tamarin, Black-faced lion tamarin

Description: These are small primates with a head and body length of about 30 cm, and a tail length of another 35 cm. They weigh between 600g, less than a bag of sugar. They are glossy black in colour, except for their rump, upper thighs and tail base, which are usually golden or reddish. Sometimes they are called Golden-Rumped lion tamarin. The feet have sharp claws that are useful for gripping and climbing branches and also for grabbing their insect meals.

Lifestyle: They spend most of their time in the middle levels of the forest at a height of 7-15m. They have large territories that can exceed 100 ha. During the day they bound along light branches, rapidly springing between trunks and branches, taking off and landing with their head and body held vertical. At night the whole group sleeps together in a tree hole or a tangle of vines.

Family & friends: Family life is important to the Black lion tamarin. They live in family groups consisting of a breeding pair and their offspring that are not yet ready to breed for themselves. When the young are finally ready to breed they leave the family and seek a mate within another group. The new couple will then establish a family for themselves, separate from both their parental families.

Keeping in touch: They are very vocal animals, with a large variety of bird like calls: trills, whines, whistles and clucks. Their main call is a long series of ascending then a descending modulated whistle like pulses, gradually increasing in length from about nine to two per second. This call is used to maintain pair bonds and to signify a group's presence in their territory.

Growing up: Pregnancy lasts around 4 months. Twins are normally born, but sometimes triplets and even quadruplets have been reported. The young stay with the mother for the first few weeks, but after this the father cares for and carries the young for most of the day, taking them to the mother regularly for suckling. They are weaned after 2-3 months and they breed by the time they are two years old, so these little monkeys live life in the fast lane. An average life span is around 10 years, although one in captivity lived to 28 years. In the wild, because they are so small, they face risks from many different predators.

Did you know?

Most monkeys don't eat insects, but eating insects is a great way for a small primate to keep warm! Being so small, Tamarins lose a lot of heat from their skin. That's why they huddle up at night. To keep themselves warm and active, they need high-energy, easy-to-digest food, and tasty insects and fruit are just perfect.

Conservation news

Conservation news: In the wild, there are probably fewer than 1000 individuals remaining, making them one of the world's most endangered species. Deforestation, hunting and trapping for the pet trade have caused the population to plummet over the last 50 years. In fact, between 1905 and 1970 they were thought to be extinct. Populations are so small and scattered in the wild that it may be necessary to move individual tamarins from one population to another to prevent them becoming inbred. This could be achieved by convincing landowners to allow forested corridors to grow between the populations or translocating individuals as part of a management plan.

Animals at Bristol Zoo

The animals here at Bristol Zoo Gardens are part of a captive breeding programme. There are about 100 individuals spread between European and American zoos.