Spix's moustached tamarin
The moustached tamarin (Saguinus mystax ) is a New World monkey and a species of tamarin. The moustached tamarin is named for the lack of coloring in the facial hair surrounding their mouth, appearing similar to a moustache. As with all New World monkeys, the moustached tamarin is found only in areas of Central and South America.
Moustached tamarins belong to the New World monkeys. They are black with a white moustache, white nose, and brownish back. These little monkeys have claw-like nails on all digits except the big toes which allow them to cling to trees with ease while they are feeding.
Mustached tamarins are found in Brazil and Peru. They live in Amazonian lowland rainforests and try to avoid flooded forest.
Moustached tamarins are arboreal and diurnal creatures. They usually travel and forage in the middle and upper layers of the forest. They are territorial and conflicts between neighboring groups often occur over food resources and especially near important feeding trees. Moustached tamarins are social animals and live in mixed-species groups. Group size ranges from 3 to 12 individuals. In order to communicate with each other these monkeys use social grooming, scent marking and vocalizations. Members of a group can recognize each other by responding to long calls from separated members.
Moustached tamarins are omnivores. Their diet consists of fruit pulp, exudates, nectar, invertebrates and small vertebrates.
Moustached tamarins have variable mating systems. They are either polyandrous (one females mates with multiple males), polygynous (one male mates with more than one female) or polygynandrous (promiscuous) in which both males and females have multiple partners during the breeding season. Each group is usually centered on one breeding female, which is usually also the oldest female. Moustached tamarins give birth to twins usually from November through March. The gestation period lasts around 145 days. Infants are nursed by mothers and other members of the troop for 171 days. Young females become reproductively mature at 486 days of age and males at 540 days.
There are no major threats to Moustached tamarins at present.
The IUCN Red List and other sources don’t provide the number of the Moustached tamarin total population size. Currently, this species is classified as Least Concern (LC) on the IUCN Red List but its numbers today are decreasing
Their diet allows Moustached tamarins to act as key seed dispersers of some plant species, thus benefiting the ecosystem of their range.
