Product Code Database
The emperor tamarin ( Saguinus imperator) is a species of tamarin monkey allegedly named for its beard's resemblance to the German Empire emperor Wilhelm II. It lives in the north states of Acre State and Amazonas and the southwest Amazon Basin, in east Peru, north Bolivia.
The fur of the emperor tamarin is predominantly grey colored, with yellowish speckles on its chest. The hands and feet are black and the tail is brown. Outstanding is its long, white beard, which extends to both sides beyond the shoulders. The animal reaches a length of , plus a long tail. It weighs approximately .
They are very small, compared to most other . Using their claws, they cling to tree branches, maintaining a consistent verticality in the jungle environment. To navigate their lush environment, which typically is in Rainforest, they leap and move quickly through trees, rarely touching the forest floor.
Aside from these slight variations in color and visually-striking beards, both subspecies essentially have the same body structure.
Emperor tamarins consume a wide range of specimens in their daily dietary routine. They eat fruits and flowers, many of which are readily available due to their flourishing vegetational habitats. They also eat the exudes of plants such as gums and Sap, easily gouged from the trees they are living in. Many also choose to consume animal prey, such as insects and frogs, depending upon what type of forest they are located in. Emperor tamarins have been reported to engage in mixed species associations with Weddell's saddle-back tamarins ( S. fuscicollis weddelli), spending up to 20% of their day foraging in these mixed species troops. Emperor tamarin society is based on a dominance hierarchy led by a dominant female and her mate. It is the dominant emperor tamarins who form these foraging troops, forming these mixed species groups is beneficial to the emperor tamarins and their ability to find quality food resources. Some speculated at one point that females of the species were the primary scavengers of food, specifically fruit and flowers, because of their enhanced abilities over the males in the form of stronger visual cues. Upon research, it was found that males and females possess the same abilities to locate food patches. Though it does not discriminate between the two species, females do tend to be the more dominant hunters, which led to the speculation.Dominy N.J., Garber P.A., Bicca-Marques J.C., de Azevedo-Lopes, M.A. 2003. Do female tamarins use visual cues to detect fruit rewards more successfully than do males? Animal Behaviour 66:829-837 Weddell's saddle-back tamarins are better and faster at locating food resources. S. fuscicollis are a smaller bodied species of tamarins and are able to move fast through the canopy, saddle-back tamarins often arrive to the food resources before the emperor tamarins. The emperor tamarins follow the saddle-back tamarins to food patches using their larger size to intimidate the feeding Weddell's saddle-back tamarins into leaving the feeding tree. This foraging strategy is beneficial to both species, the mixed species troops provide more vigilance for predator protection. Observations of tamarins foraging in mixed species troops using feeding platforms and monitoring fruiting trees show that these troops spend less time foraging in smaller patches of fruiting trees with limited amounts of fruiting resources.Bicca-Marques J.C and Garber P.A. 2003. Experimental field study of relative costs and benefits to wild tamarins ( Saguinus imperator and S. fuscicollis) of exploiting contestable food patches as sing- and mixed- species troops. American Journal of Primatology 60:139-153
Tamarin species were once thought to be a monogamous species, but observations of emperor tamarins in the wild show that they have a polyandrous mating system, with one dominant female mating with multiple males. This mating system works to ensure paternal investment in offspring. If a female mates with multiple males and give birth to a litter, males are more likely to invest because of the possibility that one of the infants will carry their genes onto the next generation. Due to high rates of twinning or multiple births in Emperor tamarins, parental care and paternal investment is important to infant survival. Previously the only knowledge of tamarin infant care came from captive studies on cotton-top tamarins ( S. oedipus), which demonstrated that infant survival is dependent on helpers. Helpers are either older female offspring of the dominant female that have remained in their natal group or the males that most frequently interact with the dominant female. Infant carrying has a high energetic cost due to the relatively large fetal weight of infants to the weight of adults. Helpers provide the extra support to remove some of the cost of caring for multiple infants. Male emperor tamarins have been observed to spend the most time with infants, often carrying both infants while the dominant female forages. Male emperor tamarins are reported to be more observant of the infants and more protective. For example, they are known to react faster to infant distress calls than females.
Infant mortality in the wild is at its highest during weeks 5–15 of their lives, when they begin to move around and explore on their own, this is because one of the greatest threats to infant survival is falling from the canopy.Windfelder T.L. 2000. Observations on the birth and subsequent care of offspring by a lone pair of wild emperor tamarins (Saguinus imperator). American Journal of Primatology. 52:107-113
According to Buchanan's research, the subspecies of S. imperator, S. i. imperator, are rarely found in Los Campos and Buena Vista, which are located near the left bank of the Rio Acre; and in the banks of the Purus River and Eiru River.
Lastly, according to Buchanan and Bairrao, the subspecies, S. i. subgrisescens, can be found on the upper banks of the Juruá River; south of the Tahuamanú river and along the banks of the Muymano River.
Communication is a key behavior, a facilitation of cohesion and coordination among group-living tamarins. There was also an agonistic interaction with saddle back tamarins and emperors, where the emperor tamarins were the dominant species. The long call is the most likely call in the tamarin vocal repertoire to serve as a coordinating signal. Long call vocalization has been hypothesized to serve as communicative signals both within and between Tamarin species. Long calls are usually quite loud and can be hear by humans over away. Emperor tamarins often produce long call upon leaving their sleeping sites at the morning and then periodically throughout the day, especially when traveling or participating in territorial encounters with neighbor tamarin groups. Long calls promote contact between neighbor tamarin groups. Long calls also function as interspecific signals consisting of counter-calling between heterospecific groups that travel together or approach another after period separations throughout the day. Emperor tamarin long calls generally cover a broader frequency range and the notes are shorter and repeated more quickly than those produced by saddle back tamarins. The acoustical differences between saddle back and emperor tamarin calls allow humans to differentiate between them easily. Tamarins are able to identify the sex of unfamiliar callers too. Emperor tamarins respond in high rates of to the calls from conspecific and heterospecific species calls but not that much to polyspecific species calls. Emperor tamarins displayed higher frequencies of approach towards the speaking following playback of tamarin long calls. Communication between tamarin species via long calls included high vocalization rates before reinitiating contact in the morning and during travel when two groups may become separated. Individuals also call at high rates in the morning and during travel when they are with another tamarin and when they are alone. They call the groups simultaneously. The calls are an exchange has the potential to act as a proximate mechanism facilitating coordination, both within conspecific tamarin and heterospecific tamarin. Sometimes tamarins consider the broadcast of calls as a challenge to their territory against intruders. Counter-calling between species represents interspecific communication in polyspecific tamarin associations. Emperor tamarins distinguish between calls on the basis of social relationships.Buchanam-Smith, Hannah M. "Tamarin Polyspecific Associations: Forest Utilization and Stability of Mixed-species Groups". Research. University of Stirling. Stirling: Primates Socioecology, 1999.Knox, Kerry L. and Donald Stone Sade. "Social Behavior of the Emperor Tamarin in Captivity: Components of Agonistic Display and the Agonistic Network". Research. Evaston: International Journal of Primatology, 1991.Windfelder, Tammy L. "Interspecific Communication in mixed-species groups of tamarins: evidence from playback experiments". Research. Duke University. Ann Arbor: Animal Behavior, 2001.
The emperor tamarin forms mixed-species troops with Weddell's saddle-back tamarin and also associates with Goeldi's marmoset. (2026). 9781940496061, Pogonias Press. ISBN 9781940496061
Manú National Park in Peru provides protection of the natural habitat of the emperor tamarins. This national park is considered to be one of the world's most important protected areas because of it being located within one of the largest biodiversity hotspots and its high species richness. The National Park is home to small populations of indigenous people, these indigenous people are permitted to hunt in the park. Research shows that indigenous subsistence hunting has effects on the larger bodied primates in the park but shows minimal effects on the emperor tamarin population size. There is evidence that hunting has extended the range of emperor tamarins which originally were restricted to the north bank of the Manú River are also now found on the south bank.Endo E., Peres C.A., Salas E., Morl S., Sanchez-Vega J., Shepard G., Pacheco V., Yu D.W. 2009. Game vertebrate densities in hunted and nonhunted forest sites in Manú National Park. Biotropica. 42(2):251-261 Manú National Park had a successful community based ecotourism industry, and in recent years ecotourism has increased as Park administration and have taken interest in improving the livelihoods of the indigenous populations. Though there is cause for concern that improving the livelihoods and infrastructure of the national park may lead to negative effects on the wildlife populations including the emperor tamarins.
|
|
