The Emperor Tamarin (Saguinus imperator)

May 07, 2017 Features / Columnists, Interesting Creatures in Guyana

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The emperor tamarin (Saguinus imperator), is a species of tamarin allegedly named for its resemblance to the German emperor Wilhelm II. It lives in the southwest Amazon Basin, in east Peru, north Bolivia and in the west Brazilian states of Acre and Amazonas.
The fur of the emperor tamarin is predominantly grey coloured, with yellowish speckles on its chest. The hands and feet are black and the tail is brown. Outstanding is its long, white moustache, which extends to both sides beyond the shoulders. The animal reaches a length of 23–26 centimetres (9–10 in), plus a 35–41.5 cm (13.8–16.3 in) long tail. It weighs approximately 500 grams (18 oz).
There are claws on each of the animal’s toes and fingers, aside from the great toe which has a nail. While it has a definitive long moustache, it also has almost inconspicuous white hairs on its chin. Visually, however, the saguinus imperator has a black chin. The hair on its chest and belly are a mixture of red, orange, and white hairs. On its back, the fur is dark brown. The inner side of its arms and legs are an orange-like colour.
However, its main differences lie in the variation of colour on its chest, belly, and arms. Also, in addition to its long white moustache, this subspecies has a large white-haired beard, unlike S. imperator imperator, which merely has faint black whiskers upon its chin.
Aside from the colour changes and visually striking beard, the two tamarins essentially have the same body structure. They are very small, compared to most other primates. 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 rainforests, they leap and move quickly through trees, rarely touching the forest floor.
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 saps, 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.
The age of first reproduction in emperor tamarins is around 16–20 months old, with a gestation period of up to six months. Tamarins are seasonal breeders. Breeding is based around food availability. Most births occur during the wet season when food resources are in abundance.
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 gives 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.
Emperor tamarins behave actively, rapidly, gracefully, friendly, and playful in the wild. In captivity the tamarins are very social and interactive with people.
The dynamics of agonistic relations within a group is not just only for the status of the breeding pair but may also influence the allocation of reproductive effort. Family members other than the breeding female may suppress reproduction in adult daughters too. There are certain behaviours that were identified as dominant and some responses as subordinate.
The dominant most frequent behaviours happen when the tamarin’s mouth is completely opened and show the teeth, when they mount another tamarin or when a tamarin approaches from the rear and encircles another tamarin’s waist with both arms. A dominant tamarin will usually display many components at the same time.
Communication is a key behaviour, 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 heard by humans over 150 metres away. Emperor tamarins often produce long call upon leaving their sleeping sites at the morning and then periodically throughout the day, especially when travelling or participating in territorial encounters with neighbour tamarin groups. Long calls promote contact between neighbour 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 tamarins are listed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as a species of Least Concern, and there are no conservation efforts aimed directly towards this species of primates. Emperor tamarins’ populations have been in decline due to threats of deforestation and human encroachment. Forest fragmentation has become a huge problem for arboreal primate species in the neotropics: fragmentation causes the tamarins range to be restricted, causing populations to be isolated. [Source: Wikipedia]

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