Cotton Top Tamarins get new exhibit space

Rio and Dotte, the male and female cotton top tamarins who live at the Binder Park Zoo, have a newly renovated exhibit.

 

Their new space in the Binda Conservation Discovery Center now has outdoor space for the tamarin pair. It also has a new indoor exhibit. 

 

The improved exhibit features an expanded indoor space as well as a new window to the outdoor exhibit area so Dottie and Rio can look outside and get natural sunlight even when it is too cold to go out.

 

Visitors will be able to see the pair of furry, pint-sized primates running on vines and climbing into little burrows. They also will see the curious pair staring back at them.

 

The little monkeys, which the zoo says are often described as little Einsteins due to the bushy white hair on their heads, average about one pound. They are from the tropical rainforest of Columbia.

 

The cotton top tamarin is listed as a critically endangered species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the world’s oldest and largest global environmental organization. 

 

Over the past three decades, the cotton top tamarin has suffered significant loss in population, down by as much as 80 percent. One theory as to why the population is dropping is human settlement of the forest they call home. It is estimated that 75 percent of their habitat has been cleared for aquaculture purposes. 

 

This species’ population was also severely devastated in the 1960’s when 20,000 to 30,000 tamarins were captured and exported to the United States for pet trade and biomedical research. This trade was banned in 1974 and the species has been under government protection since 1969.

 

Binder Park Zoo's tamarin exhibit was closed for several weeks in the spring of 2013 work to expand and renovate the exhibit. For the most part, the exhibit had not been updated since it opened in 1995.

 

“We are very pleased to have this improved exhibit space for our tamarin pair,” says Jenny Barnett, Director of Wildlife, Conservation and Education.