Origin of the Species

Carleton College received 10 captively bred cotton top tamarins on December 4, 1998. They had been generously offered by Dr. Charles Snowdon, a professor of Psychology and Biology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. One of the tamarins gave birth to twins, on December 25, 1998 at Carleton. The twins were named Sebastian and Viola, after the twins born on Christmas day from the play "the twelfth night" by William Shakespeare. They are now adults and have always done very well at Carleton.

Cotton top tamarins are native to the northern region of Colombia.

The cotton-top tamarin, (Saguinus oedipus ) is one of the most endangered primates in the world. During the late 1960's - early 1970's between 20,000 - 30,000 cotton-top tamarin were exported to the U.S. for use in biomedical research. In 1973, the species was declared endangered and importation was banned. Today, the population is continually threatened by forest destruction to provide land for agricultural purposes and timber for fuel and housing. Efforts to save this endangered primate have focused on the development of a long term field study to understand the factors influencing reproduction in this species, effective public education programs in Colombia and the U.S., and self-sustaining captive breeding programs.

 

Map provided by: http://geography.about.com /library /cia /blccolombia.htm