Geoffroy’s marmosets are small primates, easily recognized for their puffed white cheeks, face, and neck. They are sometimes called the tufted-ear or white-faced marmoset.
Habitat
Geoffroy’s marmosets live an arboreal, treetop lifestyle in South American rainforests!
Size
8 inches with 11-inch tails
Diet and Lifestyle
Geoffroy’s marmosets are diurnal and arboreal which means they are awake during the day and live in the treetops. They are omnivorous with a diverse diet of fruits, insects, small animals, and sap and gum from trees. In fact, they have a special set of teeth to hammer into and scoop out this sugar-rich gum! At the Long Island Aquarium, our mammal trainers produce our own gum from plant material and sugar and hide it in toys around the exhibit to enrich our marmosets’ exhibit.
Smart Little Monkeys
In the wild, Geoffroy’s marmosets have observed to follow trains of plundering army ants. The ants flush out many hiding insects and, as the bugs flee from the ants, the marmosets can find themselves easy meals!
What was that sound? Is that a bird?
No! Those chirping sounds that you are hearing are the high-pitched vocalizations of our marmosets that they use to communicate with one another!
Lightweight Monkeys
These primates are tiny and can weigh as much as a juice box! Males may only weigh about 1/2 lb. to 3/4 lb. in the wild and females weigh only about 1/4 lb. In facilities, they can weigh up to a pound due to a reliable, healthy diet!
Geoffroy’s marmosets are listed as least concern by the IUCN in regards to their natural population status in the wild. This is primarily due to the fact that most of their population live in protected forests in Brazil. However, because their general habitat, the Amazon Rainforest, is rapidly being deforested and because they are sought after for the pet trade, their numbers are steadily declining. It is important to remember that they do not make good pets and by keeping them as pets you are aiding to their population’s demise, as most marmosets captured for the trade do not survive the transport.
The Rainforest Alliance is an excellent organization aiming to provide support to the protection of forests all around the world and the wildlife that inhabit them as well as the communities that live within them and around them. By purchasing products with their Rainforest Alliance frog seal logo or visiting their website and learning more about their impact, you can directly help save and protect these precious environments.
