Tamarins and Marmosets in US Zoos

savetherhino

savetherhino

Well-Known Member
10+ year member
I don't know if there is a thread about this already or not but I was wondering what species of Tamarins and Marmosets are in different zoos across America?

Milwaukee County zoo has:
Cotton-top Tamarin
Goeldi’s Monkey
Golden Lion Tamarin
and used to have Golden lion headed Tamarin
 
I know that US holds almost double number of Golden Lion-headed tamarins than Europe - about 300 animals. I think I can trace this information to International or regional Studbook for the species.
 
Dallas World Aquarium has:
Red-Handed Tamarin
Cotton Topped Tamarin
Pygmy Marmoset

Smithsonian's National Zoo:
Golden Lion Tamarin
Goeldi's Monkey
Geoffroy's Marmoset
Golden Headed Lion Tamarin

Dallas Zoo:
Golden Lion Tamarin
Cotton Topped Tamarin
 
When I visited the Dallas World Aquarium a couple of years ago they also housed (in addition to all the species listed above) Emperor Tamarins, Pied Tamarins, and Golden Lion Tamarins. Are all these species now gone?
 
zoo_enthusiast said:
When I visited the Dallas World Aquarium a couple of years ago they also housed (in addition to all the species listed above) Emperor Tamarins, Pied Tamarins, and Golden Lion Tamarins. Are all these species now gone?
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They have all of those, I'd just forgotten. There actually aren't Cotton Topped Tamarins- they are Pied Tamarins, but very similar, so I forgot. In addition to our two lists, they've also got Golden Headed Lion Tamarin.
 
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jbnbsn99 said:
DWA should still have both Pied and Cotton-Top.
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Bleh, their website never lists everything. Would have checked my guidebooks, which list slightly more, but I won't be home for a few days. I always forget how many tamarins they have, it's crazy.
 
Below are the callitrichine results of my 2013 trip:

Goeldi's Monkey - seen at St. Augustine
Geoffroy's Marmoset - seen at St. Augustine
Pygmy Marmoset - seen at Jacksonville and St. Augustine
Golden-headed Lion Tamarin - labelled but not seen at St. Augustine, seen at Brevard
Golden Lion Tamarin - seen at Miami, Lowry Park, Disney's Animal Kingdom and Atlanta
Geoffroy's Tamarin - seen at Atlanta
Cotton-topped Tamarin - labelled but not seen at St. Augustine, seen at Jacksonville, Miami, Brevard and Disney's Animal Kingdom

Was very excited by the Geoffroy's Tamarins - wasn't expecting to see them and they were my first.
 
Up until a few years ago, Bronx Zoo had what was probably the best collection of tamarins and marmosets in the US. Unfortunately, it was disbanded or went off-show following the closure of the Monkey House. When I last visited in 2014 I only saw Golden Lion Tamarins and Cottontop Tamarins (in the bird house) and Golden-head Lion Tamarins (in the mouse house). I heard that occasionally they put other species on display. Two other zoos managed by Wildlife Conservation Society also have marmosets and tamarins. I remember that in 2014 Central Park Zoo had Cottontop Tamarins and Prospect Park Zoo had Geoffroy's Marmosets, Golden Lion Tamarins, and Geoffroy's Tamarins.
During my last visit to Philadelphia Zoo in 2013 I remember seeing Golden Lion Tamarins, Geoffroy's Marmosets, Pied Tamarins, and Pygmy Marmosets.
Interestingly enough (since they are world-famous for the diversity of their collections) San Diego Zoo had no callithrichids on display in 2014. Small Santa Ana Zoo, on the other hand, had a nice collection - I don't remember the entire species list but they had Golden Lion Tamarins, Cottontop Tamarins, Emperor Tamarins, Red-handed Tamarins, and I think more.
 
There are a few Wied's Marmosets (Callithrix kuhlii) in the USA - at Utah's Hogle Zoo, Cohanzick Zoo (New Jersey), and the Micke Grove Zoo (California).
An interesting point about the Emperor Tamarins at the Dallas World Aquarium is that they are the Black-chinned subspecies (S. imperator imperator), whereas nearly all others in Europe and America are the Bearded form S. imperator subgrisescens.
 
Even more interestingly, bearded imperor tamarin is phase-out while black-chinned isn't. Of course, I may have outdated info, but that's how it was as of 2009.
 
MikeG said:
An interesting point about the Emperor Tamarins at the Dallas World Aquarium is that they are the Black-chinned subspecies (S. imperator imperator), whereas nearly all others in Europe and America are the Bearded form S. imperator subgrisescens.
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Many species and subspecies at the DWA are unique or rare compared to other NA and European collections because a lot of their animals are or were recently sourced from Latin America. So it may be that they are a different subspecies because they were imported.

I have the New World Primate RCP from 2009 (it might still be available online where I found it). It's 7 years out of date but it's still useful for making general statements. The most common callitrichids in NA are cotton-top and golden lion. Other species that are managed in NA are golden-headed lion, Goeldi's, pied, Geoffroy's, emperor, and pygmy. Other species are common in varying numbers, but I believe all of them are being phased out.
 
Coelacanth18 said:
Many species and subspecies at the DWA are unique or rare compared to other NA and European collections because a lot of their animals are or were recently sourced from Latin America. So it may be that they are a different subspecies because they were imported.

I have the New World Primate RCP from 2009 (it might still be available online where I found it). It's 7 years out of date but it's still useful for making general statements. The most common callitrichids in NA are cotton-top and golden lion. Other species that are managed in NA are golden-headed lion, Goeldi's, pied, Geoffroy's, emperor, and pygmy. Other species are common in varying numbers, but I believe all of them are being phased out.
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http://alouattasen.weebly.com/uploads/8/9/5/6/8956452/rcp_newworldprimate20092-b9f1a7b6.pdf
 
Wildlife World Zoo Aquarium (small mammal house):
red handed tamarin
geoffroys marmoset
golden lion tamarin
common marmoset
 
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