The white-footed tamarin (''Saguinus leucopus'') is a

tamarin The tamarins are squirrel-sized New World monkeys from the family Callitrichidae in the genus ''Saguinus''. They are the first offshoot in the Callitrichidae tree, and therefore are the sister group of a clade formed by the lion tamarins, Goe ...

species

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found else ...

to Colombia. It is a silvery brown colour with pale streaks and russet underparts, and is very similar in appearance to the

cotton-top tamarin The cotton-top tamarin (''Saguinus oedipus'') is a small New World monkey weighing less than . This New World monkey can live up to 24 years, but most of them die by 13 years. One of the smallest primates, the cotton-top tamarin is easily recogn ...

, from which it is separated by the

Atrato River The Atrato River () is a river of northwestern Colombia. It rises in the slopes of the Western Cordillera and flows almost due north to the Gulf of Urabá (or Gulf of Darién), where it forms a large, swampy delta. Its course crosses the ...

. It is thought that the two species diverged during the

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was finally confirmed in ...

, at a time when a sea occupied the area between their present ranges. This tamarin is an arboreal species, living in small family groups in the canopy. Females give birth to one to three young after a gestation period of about 140 days. This species has a relatively small range and is under threat from destruction and fragmentation of the forest in which it lives and the

International Union for Conservation of Nature The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of nat ...

has assessed its conservation status as "vulnerable".

Taxonomy and phylogeny

Some authorities, such as Thorington (1976), posit that ''S. leucopus'' is very closely related to the

, ''Saguinus oedipus''. Other analyses made by Hernandez-Camacho & Cooper (1976), and later Mittermeier and Coimbra-Filho in 1981, and finally Grooves (2001) This view is supported by Hanihara & Natoria's multivariate analysis of

toothcomb A toothcomb (also tooth comb or dental comb) is a dental structure found in some mammals, comprising a group of front teeth arranged in a manner that facilitates grooming, similar to a hair comb. The toothcomb occurs in lemuriform primates ( ...

dental morphology (1987) and by Skinner's work in 1991, which found high similarity between ''S. oedipus'' and ''S. leucopus'' in 16 out of 17 morphological traits considered. This is further supported by the transition from child to adult, during which the fur coloration changes take place and are similar between the two species. Philip Hershkovitz proposed that the

divergence In vector calculus, divergence is a vector operator that operates on a vector field, producing a scalar field giving the quantity of the vector field's source at each point. More technically, the divergence represents the volume density of t ...

of the two species occurred in the

at the height of the

, where it intersected the Cauca-Magdalena. At this time, the area was covered by a sea, which created a geographic barrier which caused this ancestral species to diverge from ''S. oedipus'' through the process of

allopatric speciation Allopatric speciation () – also referred to as geographic speciation, vicariant speciation, or its earlier name the dumbbell model – is a mode of speciation that occurs when biological populations become geographically isolated from ...

. Today, the two species are principally separated by the Atrato river.

Description

The white-footed tamarin exhibits a silvery pale brown back with lighter streaks. The front is russet colored. The tail is brown, sometimes with a white tip. Feet and hands are also white. The face is only thinly furred with white hairs. Thick brown hair is around the neck and between the ears. Its forelimbs are shorter than its hindlimbs. Its vision, auditory, and olfactory senses are very sharp. Average adult male can weigh 494 g and the average adult female is only slightly smaller, weighing 490 g. Other primates have nails on each digit but tamarins have claws on all digits except the big toe.

Behavior

The white-footed tamarin uses scent glands to mark its territory. It lives in a group with its extended family of four to fifteen individuals. It lives in trees and is active during the day. Very agile in the trees, it uses all four limbs (

quadrupedal Quadrupedalism is a form of locomotion where four limbs are used to bear weight and move around. An animal or machine that usually maintains a four-legged posture and moves using all four limbs is said to be a quadruped (from Latin ''quattuor ...

) to aid in maneuvering through the branches. The white-footed tamarin exhibits

polyandrous Polyandry (; ) is a form of polygamy in which a woman takes two or more husbands at the same time. Polyandry is contrasted with polygyny, involving one male and two or more females. If a marriage involves a plural number of "husbands and wive ...

reproduction, meaning one female will mate with more than one male. Gestation cycle is 130–150 days. Females will give birth to one to three young and males have a role in rearing the young and carrying them on his back. Maturity is 12–18 months old. Two birthing seasons have been recorded, one between May and June and the other between October and November.

Ecology

The white-footed tamarin lives in tropical dry forests, tropical wet forests, primary and secondary forests. It prefers the edges of forests, close to streams. Its diet consists of insects, soft fruits, and nectar, plant exudates, prey animals, and flowers.

Status

The forests in which the white-footed tamarin lives are disappearing rapidly as the land is used for logging and mining, cleared for agriculture and for the construction of roads and dams. Populations of the tamarin are declining and some animals are sold in local markets as pets. As a result of these factors, the

has assessed the animal's conservation status as being "vulnerable".

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1151198 white-footed tamarin Mammals of Colombia Endemic fauna of Colombia white-footed tamarin white-footed tamarin