Goeldi's monkey

Scientific Name: Callimico goeldii Animal Type: Mammal Location: Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru. Conservation Status: Near Threatened

Profile

 

These small black monkeys are from South America. Although at first sight they look very similar to marmosets and tamarins, in some ways they are more like the larger New World monkeys such as howlers. For example, they have only one baby at a time, unlike the twins typical of marmosets and tamarins, and the mother has the main responsibility for looking after her offspring after birth – marmoset and tamarin mothers have lots of help from father and older siblings.

Goeldi’s monkeys are named after Emil Goeldi, a Swiss naturalist who discovered many new species in Brazil. They have quite a wide distribution in the rainforests of western South America, but are rarely seen, as several of our staff who have helped with field studies in Bolivia can testify. They appear to occur only in localized populations, and in Colombia are considered Vulnerable.

Their elusive nature makes them very hard to study, and relatively little is known about their behaviour and ecology in the wild. They live in small groups, sometimes joining up to travel and feed with groups of tamarins such as the emperor tamarin. Recent research has suggested that fungi, rarely eaten by other New World monkeys, form an important component of their diet.

Durrell has bred many of these beautiful and enigmatic monkeys since they first arrived at our Jersey headquarters in 1975.
 

Other Near Threatened Animals Chestnut-backed thrush Chilean flamingo Maned wolf Nicobar pigeon Oriental short-clawed otter Red-fronted brown lemur Sunda wrinkled hornbill White-handed gibbon