Birth Announcement: Geoffroy’s Marmosets Twins

Born July 15, 2010
Monkey Pavilion is proud to welcome our two newest additions!

New parents Sumo, Dad, and Fig, Mom are thrilled with their two new babies. Sumo and Fig are great parents and are doing a great job taking care of the twins. When you come to Monkey Pavilion to see them you will have to look closely. The babies are very small and you might see their little white heads or maybe just their black and white striped tails wrapped around mom or dad’s back. As the twins get older you may also see their siblings carrying them around. They have a big sister named Nova and two big brothers named Juan and Diego.


Suma and Fig


Little faces riding on back.

Geoffroy’s Marmosets live in the Atlantic rainforests of Southeast Brazil. They are an average size marmoset, weighing around 10 to 12 ounces, and they can live up to 14 years. Geoffroy’s have blackish brown coats with lighter strips on their backs. They have beautiful white faces, but perhaps their most striking features are the big black tuffs of hair that stick out from above their ears. Typically they will live in family groups of up to fourteen individuals with one dominant breeding pair. The dominant female gives birth to twins after a gestation of 4.5 months. The birth weight of the litter is high, about 20% of the mother’s weight; this would be the same as a human giving birth to twins each weighing 11 lbs. The entire family helps raise the young and will take turns carrying the babies until they need to nurse. Marmoset infants are completely dependant for the first two weeks but they are weaned by two months and can move independently. They reach puberty at 14-18 months and adult size at two years.

Please visit our new babies in the Monkey Pavilion.


Nova


The twins, July 22, 2010.


The Geoffroy’s Marmoset family.