Disney’s Animal Kingdom welcomes endangered cotton-top tamarin monkeys
Walt Disney World welcomed two critically endangered and “pint-sized” cotton-top tamarin monkeys to their Animal Kingdom family — marking the first new births of the species at the Florida destination in over 20 years.
The twin minuscule monkeys will double the species population at the theme park, and add to the mere thousands of tamarins left across the globe, Disney officials announced.
“Weighing about as much as a common chicken egg, and measuring approximately four inches long, these pint-sized newborns cling tightly to their parents as both mom and dad acrobatically leap from branch to branch in their habitat on Discovery Island,” said Mark Penning, the vice president of Disney Parks’ Animals, Science and Environment division.
Park workers do not yet know the sex of the tiny tamarin twins and are holding off on naming the tots.
The pocket-sized pair and their parents will be inseparable for up to the next 14 weeks, officials said — the incredibly dependent newborns will be carried on their parents’ backs until they are large enough to hold their own.
Even upon reaching adult status, the newborns will weigh less than a pound and will be similar in size to a squirrel.
Cotton-top tamarins — which are known for their “wild manes of bright-white hair atop their heads” — are considered to be a rare species, with less than 7,500 remaining in their native Colombia tropical forest wilderness.
Extensive deforestation and loss of habitat can be blamed for the species’ critically endangered status, with at least 80% of the species’ population declining over an 18-year period, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
The illegal pet trade has also taken a toll — two emperor tamarins, cousins of the cotton top, were found in an abandoned home a day after they were stolen from the Dallas Zoo.
The small siblings mark the first cotton-top tamarin births at Walt Disney World since 2001.
“Though small in stature, these twins will play a big role in the continuation of one of the most endangered primate species,” Penning said.
The cotton-top tamarin monkey births are the latest in a series of critically endangered newborns welcomed in captivity in recent months.
In March, the San Diego Zoo announced two rare Amur leopards were born in their den to mama Satka.
Just weeks later, zoologists at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute found a newborn western lowland gorilla cradled inside its 20-year-old mother’s arms.
