Feeding ecology and behaviour of the genus Saguinus

Abstract

Tamarins of the genus Saguinus represent a successful radiation of New World primates that exploit a wide range of primary, secondary, and forest edge habitats from western Panama throughout much of the Amazon Basin of Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and northern Brazil (Hershkovitz 1977; Mittermeier and Coimbra-Filho 1981, Snowdon and Saini 1988). In terms of species number and subspecific differentiation, this genus is the largest and most diverse platyrrhine lineage with three primary groupings (hairy-face taxa, mottled-face taxa, and bare-face taxa), 11 species, and 29 recognized subspecies (Hershkovitz 1977; Mittermeier and Coimbra-Filho 1981; Mittermeier et al. 1988b) (Table 13.1). Although there is little fossil evidence from which to reconstruct the evolutionary history of this group, differentiation of many of the current species is likely to have occurred sometime during the Pleistocene (Hershkovitz 1977; Kinzey 1982; Ford 1986a).