Laura Young
ECB Publishing, Inc.
On a pleasant fall morning, rays of sunshine angle through the picture window of the new home for two golden-handed tamarins. Their paws gleam like polished metal in vivid contrast with the black fur that covers the rest of their squirrel-sized bodies.
“They look like they are wearing gloves,” says Ryan Reines, the executive director for the North Florida Wildlife Center, which recently welcomed these primates. “Otherwise they are all black and have beautiful gold and silver speckling on their backs.”
Their eyes, too, have a golden hue when the light bathes their faces just so, up close to the window as they often are, friendly and curious about who is on the other side, looking in.
This male and female duo of tamarins are almost ten years old and arrived in the middle of November at The Wildlife Center from the Chase Sanctuary in Webster, Fla. Their status in the wild is “threatened,” due to deforestation and poaching in their natural rainforest habitats in northern South America. Their scientific name, Saguinus midas, hints at the golden touch which is the vexing problem for King Midas of ancient Greek lore. For the golden-handed tamarins, their own golden touch is magical to see but also perilously attractive to those who threaten them.
Like the cotton-top tamarin family that also lives at the Wildlife Center, the golden-handed tamarins (also called red-handed tamarins) are specialized sap eaters. To eat sap, tamarin monkeys use their long, slender fingers to dig into holes that other animals have already gouged into trees. They also supplement their diet with insects and fruit.
The newly arrived golden-handed tamarins are a matched pair but have not yet had any offspring. The staff have their own long, slender fingers crossed that the environment at The Wildlife Center will be conducive to successful mating, as indeed has been the case for the critically endangered cotton-top tamarins, whose family now includes two thriving babies. Plus, their environment is about to get even better.
Both the cotton-top and golden-handed tamarins will be moving into the new Tropical Treasures area currently under construction at the Wildlife Center. When completed, a large aviary space will allow visitors to enjoy an immersive walk through the same space where a variety of tropical birds freely fly. Surrounding this towering interior aviary will be a circle of smaller aviaries and enclosures, two of which are earmarked for the tamarins.
“It's going to be amazing,” says Reines (noting that the project still needs donors to fund its final phases).
Adding to this excitement, Reines is eagerly anticipating the next arrival – some Nicobar pigeons. These birds have iridescent, rainbow-like plumage and are the closest living relative of the extinct dodo. Wow!
With new animals continually taking up residence at the Wildlife Center, one might wonder – how do they get here? Reines explains that some travel by ground transport while others fly in via Delta Cargo planes through their Specialized Live animal shipment service.
To see the latest arrivals who are joining the other amazing residents at the center, visit anytime Wednesday through Sunday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., at 1386 Cook Rd., in Lamont. Family Fun Week, with one kid admitted free per adult admission, lasts Saturday, Nov.22, through Sunday, Nov. 30. For more information, visit northfloridawildlife.org.
IN THE FEATURED PHOTO: The threatened golden-handed tamarins, like this one currently residing at the North Florida Wildlife Center, are squirrel-sized primates who feed on tree sap, insects and fruit. Photo Courtesy