NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A new addition has arrived at the Nashville Zoo, as one of its cotton-top tamarin monkeys gave birth to a baby.
The zoo announced the birth in a Facebook post, sharing four photos of the baby on its mother’s back. In the post, the zoo said that the baby was born May 29 to Caqueta and Pancho.
The Nashville Zoo now has seven cotton-top tamarins. Caqueta and Pancho are parents to Mateo and Rosemira, as well as two babies born in April 2019 and two more babies born in November 2021.
The babies will all stay at the zoo until they are at least 2 years old before being sent to other zoos to breed, the zoo told The Tennessean.
The Zoo just got cuter! 🙊 A cotton-top tamarin was born on May 29 to our adult pair Pancho & Caqueta. Cotton-top...
Posted by Nashville Zoo on Monday, June 6, 2022
Cotton-top tamarins are considered critically endangered, with 1,800 in captivity and 6,000 in the wild, according to the University of Wisconsin’s National Primate Research Center. The animals are native to Colombia and live for an average of 13.5 years, though the oldest recorded cotton-top tamarin lived to be 24 in captivity.
Cotton-top tamarins live in family groups, with all adult members of the group carrying and feeding the babies, even if they’re not related, according to the National Primate Research Center.
The new baby will stay on Caqueta’s back for a few more days before its father steps in to help carry it around, the zoo said in its post. Zookeepers said that the baby will become more mobile and start to move around on its own in a few weeks.
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