Cotton-top tamarin finds a match

T'Noya Gonzales, a biologist for the Moody Gardens Rainforest Pyramid, offers Gracie, the new Cotton-top Tamarin, treats of grubs and crickets Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2016, in Galveston, Texas, during a training session with the rainforest's other Cotton-top Tamarin, Victor.  A tamarin is a monkey that is about the size of a squirrel. Wild tamarins reside in tropical parts of Central and South America. The exhibit's two tamarins can roam throughout the Rainforest Pyramid, which has a one-acre floor and extends upward about 100 feet, but Victor had already set up a section near the bottom as his home territory. After receiving Gracie from a zoo in California Dec. 2, staff spent the next three weeks acclimating her to Victor's space.
T'Noya Gonzales, a biologist for the Moody Gardens Rainforest Pyramid, offers Gracie, the new Cotton-top Tamarin, treats of grubs and crickets Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2016, in Galveston, Texas, during a training session with the rainforest's other Cotton-top Tamarin, Victor. A tamarin is a monkey that is about the size of a squirrel. Wild tamarins reside in tropical parts of Central and South America. The exhibit's two tamarins can roam throughout the Rainforest Pyramid, which has a one-acre floor and extends upward about 100 feet, but Victor had already set up a section near the bottom as his home territory. After receiving Gracie from a zoo in California Dec. 2, staff spent the next three weeks acclimating her to Victor's space.

GALVESTON, Texas-Each new year, many resolve to find that special someone missing from their lives, but for two small primates at Moody Gardens' Rainforest Pyramid, the void has been filled.

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Moody Gardens veteran attraction Victor, a 10-year-old cotton-top tamarin at the exhibit since after Hurricane Ike in 2008, took only a few weeks to bond with Gracie, an 8-year-old tamarin who reached the island last month. Staff members hope the monkey duo transitions to parenthood by the end of the year, Moody Gardens Assistant Curator Paula
Kolvig said.

"We're excited to start a breeding program here and see what that brings," she told the Galveston County Daily News.

A tamarin is a monkey that is about the size of a squirrel. Wild tamarins reside in tropical parts of Central and South America.

The exhibit's two tamarins can roam throughout the Rainforest Pyramid, which has a one-acre floor and extends upward about 100 feet, but Victor had already set up a section near the bottom as his home territory. After receiving Gracie from a zoo in California Dec. 2, staff spent the next three weeks acclimating her to
Victor's space.

At first, the monkeys resided in the same area, but were separated by a cage. Anytime one fed, the other was close by. Staff also set up areas for the female tamarin to sleep near her male counterpart.

While tamarins typically socialize easily, nothing is assured, Kolvig said. But three weeks after her arrival, with bars no longer between them, Gracie and Victor
bonded.

Staff placed the tamarins in an enclosure together Dec. 23. Within the first couple of hours, Victor sauntered toward the calliandras. He had never before shown interest in the tiny, red flowers, which grow on the pom pom trees in the primates' territory, but Gracie had enjoyed eating them since her arrival.

Victor then picked a flower. He delivered it to Gracie, and the two ate it together.

"He was pretty taken with her," Kolvig said.

Moody Gardens' process for obtaining Gracie started last summer through the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, of which Moody Gardens is an accredited member,
Kolvig said.

After staff concluded that they wanted a female tamarin to breed with
Victor, a coordinator in the association's conservation management program, the Species Survival Plan, delivered a list of
three candidates.

To select the right tamarin, the staff asked what kind of environment the primates lived in and whether they had helped raise offspring. Because the Rainforest Pyramid houses a variety of trees, birds and reptiles, staff asked if they had been exposed to foliage and other animal species. They also wanted to know what kind of social dynamics the monkeys
were used to.

After considering all aspects of the equation, staff made their pick, Kolvig said.

"We determined that Gracie was the best fit," she said.

In breeding the tamarins, Moody Gardens intends to help manage the population of an endangered species, Kolvig said. The primates can live more than two decades in captivity. Gracie currently has a birth control implant, but staff estimate that the device will expire in the next couple of months.

Tamarins typically beget nonidentical twins, Kolvig said. The first twin pair will then help the parents foster the subsequent offspring.

Moody Gardens intends to let Victor and Gracie raise a couple of successive generations of tamarins, Kolvig said. If there are other facilities around the country seeking to raise tamarins, staff would work with the Association of Zoos and Aquariums to find possible locations, but that's probably several years down the road,
Kolvig said.

For now, staff want to let the exhibit's tamarins build a family.

"I would predict within a year, it's going to happen," Kolvig said.

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