Marmoset Madness

Marmosets rule!

Really, there’s just something so appealing about these little cuties, the superheroes of my rainforest adventure, Quick, Little Monkey! It’s the fuzz, I think…and the big eyes…and of course the tininess. A full-grown adults weighs about as much as a stick of butter. How adorable is that?

Some other fun marmoset facts:

• Yep, they really are monkeys. In fact, they are the world’s smallest true monkey.
• The adults are tiny, as mentioned above…and a baby is about the size of grown-up human’s thumb
• They can leap fifteen feet in one bound. Amazing!
• A group of monkeys is called a troop. (This always makes me imagine them in red uniforms and big hats, like a marching band.
• Pygmy marmosets are omnivores, but their favorite food is tree sap. They’ll digs holes in a tree’s bark with their teeth and lap up the sap. (New word for the day: gummivore. An animal that eats sap. Really, it’s a word.)
• And, just like in my book, father marmosets do most of the childcare. They carry the youngest babies piggyback and bring them back to their mothers to be nursed.