Blog 4: Emperor Tamarin
Emperor Tamarin
Communication
Emperor Tamarins use vocalizations to send messages to other members, to other-primate-species affiliations, and intruders. For example, their days start with a lengthy “wake up” call from their sleeping sites as the monkeys get together to get going and start foraging. While foraging deep in the forest, they make loud, sustained contact calls that carry more than 492 ft (150 m) and help to establish one another’s location. They make high-pitched, shrill calls to warn intruders to keep away from their territory. Chirps and hisses are included in their everyday dialogue. They are able to distinguish the calls of other members from those of affiliative species. This might suggest advanced auditory memory, similar to how humans recognize familiar voices.
Similarly to humans, their body language transmits messages or can give us clues to one’s moods. Emperor Tamarins are known to flick their tongue rapidly when agitated, and this movement is often accompanied by the intimidation calls they make to warn off predators. However, a nursing mother may also extend and curl her tongue to ask for the help of a male nursemaid, thus highlighting their cooperative breeding system. As demonstrated, these calls may vary in intensity based on threat level, which might indicate some context-specific communication.
They also use olfactory messaging when traveling through the forest! They have olfactory glands on their chest and genitals, and they use them to establish territorial boundaries by leaving scent excretions on tree branches (New England Primate Conservancy).
Social Behaviors
In Emperor Tamarins, mutual grooming sessions are used to establish crucial social bonds with other group members.
They are known to form alliances and have been observed to live in mixed-species groups with other tamarins, specifically the saddleback tamarin; this mutually beneficial relationship likely protects both species from predators (Smithsonian’s National Zoo & Conservation Biology Institute). Emperor Tamarins are also known to do this with Goeldi’s marmosets (New England Primate Conservancy).
An example of this is Windfelder’s study where they look at the association between emperor tamarins and other primate species; they found at saddle-back tamarins and emperor tamarins associate at frequencies far greater than predicted by chance encounters alone, spending an average of 19.4% of the daily activity period within 25m of one another. Several dusky titi monkey groups (particularly solitary males) did appear to follow the saddle-back or emperor tamarins for a short period of time, thus maintaining spatial proximity and association. However, there was no behavioral data from either the saddle-back or emperor tamarins that would indicate an attempt to initiate or maintain associations with any other primates. Both groups form stable, long-term polyspecific associations, and evidence suggests that predation pressure may be the primary factor favoring the formation of these associations (47).
Rather than competing through aggressive means, tamarins compete through nonaggressive socio-endocrinological mechanisms and a set of affiliative behaviors (cooperation as competition) that can provide both individual and kin-selection benefits (Garber 197).
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| Fig. 2, Frequencies of association between saddle-back and emperor tamarins in 1996, Windfelder |
Cognitive Abilities
Emperor Tamarins have spatial memory and are able to remember the location of fruit trees and revisit them when sources are available, suggesting advances in mental mapping skills. There is evidence that they integrate spatial, quantity, temporal, and social information in their foraging decisions (Garber 379). As mentioned before, they are also able to distinguish the calls of their group members, which points to their social intelligence (New England Private Conservancy).
Some emperor tamarins use tactical deception, such as suppressing food calls to avoid competition, which indicates an understanding of others’ intentions. They also modify call structure and usage with changes in social status. Tamarins can learn to avoid noxious food through observation of other group members, and can learn about novel food locations (Snowdon 247).
Works Cited
“Emperor Tamarin”, Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute, n.d., https://nationalzoo.si.edu/animals/emperor-tamarin. Accessed 16 February 2025.
Garber, Paul A. "One for all and breeding for one: cooperation and competition as a tamarin reproductive strategy." Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues, News, and Reviews: Issues, News, and Reviews 5.6 (1997): 187-199.
Garber, Paul A., Júlio César Bicca-Marques, and Maria Aparecida de O. Azevedo-Lopes. "Primate cognition: integrating social and ecological information in decision-making." South American primates: Comparative perspectives in the study of behavior, ecology, and conservation. New York, NY: Springer New York, 2009. 365-385.
New England Primate Conservancy. “Emperor Tamarin Tamarinus Imperator”, New England Primate Conservancy, Kathleen Downey, 2021, https://neprimateconservancy.org/emperor-tamarin/#:~:text=This%20monkey%20is%20about%20the,(0.3%E2%80%930.5%20kg). Accessed 16 February 2025.
Snowdon, Charles T. "Social processes in communication and cognition in callitrichid monkeys: a review." Animal Cognition 4 (2001): 247-257
Windfelder, Tammy L. "Polyspecific Association and Interspecific Communication between Two Neotropical Primates: Saddle-Back Tamarins (Saguinus Fuscicollis) and Emperor Tamarins (Saguinus Imperator)." Order No. 9818537 Duke University, 1997. United States -- North Carolina: ProQuest. Web. 12 Apr. 2025.
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