Nutrition

Tamarins eat a variety of things

• Fruit- they eat a large assortment, more than 150 different species.

• Insects

• Nectar- During fruit scarcity, nectar accounts for 50-70 % of all their food intake.

• Frogs

• Butterflies

• Bird eggs

• Small vertebrates

• Katydids- the top prey, after obtained tamarins bite their heads off first.

Photograph from PD, taken at Mulhouse Zoo (France)

Since they don't have long fingers they can't probe into trees which makes them "surface gleaners." So instead of probing Tamarins obtain camouflaged prey from the surface of leaves and branches by snatching stealthily (McDade).

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