Endemic to Northeast Brazil, common marmosets are small monkeys with poofy white ear tufts, sharp claws, long banded tails, and expressive faces. In this Billabong Zoo, Koala, and Wildlife Park video, primate keeper Simone Popp introduces four of the common marmosets in her care: Alli, Romina, Celeste, and Miguel.
How do these small, playful monkeys stay engaged with zoo life from day to day? Popp and her team do their best to provide enrichment that mimics the animals’ natural behaviors; mealworm snacks are put in boxes with holes and feeding logs are loaded up with yummy acacia gum. With ideas like these, the marmosets can puzzle on and search for their food as they would in the wild.
“They’re really inquisitive, so what we do is we put new things in every day because they do get bored pretty quickly. So whether it be a palm frond, maybe a little box to play with. We also show them pictures of themselves on our phones and they’re very intrigued by looking at themselves in the camera…”
Watch these videos with monkeys next:
• Pygmy marmosets, the World’s Smallest Monkey
• The communal support within Crested Black Macaque monkey troops
• Phayre’s Leaf Monkeys with a bright orange baby
• A young tufted langur tries to climb a giant fig tree
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