Saguinus imperator
Creators: name: Russell A. Mittermeier
name: Anthony B. Rylands
name: Don E. Wilson
Publisher: name: Lynx Edicions
Year: 2013
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Chordata
Mammalia
Primates
Callitrichidae
Saguinus
Saguinus imperator

description: 35.
Emperor Tamarin
Saguinus imperator
French: Tamarin empereur / German: Kaiserschnurrbarttamarin / Spanish: Tamarin emperador Other common names: Bearded Emperor Tamarin (subgrisescens), Black-chinned Emperor Tamarin (imperaton
Taxonomy. Midas imperator Goeldi, 1907,
Rio Acre, upper Rio Purus, Brazil.
Two subspecies are recognized.
Subspecies and Distribution. S. i. imperator Goeldi, 1907 — Brazilian Amazon into Peru, E of the upper Rio Purus, between the rios Purus and Acre; the distribution is probably more complex than is currently understood. S. 1. subgrisescens Lonnberg, 1940 — Amazon in W Brazil, SE Peru, and NW Bolivia, in Brazil E of upper Rio Jurua to the rios Tarauaca and Jurupari, in Peru W to the rios Urubamba and Inuya and S of Rio Tahuamanu to the Rio Muyumanu Basin in Peru and Bolivia.
Descriptive notes. Head—body 23-26 cm,tail 35-42 cm; weight 400-550 g. The body of the Emperor Tamarin is agouti-gray-buff. Hands and feet black, and thetail is orangeyred, with a dark tip. Facial skin is black. Both subspecies have a greatly elongated white moustache that hangs down to the forearms in two separate strands. In the “Blackchinned Emperor Tamarin” (S. i. imperator), the upper body is mainly dark grayishagouti or buffy in color, with rusty-red or orange on underside and inner surfaces of arms. The crownis silvery-brown, and the white chin hairs are short and do not hide the black chin patch. In the “Bearded Emperor Tamarin” (S. i. subgrisescens), upperparts are brown-agouti, and the underside and inner surfaces of arms are grizzledbrown. White chin whiskers are elongated into a small beard, largely hiding the blackish patch beneath.
Habitat. Primary and secondary lowland rainforest. The Emperor Tamarin occurs in successional forest, such as tree falls and riparian and lacustrine (lakeside) habitats in Manu National Park and Biosphere Reserve in south-eastern Peru. As is true for other mustached tamarins, Emperor Tamarins travel and feed mostly in the lower and middle canopy of the forest at 11-20 m above the ground and above Weddell’s Saddle-back Tamarins (S. weddelli), with which they associate while foraging and traveling. More than one-half offruit feeding by the Emperor Tamarin occurs in the middle and lower canopy at heights of 20-30 m, and they occasionally go higher into the upper canopy or emergent trees; sympatric saddle-backs apparently never go that high. In the Serra do Divisor National Park in extreme western Brazil, they travel with Goeldi’s Monkeys (Callimico goeldir), but they have not been seen to form polyspecific associations with the white subspecies of Weddell’s Saddle-back Tamarin, the “White-mantled Saddle-back Tamarin” (S. w. melanoleucus), that occurs there between the rios Jurua and Envira.
Food and Feeding. Diets of Emperor Tamarins include fruit, nectar, gums, fungi, and small animal prey. In Manu, fruit dominates the diet in the wet-season, accounting for 97% of the plant material consumed. This drops to ¢.41% in the dry season, with an increase in feeding on nectar (52%). Gums are eaten in small quantities (1-2%) in the wet and dry seasons, and small amounts of flowers and fungi are eaten in the wet season. Most (87%) of the fruits eaten by Emperor Tamarins are 0-5-1 cm in length. Larger fruits include hard berries of Leonia glycycarpa (Violaceae) (4-4 cm x 4 cm) and Duguetia quitarensis (Annonaceae) (8-5 cm). Emperor Tamarins often travel in mixed-species groups with Weddell’s Saddle-back Tamarins, and both species exploit the same fruiting trees—important features of which are their relative abundance and their habit of fruiting piecemeal for long periods of time. For example, both species spent as much as 90% of their time feeding on fruits of Celtis iguanaea (Ulmaceae) in March—August. In Manu, other key food sources are fruits (drupes) of Pourouma cecropiifolia (Urticaceae) and Guatteria (Annonaceae) and, in the dry season, nectar of the vine Combretum assimile (Combretaceae) and the tree Quararibea cordata (Bombacaceae). Emperor Tamarins eat a wide range of small animals, especially orthopterans and lepidopteran larvae, but also ants, coleopterans (adults and larvae), snails, and frogs. While hunting for prey, Emperor Tamarins typically use vines to support them, and they search foliage, palm fronds, branches, and,less often,sites such as knot holes and epiphytes. They capture visible, exposed, and sluggish prey by stealth and pounce. Squirrel monkeys (Saimiri) search similar substrates and have similar searching techniques but, being larger, are less agile in catching orthopterans and rely instead more on Lepidoptera larvae and pupae. Associated saddle-back tamarins have a very distinct mode of foraging, searching manually for hidden prey especially in crevices and knot holes on tree trunks lower in the understory.
Breeding. At Manu, births of Emperor Tamarins occur in the early wet season in October—-November.
Activity patterns. Annual activity budgets of Emperor Tamarins involve ¢.34% of their time foraging for animal prey, 25% resting, 21% traveling, and 17% feeding on plant material; the remainder of their time is spent on social activities. Early morning is marked by a peak of feeding on fruit (or nectar when fruits are lacking), and foraging for animal prey is almost constant through the day. Another peak of feeding on plant material occurs in late afternoon. They tend to rest more in the early afternoon c.14:00 h.
Movements, Home range and Social organization. Emperor Tamarins live in small extended family groups of 2-10 individuals, generally with a single breeding female. At Manu, mean group size is four, and home ranges are c.30 ha. They are very territorial, and home range overlap is minimal.
Status and Conservation. CITES Appendix II. Classified as Least Concern on The [UCN Red List. The Emperor Tamarin is on national official lists of threatened species in Brazil and Peru. It is generally uncommon, with a patchy distribution. It is threatened mainly by habitat destruction, but it is also hunted in some areas. Peruvian Indians covet the teeth of Emperor Tamarins for use in making ornaments. The Black-chinned Emperor Tamarin has a very small distribution, and the Brazilian Acre State, its main stronghold, has been undergoing widespread development in recent years, with widespread destruction ofits forests. Rio Acre Ecological Station is within its distribution, and it probably also occurs in a number of other protected areas, including Chico Mendes Extractivist Reserve, Macaua National Forest, and Macaua and Antimari state forests to the north—all between the rios Acre and Purus. The Bearded Emperor Tamarin has a larger distribution than the Black-chinned Emperor Tamarin, and it is protected in Manu National Park and Biosphere Reserve and the southern part (south of the Rio Jurua) of the Serra do Divisor National Park in Brazil. In Bolivia, it occurs in Manuripi Heath Nature Reserve in the Pando Department.
Bibliography. Aquino & Encarnacion (1994b), Azevedo & Rehg (2003), Baker & Woods (1992), Benirschke et al. (1982), Bicca-Marques (1999, 2003a, 2005, 2006), Bicca-Marques & Garber (2003, 2005), Bicca-Marques et al. (1997), Encarnacion & Castro (1990), Garber & Bicca-Marques (2002), Hershkovitz (1977, 1979a), lzawa & Bejarano (1981), Snowdon & Soini (1988), Terborgh (1983), Terborgh & Goldizen (1985), Windfelder (2000).
description: Published as part of Russell A. Mittermeier, Anthony B. Rylands & Don E. Wilson, 2013, Callitrichiade, pp. 262-346 in Handbook of the Mammals of the World – Volume 3 Primates, Barcelona :Lynx Edicions on pages 335-336, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.5730714