Pied tamarins are small New World monkeys with big parenting skills. Group care is very important, with all members of a small group looking after the young. Unusually for primates the males do more than their fair share, providing most of the carrying and foraging but handing over to the female for nursing. Only the dominant female in a group will mate, her pheromones stopping the other females from ovulating.

Twins are often born and they emerge fully furred but quite helpless, unable to even cling to their parents. The young will ride around on an adult's back until they are six or seven weeks old and can fend for themselves. Pied tamarins have an extremely small home range, restricted to a small region of the Brazilian rainforest in and around the city of Manaus.

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