Saguinus Hoffmannsegg, 1807

Voss, Robert S. & Fleck, David W., 2011, Mammalian Diversity And Matses Ethnomammalogy In Amazonian Peru Part 1: Primates, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 2011 (351), pp. 1-81 : 30-31

Genus Saguinus Hoffmannsegg, 1807

Two species of Saguinus (tamarins) occur sympatrically throughout the Yavarí-Ucayali interfluve: the saddleback tamarin, S. fuscicollis , and the moustached tamarin, S. mystax . Although they are morphologically distinctive and are recognized as different species by the Matses, many aspects of their ethnobiology and natural history are similar, so it is convenient to summarize these topics in a joint account.

ETHNOBIOLOGY: Tamarins (and possibly Goeldi’s monkey, see above) are called sipi (probably of onomatopoetic origin). Tamarins are also called by the synonym pishtadan (clearly of onomatopoetic origin, see below). Two to three types are recognized: sipi ëksed ‘‘white-lipped tamarin’’ (5 moustached tamarin, Saguinus mystax ), sipi kabëdi ‘‘spottedback tamarin’’ (5 saddleback tamarin, Saguinus fuscicollis ), and sipi çhëşhë ‘‘black tamarin’’ (5 Goeldi’s monkey, Callimico goeldii , see above).

Traditionally, Matses hunters occasionally killed tamarins with arrows, sometimes just to test their marksmanship, but nowadays hunters will not expend a shotgun shell to kill one. Boys, however, sometimes kill them with arrows to roast and eat as a snack. They make good pets, so hunters will often try to catch young tamarins to give to their children. When they see a troop of tamarins, they wait until a mother sets her offspring on a branch to feed it, and then they spook the animals by yelling, and by shaking vines and saplings. The youngster will then often either fall or get left behind.

MATSES NATURAL HISTORY: Moustached tamarins have white teeth and white around their mouths. They are mostly black and have long black tails. Saddleback tamarins have spotted backs, black heads, and black tails. Moustached tamarins are larger than saddleback tamarins.

Moustached tamarins use higher levels of the forest than saddleback tamarins, but neither uses the highest levels of the canopy. Saddleback tamarins sometimes forage on the ground. They can both be found in all habitats, but moustached tamarins are more closely associated with primary forest, where there are many tall trees, whereas saddleback tamarins prefer thick, viney vegetation in secondary forest, in abandoned swiddens, and in old blowdowns. Saddleback tamarins are often seen at the edges of swiddens. [One narrator went further, claiming that moustached tamarins are never found in secondary forest, and that saddleback tamarins are only found in secondary forest.] Saddleback tamarins sometimes come to swiddens where they eat ripe plantains or papayas.

Tamarins live in medium-sized troops of about eight animals. When they see people, they say ‘‘ pishtadan pishtadan.’’ When they get separated from the rest of the troop, they say ‘‘ sii sii sii ’’ and others in the troop answer back. They make a lot of noise when they see people, jaguars, or peccaries. They only move about in the daytime. Both species of tamarin sleep in tree holes or on branches in thick vine tangles.

Tamarins eat ripe dicot tree fruit such as këku [ Couma macrocarpa (Apocynaceae) ], tinte [ Garcinia macrophylla (Guttiferae) ], mannan tsipuis [ Inga spp. and? Pithecellobium (Leguminosae) ], şhannëd [? Brosimum (Moraceae) ], chichombid [ Mouriri spp. (Melastomataceae) ], piuşh bëchi [ Helicostylis tomentosa and H. elegans (Moraceae) ], and bata [ Pseudolmedia and Maquira spp. (Moraceae) ]. When they eat şhankuin fruits [ Pourouma spp. (Moraceae) ] they do not swallow the seeds (unlike spider monkeys). They never eat unripe fruits, and they eat little or no palm fruits. They also eat crickets [or katydids; the Matses term is taxonomically ambiguous], caterpillars, other insects, and spiders, which they find on the undersides of leaves and elsewhere.