Smallest Monkey
Facts About the Smallest Monkey
The smallest monkey in the world is the Pigmy Marmoset. It measures a mere five to seven inches in height and weighs between four and five ounces, Females are smaller than males. The brown color of its fur and distinct ringed tail is reminiscent of the color of a raccoon. The smallest monkey is almost never seen on the ground. They live high in trees and even get the water they need to survive from the treetops. The Pigmy Marmoset lives in the rainforest and can be found in Brazil, Peru, Columbia and Ecuador.
The diet of the Pygmy Marmoset is different than that of many other types of monkeys. They eat over sixty different kinds of plants, and meat as well, in the form of arthropods. One of the ways they obtain their food is by boring holes into the bark of trees. There they obtain sap, plants, water and insects. The smallest monkey has no problem catching insects on the ground either.
The troop or group of monkeys within which the Pygmy Marmoset lives is small and usually under ten individual monkeys. They are monogamous, with male and female spending their lives together. The female is in heat from three to four weeks and most baby Pigmy Marmosets are born either in October through January or in the spring. The mother’s gestational period can last up to 146 days. Being the smallest monkey, this marmoset also has the smallest babies. The newborns are so small they are carried about in the mouths of their mothers. The entire troop helps to care for the infants.
Not much is known about how long this species of monkey lives in the wild. In captivity, they usually live six or seven years. Some individual monkeys have lived for as long as fifteen years. In the wild, troops of Pigmy Marmosets live on around an acre of land. They use certain trees within this acre for exudates, or the saps and gums they eat. They obtain these by chiseling through the bark with their incisors. When the trees can no longer provide the necessary food, the troop will move on to a new area.
Pygmy Marmosets may be the smallest monkey, but their forms of vocalization can be very loud. These little monkeys have special scent gland with which they mark their territory, and they use shrill noises to announce to any possible intruders that this is there home. They have a trill sound that can be heard far away, plus this species communicates aggression by showing their rumps with the tail upright and ruffling their fur. Researchers have discovered that they communicate with at least ten different vocalizations.
Most people will never see one of these monkeys on the ground in person, even if they live in their locale. Some never come down from trees their entire lives. The species is thriving though--they are fortunate enough to not be on any endangered or watched species list.