Adult marmoset monkeys

As we face the ongoing challenges of COVID, our team of dedicated specialists continue to care for countless animals and plants that depend on us each and every day. Your continued support is critical to the wildlife in our care and vital to endangered species worldwide. It dodges behind tree trunks and branches, freezing and dashing, just like a squirrel. It also has brown fur and a long tail like a squirrel—but it's a pygmy marmoset, the world's smallest monkey! A full-grown pygmy marmoset could fit in an adult human's hand, and it weighs about as much as a stick of butter.

There are many names that you may hear the Pygmy Marmoset called by. It is all one and the same though regardless of the terminology being used. They are the smallest of all the Monkeys, and one of the very small primates in the world. They weigh less than 5 ounces when fully mature.

Marmosets are small monkeys that live high up in the canopies of South American rainforests. There are more than 20 species, and most could fit comfortably in an adult human's hand. Marmosets have soft and silky hair, and many have tufts of hair or manes on either side of their faces, which are sparsely furred or naked, according to the Animal Diversity Web ADW. There is a wide variety of colors among marmosets, from black to brown to silver to bright orange.

Marmoset monkeys are the most commonly kept and traded species of primate as pets. This is mainly common marmosets, but we also see Geoffroy's marmosets and sometimes hybrids of the two. Baby marmosets, being so small, have been mis-sold as a pygmy marmoset or finger monkeys. They are being taken from their mothers far too early by breeders who convince buyers they can be tamed. These animals are destined for many problems later on in their lives.