Colombia: Tanimboca Reserve – Moustached Tamarin Monkeys
Staying at the Tanimboca Reserve deep in the Amazon jungle totally paid off – at 6am we were woken up in our treehouse with the sounds of monkeys moving through the high canopy. The relatively rare species – moustached tamarin monkeys – are only found in this upper Amazon area and are not commonly seen as they usually stay in the very high canopy and are mostly active in the morning, moving and vocalizing. The monkeys are a species of new world monkeys and are quite strange looking – with white faces on dark brown body (in fact locals call them leche monas aka “milk-drinking monkeys”). They agile monkeys are quite small, weighing only 1/2 kg, but live up to 20 years. They are omnivorous and eat everything from foliage to fruits to insects to small lizards. We got super lucky to see a large troop of around 20-30, very close!
