Black tamarin

The black tamarin (Saguinus niger), also called the western black-handed tamarin, is a species of tamarin endemic to Brazil. Mitochondrial DNA showed that black tamarins are more closely related to populations on the same side of the Tocantins River than to those across it, so some authorities treat the population east of the river as a separate species, the eastern black-handed tamarin (Saguinus ursulus), and keep the name for the western one. Its closest living relative is thought to be the golden-handed tamarin. Black-handed tamarins are among the smallest primates, weighing about 500 grams. They are arboreal, prefer semi-deciduous forest, rely on fragmented and disturbed secondary forest because of deforestation, and are most active in the lower to middle strata of the forest. They live largely on fruit, adding arthropods such as grasshoppers and crickets and the gum of the tree Parkia pendula in the dry season.