Jungle Friends Primate Sanctuary

Marmosets and more marmosets!

Katie, Kinko, Buttons and Zipper have been making the most of their new home since they arrived at Jungle Friends together on November 30, 2009.

Katie and Kinko had lived side-by-side in separate cages before they came to the sanctuary. It seemed to us that it was time to socialize this pair, and Katie and Kinko heartily agreed. Within two days, they were living happily together, eating from the same bowl and sharing their hammock at night.

Only one thing can come between this happy couple…food. Katie loves her marmoset diet so much that if Kinko reaches for the last piece, she is not pleased! Kinko is an inquisitive boy, who will come to the front of his enclosure to watch everything that is going on around him. If no one pays Kinko the attention he feels he deserves, he sure lets us know! Katie and Kinko run around their habitat all day, chasing insects and lounging in the sun.

Buttons and Zipper are a very dynamic duo! They were already socialized together when they arrived, and they too have adjusted well to their new environment. They play and run around their habitat all day, only coming inside when the weather turns cold or stormy. The pair loves racing through the runways as fast as they can go, and making as much noise as possible in the process.

Buttons loves her toys! She will run to the top of her enclosure with one, just to drop it and race to the bottom to retrieve it. Zipper is very protective of Buttons. He is her constant companion and will sound an alarm if anyone else comes too close to her. Zipper has the loudest cry of anyone in Munchkinland!

Originally, these four little marmosets belonged to a monkey breeder. Their plight came to the attention of Jungle Friends when their ‘owner’ contacted us with this sad story…

When the breeder decided to sell them, they were purchased by a kind-hearted woman. She didn’t know much about marmosets but it was clear to her that these four were being kept in disgraceful conditions. She believed she could give them a better life… and that she would recoup the $12,000 purchase price by breeding and selling baby marmosets herself. Then, another breeder introduced her to the reality of “pulling” baby primates for sale.

“The babies were only days old. The screams and cries of the babies and parents brought tears to my eyes. The breeder placed the babies on a stuffed animal...they were scared and confused. In the other room, the parents were calling and calling for their babies. I thought about how I would feel if someone took my newborn baby away from me…All the way home I could not get their cries out of my head. I realized that there was no way I could ever do that. I have never seen anything so cruel.”

Instead, she called Jungle Friends and placed all four marmosets here at the sanctuary. Buttons and Zipper, Kinko and Katie are now safe from the abuse of the exotic pet trade. They get to live the good life at Jungle Friends!