Tiny critically endangered twin monkeys born at Yorkshire Wildlife Park

Credit: YWP

Yorkshire Wildlife Park is celebrating the birth of two critically endangered Cotton Top Tamarin babies.

The twin monkeys were born safely to mum Conseula and dad Maurice and are one of the smallest primates in the world, weighing around the same as a small bag of sugar and only ten inches long. 

Parents Maurice and Consuela were only introduced to each other for the first time in 2021 Credit: YWP

They are a critically endangered species, and the park has been designated as a conservation hub to help save them from extinction.

Easily recognisable by their eccentric looking long white crested hairstyle, Cotton-tops live in small forested areas of North-western Colombia where they forage through the middle forest canopy to find fruits and small insects to eat.

These are the second babies for Maurice and Consuela Credit: YWP

In the late 1960s almost 30,000 Cotton-top Tamarins were exported to the USA for biomedical research.

Today, deforestation and human activity poses the greatest threat to this species.

There are now only around 6,000 left in the wild.