Goeldi's Marmosets

Scientific Classification
Kingdom	Animalia
Phylum	Chordata
Class	Mammalia
Order	Primates
Family	Callitrichidae
Genus	Callimico
Species	C. goeldii

Goeldi's marmoset or Goeldi's monkey (Callimico goeldii) is a small, South American New World monkey that lives in the upper Amazon Basin region of Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. It is the only species classified in the genus Callimico, and the monkeys are sometimes referred to as "callimicos".

Goeldi's marmosets are blackish or blackish-brown in color and the hair on their head and tail sometimes has red, white, or silvery brown highlights. Their bodies are about 20 to 23cm (8 to 9 inches) long, and their tails are about 25 to 30 cm (10 to 12 inches) long.

The Legend and Discovery

Relative to other monkeys, they show some apparently primitive features: they have claws rather than nails

A strange humanoid creature was commonly spoke of within the tribes of the jungles of the Peruvian and Brazilian Amazon.

This creature, known as the Chullachaki, was said to be a short beastly man with backwards spiked feet, that was as dark as night and lived deep within the jungle.

It was said to persuade his victims to follow it deep into the jungle where even experienced trackers can not find their way back. It did this by disguising himself as a prey animal. Its uncanny ability to replicate others makes it impossible to tell apart, except for his odd feet.

Chullachaqui is a kind of a forest spirit who guards the lands and the animals and punishes a man if he breaks a taboo or otherwise acts unwisely in the forest. According to a local legend, Chullachaqui is a member of an older species, a species that lived there long before humans. Most of the time they remain quite uninterested in humans. They inhabit forest spots far from human inhabitance where they supposedly have their own gardens and fields to tend.

When Spanish missionaries were first told of creature from Quechuan tribesmen, they dismissed it as tribal superstition. It was not until 1904 when a bizarre primate was discovered that matched the descriptions of the Chullachaqui. The discoverer, Emil August Goeldi, was surprise to find a primate quite different from other monkeys, a monkey that had claws rather than nails.

Additional Facts

Goeldi's monkey distribution

At 8.5 months, the females become sexual mature while the males mature sexually at the age of 16.5 months. After 140 -180 days the young are born. The female is capable of giving birth twice a year. Unlike other species of this family, the mother bears only one baby at a time. The mother takes care of the baby till the initial 2-3 weeks and then, the father takes the responsibility of the baby except for satisfying its nursing requirements. The mother feeds the baby only up to the time it becomes 65 days old. The ratio of female to male is 2 to 1 and they can live up to 10 years in captivity.

The Goeldi's monkey was discovered in 1904 by Emil Goeldi.

Gallery

The Goeldi's marmoset