The zoo staff was very excited to be involved with the breeding of these small, endangered primates and looked forward to success. In late October 2008, it became apparent that the female was most likely pregnant. Typically, for tamarins to be successful parents, they need to help their parents raise siblings while they are still young and in the family group. This is one of the primary reasons why the SSP does not recommend hand raising of babies. The Zoo’s male had experience with raising siblings but because the female had been hand-reared, she was at a total loss as to what to do with her offspring and they did not survive.

The staff was in contact with the SSP to work out an equitable solution for this cotton-top tamarin pair. The SSP acknowledged how stressful this was for the Zoo staff and asked us if we would continue to try with this mother. Generally, it takes about 3 birth cycles for these inexperienced females to develop mothering skills. Our veterinary technician, Debbie Graham, was also doing research on our situation and discovered that the Pittsburgh Zoo was working on a program that would allow rejected offspring to be placed with a surrogate parent couple that would then finish raising the baby as their own. This process had been successful but had only been done with an older infant.

A plan for future births was created in which the staff would attempt to hand-rear the rejected offspring and get it stabilized so that it could be placed at the Pittsburgh Zoo. But even with established procedures, hand-rearing these small primates can be difficult at best. Thus, while a plan was in place, it certainly provided no guarantees.

This past March of 2011, the Zoo keeper staff determined that the female was pregnant again. With new information from Debbie’s research, the SSP’s guidelines and further research done by the Zoo’s newest keeper, Sherry Barlett, a plan was developed, preparations were made and everyone anxiously awaited this new birth.

In May, upon entering the holding building for the monkeys, keepers discovered two newborn tamarins. As with previous births, the mother rejected one offspring but, this time, continued to care for the other. The protocols which had been established were implemented. Time spent cleaning and working in the monkey building was reduced to a minimum with only one keeper, Sherry, coming in daily for two weeks to accomplish this. Sherry had spent much time developing a trust relationship with the adults with the idea of reducing stress for them as much as possible. The rejected infant was pulled and the hand-rearing process was begun with feedings everyday starting at 6am, every two hours, until 10pm. These feedings were gradually reduced and solid food introduced over a period of 6 weeks. Meanwhile, the family group was thriving, their youngster began to venture off of the parents more often and staff breathed a huge sigh of relief.

The next phase, trying to reintroduce the hand-raised male back into the family group, was ready to begin. He was placed in a howdy (introduction) cage which was slowly added to the exhibit. While the initial reaction from the adults was curiosity and some posturing, there were no overt signs of aggression. Finally the big day came and the howdy cage was left open; nerves were on edge and keepers took turns observing the group. The adults accepted his presence but did not openly embrace him either. Slowly, the time together was increased and the hand-raised male was encouraged to spend more time out of the howdy cage; his surrogate mother (a stuffed toy prairie dog!) was taken out of the box and attached to one of the trees. The family group is now together 24 hours a day with two separate next boxes for sleeping, one of which contains the surrogate mother. The two siblings enjoy playing together and it seems as if the whole process can be labeled as a success. All four tamarins have been observed waking up in the same nest box! It is our hope now that the female has successfully raised one offspring and a family group has been established, the staff will no longer have to intervene with future offspring.

The Salisbury Zoo is the first institution to have successfully re-introduced a rejected infant back in with the parents; and in situations where a sibling was established, a reintroduction was never attempted before. So as you enjoy watching the youngsters play and entertain the visitors, please be sure to thank Sherry, Debbie, Amy, Joy and the rest of the Animal Staff for all their hard work, patience and dedication.

Back row, left to right: Ryan Kirby, Managing Director downtown Salisbury Office, Merrill Lynch; John Pick, City Administrator; Keith Zickar, Senior Vice President, Small Business Banking Manager for Maryland; Jim Ireton, Mayor of Salisbury. Front Row, left to right: Ron Alessi, Zoo Commission Chairman; J.P. DuBuque, DZS Chairman; Joel Hamilton, Zoo Director; Monty Sayler, Senior Vice President, Senior Client Manager, Bank of America Merrill Lynch; Dave Klein, Vice President Small Business Banker, Maryland Shore Market.