Saguinus oedipus, a small monkey found only in Colombia, belonging to the familiy Callitrichidae, is an endangered species. It was so declared back in the 1970s, largely as a result of my work. Sadly, their fate hangs in even more in the balance today due to unrelenting forest desruction in its limited geographic range.

Right after I returned from Colombia I published the 1977 article under the title Aspects of the ecology and social organization of free-ranging Cotton-top Tamarins (Saguinus oedipus) and the conservation status of the species. The report in Spanish entitled El Titi Cabeza-blanca (Saguinus oedipus) de la Costa Caribe de Colombia. Estudios de su ecologia y organizacion social, hechos en el ambiente natural, contained basically the same material. It was written for and made available through the Colombian government branch I worked with, at that time called Inderena.

However, a lot of material in my 1979 thesis, entitled Ecology and Social Organization of the Cotton-top Tamarin (Saguinus oedipus), did not make it into any publication or report (although it has always been available through University Microfilms).

I am now making the entire thesis available here because I believe and hope the unpublished material could be useful to future investigators. In particular I want to note that one Appendix to the thesis includes phenological graphs I did in the coastal dry tropical forest where I was working, and a discussion of the character and composition of the forest.

I am providing this material on my web site as a public service, and for the sake of the monkeys themselves.

Publications and Reports by Patricia F. Neyman

Downloadable pdfs can be obtained by clicking on the blue text. Check back for more additions. If there's something you need in a hurry email me a pf41n at yahoo dot com. Otherwise I will continue to scan and put up new items as time permits.

1975 El Titi Cabeza-blanca (Saguinus oedipus) de la Costa Caribe de Colombia. Estudios de su ecologia y organizacion social, hechos en el ambiente natural. Informe Final de Labores, 125p. Inderena, Bogota, Colombia.

1977 Aspects of the ecology and social organization of free-ranging Cotton-top Tamarins (Saguinus oedipus) and the conservation status of the species. In: Kleiman, D.G. (ed) The Biology and Conservation of the Callitrichidae: 39-71. Smithsonian Press; Washington, D.C. 354 p.

1977 Proteccion y Manejo de los Primates de Sucre y de Cordoba. 31p. Please see next.

1977 The Protection and Management of Primates in Sucre and Cordoba (Colombia), A Report to the New York Zoological Society Regarding Studies Carried out in Colombia June – Sept. 1977. This report was required as a condition of the NYZS grant I was awarded to return to the 1973-76 study site for a brief period and to survey forests which might prove to be possible reserve sites for the species. It details the observations made on the Sinu and describes an area near Coloso which I strongly recommended be considered for a reserve. The Spanish report is more extensive than the English one, including description of what was observed and what local inhabitants told me, which led to my conclusion regarding the absence of Cotton tops in an aea where previously we thought they might be present.

1977 How laboratories can contribute to studies of natural populations: with special reference to Callitrichids. Lab Primate News, July 1977: 1-7.

1979 Ecology and Social Organization of the Cotton-top Tamarin (Saguinus oedipus). PhD Thesis, University of California, Berkeley. Available also through University Microfiloms in Ann Arbor, Michagan.

1981 Cotton-top Tamarin or Pinche In the IUCN Mammal Red-Data Book, Part 1: 126-130. This revision mentions the Sinu observations I made. It is very brief. For more detail on exactly what I saw and the conversations with local inhabitants of the areas I visited, see the Spanish 1977 report Proteccion y Manejo de los Primates de Sucre y de Cordoba.

This page last updated Feb 2, 2013.