Pygmy Marmoset Cebuella pygmaea/niveiventris

The Pygmy Marmoset, the smallest marmoset and the world's smallest monkey, is some 6 inches long excluding its tail of a further 8 inches.

Its small size allows it to hide from predators. It is native to the upper Amazon Basin. Diet is mainly tree sap and gum but also insects and birds eggs.

Previously the genus covered only one species, C. pygmaea, with two subspecies: the Western and the Eastern, but these have now been split into two species. There is little visible difference between them other than the Eastern Pygmy Marmoset, now C. niveiventris, has some white on the underside (not always visible).

Most primates have hands with fingers/fingernails but marmosets have claws to run up trees and tear into tree bark.

They are arboreal and diurnal. Groups compromise a breeding pair and successsive offspring. They can fit into a hand but can leap 5 metres.

Populations of both species are vulnerable through habitat loss and hunting.