Seven Cotton-top Tamarins and a Baby at Lago 2

Carlos Andrés Matas Contreras was making his rounds through the Lago 2 sector of Finca El Paraíso when he saw them: seven cotton-top tamarins moving through the branches with that restless, electric agility that defines them. Among the group, a baby. One by one they took turns approaching the log set out as a feeding station — sliced watermelon and mango arranged on the wood — and they ate with quiet composure while the others waited in the branches above, their long dark tails swaying against the deep green of the forest. The cotton-top tamarin — Saguinus oedipus, with that shock of brilliant white fur that crowns its head like a crest — is endemic to northern Colombia and listed among the world's most critically endangered primates. To see them like this, seven together and with a newborn, actively using this corner of tropical forest, speaks volumes about what is unfolding in silence among the trees of El Paraíso.