The newest residents of the Palm House are the golden-handed tamarins. Our zoo has worked with this species before, but in recent years we did not have them. The recently arrived animals now share their enclosure with nocturnal monkeys, which makes sense since both species are native to South America.
After several years, golden-handed tamarins are once again part of our collection. These small monkeys, native to South America, belong to the same family of clawed monkeys as the golden lion tamarins, which we recently mentioned in connection with a newborn at the zoo. Regarding the golden-handed tamarins, two individuals arrived at the end of June from the Brno Zoo in the Czech Republic, and after completing their quarantine period, they have now settled into their new home. They can be seen in the Palm House in an enclosure shared with nocturnal monkeys, another South American species.
In Hungarian, skilled craftsmen are often called “golden-handed,” but the name of the golden-handed tamarin refers to the color of the fur on its hands (otherwise, the monkey is almost entirely black). Its scientific name, Saguinus midas, also reflects this. The renowned Swedish naturalist Linnaeus, who first described the species, was reminded of the story of King Midas from Greek mythology. According to the legend, Midas asked the gods—specifically Dionysus—for the ability to turn everything he touched into gold. But this gift turned his food into gold when he tried to eat, and his loved ones into gold statues when he embraced them.
