A Wild Tamarin Without a Foot— Survival Despite a Handicap

One might suspect that for arboreal animals like most primates, full functionality of the locomotor apparatus is an essential condition for survival. Nevertheless, the presence of healed fractures and of (congenital) malformations of the extremities reported from several wild primate populations suggest that affected individuals are capable of compensating impairments and thus to survive and even reproduce (Schultz 1939, 1956; Stokes & Byrne 2006; Arlet et al. 2009, Ferrari et al. 2010). Fractures (and perhaps other impairments) occurring at an early phase of life are suggested to be less fatal than those obtained during adulthood (Bulstrode et al. 1986). Here we report the case of a wild moustached tamarin, Saguinus mystax, who lacked one foot, probably from birth or shortly after birth on.