St Maarten Park

Cotton-top Tamarin
St. Maarten Park is excited to announce that it has received a family of five Cotton- Topped Tamarins (Saguinus Oedipus), a highly endangered species of primate from Colombia.
These extraordinary looking creatures come from a private breeding center in Wisconsin, USA and arrived in October 2004.
The arrival of Cotton Top Tamarins signifies a new era of commitment to conservation for St Maarten Park as, via the St Maarten Zoological & Botanical Gardens Foundation, we are now contractually obliged to financially support an in situ (on site) conservation program for the Tamarins in Colombia, called Proyecto Titi (Project Tamarin).
This program is designed to assist in the long-term preservation of this endangered species. For further information, you can go to their web site http://proyectotiti.com .
Funds will be raised via special events and a donation box specifically for the project. Interpretive graphics will also be developed to highlight the animals and their environment as well as the project.
The Cotton-Top Tamarin is a Neotropical Primate noted for its shock of white hair. It is one of the most endangered primates in the world and today the greatest threat to the survival of the Cotton-Top Tamarin is deforestation. Significant advances, however, have been made in developing self sustaining captive breeding populations in zoos.
Through the efforts of a Species Survival Plan, Cotton-Top Tamarins are cooperatively managed in many zoos around the world, from Melbourne to Tokyo to New York and now St Maarten.

Collared Peccary
St Maarten Park has finally found a mate for its single male Collared Peccary (Pecari tajacu). Collared Peccary are found from Arizona south to Argentina and are part of a group of animals related to pigs, though quite unique.
St Maarten Park's male Collared Peccary has been alone for a number of years now, which is a very unnatural state for these highly social animals.
Then in October last year we discovered that a suitable female was available at Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo in Nebraska USA and we commenced the complicated bureaucratic process of permits and travel arrangements.
To our dismay however, it appeared that we had to cancel the shipment at the 11th hour because of the prohibitive costs of bringing in an animal of this size. However, thanks to the generous sponsorship of American Airlines and a local St Maarten Restaurant, Bamboo Bernies, all the shipment costs were covered and bringing our female peccary to St Maarten a reality. At the end of April, and after nearly 40 hours of traveling, she arrived safely at St Maarten Park.
She completed quarantine and was introduced to our male and to the delight of the Park's staff the two animals are getting along very well.
We hope that in the not too distant future we will be hearing the sounds of little hooves in our Collared Peccary exhibit, all thanks to the generous support of American Airlines and Bamboo Bernies.