White-faced Saki

Facts

IUCN LEAST CONCERN (LC)

Facts about this animal

Male white-faced sakis have a head-body length of 33-38 cm and weigh 1.9-2.1 kgs, females are slightly smaller and lighter. The tail is 33-45 cm long. There is a clear sexual dimorphism: The coat of males is black except for white to reddish forehead, face and throat. Females are brown to brownish-grey above and paler below, with whit to pale red-brown stripes from the eyes to the corners of the mouth.

Sakis are diurnal and wholly arboreal, but sometimes descend to the lower limbs of trees or even to bushes in search of food. Their diet consists of berries and fruit, honey, leaves, flowers, small mammals such as mice and bats, and small birds.

The white-faced sakis live in small family groups, consisting of the parents and two or three offspring. A single youngster is born after a gestation of about 170 days and clings to the mother for the first couple of weeks, when the male or one of its siblings may also carry it. They are independent by six months, but they usually stay with their family after this period. Sakis live to about 14 years of age in the wild, but may reach more than 20 years of age in zoos.

Did you know?
that sakis do not grab branches between their index finger and thumb, as we would, but between the index finger and middle finger, so they have three fingers on one side and a finger and thumb on the other?

Factsheet
Class	MAMMALIA
Order	PRIMATES
Suborder	SIMIAE
Family	CEBIDAE
Name (Scientific)	Pithecia pithecia
Name (English)	White-faced Saki
Name (French)	Saki à tête blanche
Name (German)	Weiß- oder Blaßkopfsaki
Name (Spanish)	Sakí de Cabeza Blanca
Local names	Brazil: Parauacu
CITES Status	Appendix II
CMS Status	Not listed

Photo Copyright by
Skyscraper

Distribution

Distribution
Range	Southern and eastern Venezuela, Guianas, northeastern Brazil
Habitat	Tropical rain forest
Wild population	Unknown. Pithecia pithecia was never common, but it is a wide-ranging species. It occurs in a number of protected areas and there is no evidence of any threat to the species (IUCN).
Zoo population	329 reported to ISIS (2007)

In the Zoo

How this animal should be transported

For air transport, Container Note 31 of the IATA Live Animals Regulations should be followed.

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Photo Copyright by
Udo Schröter

Why do zoos keep this animal

Although the species is not threatened in the wild, two regional zoo associations, AZA and EAZA, maintain coordinated breeding programmes allowing for keeping white-faced sakis in zoos with the need of importing animals from the wild only under exceptional circumstances.

Because it is a conspicuous animal compatible with a range of other species, the white-faced saki is good ambassador species for its threatened habitat, the neotropical rainforest.

How this animal should be kept

White-faced sakis are social animals and should be kept in family groups. In spacious exhibits with natural vegetation they can be associated with other neotropical primate species including marmosets and tamarins, and with sloths, tamanduas, agoutis, tapirs etc..

In temperate and cold climates, white-faced sakis must have both an indoor and an outdoor enclosure. Minimum requirements: indoors surface 20 m² for up to 5 animals and 10% more for each additional animal, height 3 m, room temperature at least 20°C, in places higher (radiators). In artificially lightened indoor enclosures the day phase should be 12 h. The indoor enclosure should be connected by at least two doors to an outdoor enclosure, which must must have at least the same size. Preferably, however, the outdoor enclosure should be much larger, with natural vegetation, and could be confined by water moats or electrified fences. The enclosures must have ample climbing and swaying opportunities, such as live or dead trees, branches, ropes, nets, hammocks, and boards at different levels

Food should be offered at several places and at least three times per day, It should consist of a variety of fruit and vegetables, seeds and nuts as well as some animal protein.