Hi, guys!

Welcome back to Animal Wonders. I'm really excited because we have a new animal that I'd like to introduce you to. (Intro).

This is Mimi the black-tufted marmoset. She was illegally owned as a pet, and she needed a permanent place to stay. [Mimi vocalizes]. What are you stealing from me?

Oh, what? Now, what are you gonna do, you're standing on it! Here you go.

Good girl! Getting to know Mimi... has been pretty interesting. She is a primate, so these guys are quite complicated with their behavior.

So, uh... [Jessi laughs a bit] we've- we've taken things slow, and, ah... just, ah... just seeing how she reacts to everything, so that I can make sure that I react appropriately, too, and so she doesn't get stressed out, and she just lives a... a stress-free life, with lots of... pampering. I'm working on trying to get her to stand on my arm, but you can see that she's a little reluctant to. Which is fine; we can go slow with that.

She's like, "I want to keep my legs on the little- on the little perch." Wanna come get it? I know you know that it's too far for you to... Here.

You wanna climb onto my arm? I know... [Mimi squeaks in protest]. Oh, I know...

Do you guys hear the vocalization? She's complaining pretty much about that. She's like, "Ugh... [sighs] I don't like that..." We never try and force them to do anything.

I would want to be able to do educational presentations with her. In order to do that, she'll have to sit on my arm, or at least be comfortable enough with- with jumping onto me, and, uh... right now, she's not... she's not super-comfortable doing that. Good girl.

Nice jump! So, we'll just continue to work on that as- as, uh... as we get to know her and continue her training. She's getting a little drink of water right now.

We like to to put a lot of, ah, natural branches in here. I mean, this is a nice station for training. Um, but... but this, ah, natural branch with the leaves on there, she has to figure out how to move around.

It's not like... everything's set up perfectly for her to sit here and everything. She has to figure it out, uhm... it's really good for- for all of her... mental and physical well-being. Black-tufted marmosets, they come from South America, and some people try and make them pets.

She was illegally owned as a pet, and she was confiscated, and, uhm... she needed a permanent place to live. Now... I would *not* recommend having a primate as a pet, in any world.

They just... they don't make good pets. You can properly care for them in captivity, ah, but they should not be considered a pet. Mimi's favorite things to do are look out windows, which is why we made sure she had a really big window to explore.

She's also really into fruit. She likes bananas the best, uhm... but she'll also eat a bunch of other kinds of fruit. She loves papaya, and pear, apple...

Because she likes fruits so much, it's been my go-to reinforcer for training. Good girl! Nice jump.

Yeah! So far, we've worked on a station behavior and a hands behavior, so that she can present her hands, and hopefully,. I'll be able to trim her nails in the future. and, she's getting it really, really quickly.

She's very smart, and it's not like training a rodent, where they're pretty much straightforward in their communications. Mimi can get a little bit tricky, where she's like... "I know you want me to do that... "but I'm gonna do *this* instead. What're you gonna do?" So, it's been a challenge, but a fun challenge.

Now, my goal is to eventually take her out on presentations, and be able to educate about how awesome marmosets are- [Mimi squeaks]. Yip! Well...

Mimi decided that she wanted to explore the tripod. So she jumped right out and then she was having a blast out there, and... I'd rather her not be outside of her enclosure; it's not safe.

So, I went and got her in a crate, and. I'm gonna go ahead and close the door and let her out of her crate now. Hey, girlie, that was an adventure, huh?

Do you wanna come on out? There you go! As you can see, that didn't faze her at all.

She is really quite comfortable. I'm really happy that she was comfortable enough to jump right onto the camera, and wasn't scared of Matt back behind the camera, either. That shows a lot of promise that she's going to be comfortable in front of an audience, so... that's really exciting.

I'm excited to keep you guys updated as Mimi progresses in her training, and our trust bond solidifies. Thank you going on this little adventure with us! If you would like to continue going on adventures with us, subscribe to our YouTube channel, Animal Wonders Montana, and if you'd like to buy some housewarming presents for her, or little toys, you can check out our Amazon Wish List.

Link is below. Thanks, guys! (Outro).