Agile Data Science

Colophon

The animal on the cover of Agile Data Science is a silvery marmoset (Mico argentatus). These small New World monkeys live in the eastern parts of the Amazon rainforest and Brazil. Despite their name, silvery marmosets can range in color from near-white to dark brown. Brown marmosets have hairless ears and faces and are sometimes referred to as bare-ear marmosets. Reaching an average size of 22 cm, marmosets are about the size of squirrels, which makes their travel through tree canopies and dense vegetation very easy. Silvery marmosets live in extended families of around twelve, where all the members help care for the young. Marmoset fathers carry their infants around during the day and return them to the mother every two to three hours to be fed. Babies wean from their mother’s milk at around six months and full maturity is reached at one to two years old. The marmoset’s diet consists mainly of sap and tree gum. They use their sharp teeth to gouge holes in trees to reach the sap, and will occasionally eat fruit, leaves, and insects as well. As the deforestation of the rainforest continues, however, marmosets have begun to eat food crops grown by people; as a result, many farmers view them as pests. Large-scale extermination programs are underway in agricultural areas, and it is still unclear what impact this will have on the overall silvery marmoset population. Because of their small size and mild disposition, marmosets are regularly used as subjects of medical research. ...