Red-handed Tamarins’ diet consists mainly of fruit and insects. Gum and nectar are also eaten in the dry season, when fruit is more scarce.
 
Red-handed Tamarins live in small groups of about 10, with only the dominant female breeding. They can cover up to 2km a day in search of food. At the end of the afternoon, well before sunset, they return to their resting site and fall asleep in the tangles of creepers and the dense vegetation of the bottom strata of the tree canopy.
 
This species is not endangered in the short term, but the destruction and fragmentation of the South American tropical forests obviously have adverse effects on wildlife living in this type of habitat.