The
golden lion tamarin (Leontopithecus rosalia) is a squirrel-sized primate found only in a small strip of coastal rainforest in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Though habitat loss has greatly reduced their range and population size, 25 years of conservation efforts have pulled this endangered species back from the brink of extinction.
Long-time Philadelphia Zoo conservation partner, Associação Mico-Leão-Dourado (Golden Lion Tamarin Association) employs several strategies to save tamarins including:
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Reintroduction and Translocation
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Reforestation
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Watershed management
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Public education
The Golden Lion Tamarin Association (GLTA) has worked to gain landowner and local government support for its efforts to improve and preserve habitat. As a result, a growing number of landowners are dedicating forested areas on their property as private reserves for this small monkey.
Planting “tree corridors” to create connections between private forests is facilitated by the Golden Lion Tamarin Association (GLTA). These corridors provide natural bridges that allow tamarins to explore formerly inaccessible pieces of their habitat. They also foster genetic diversity by connecting otherwise segregated tamarin groups.
GLTA has also spearheaded the creation of a regional consortium to protect the São João River watershed, a critical area of golden lion tamarin habitat; and was instrumental in raising enough money to purchase a large privately-held parcel of land that now provides an 18-mile long connection between the União Biological Reserve and neighboring forest fragments.
Today approximately 1,600 golden lion tamarins, including zoo-born animals reintroduced into the wild by conservation workers, are living in isolated forest fragments in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest. Of these, GLTA is managing approximately 1,463 individuals and tamarins are using connected habitat that spans over 30 private ranches and two federal reserves totaling 10,600 protected hectares.
Just as we’re planting corridors of trees to connect isolated patches of forest in Brazil “Treetop Trails,” our innovative new animal trail in the treetops, will join Zoo habitats for golden lion tamarins and other primates. The trail way at the Rare Animal Conservation Center is the first phase of a Zoo-wide system that will link exhibits across the Zoo.