golden lion tamarin

Golden Lion Tamarin’s (Leontopithecus rosalia) is one of the most endangered primates. Due to poachers and the pet trade, only around 400-1500 Golden Lion tamarins remain in their wild rainforest habitat. Their pelt can retail for US$20,000 on the black market, although dealers, if caught, run the risk of 2 years jail time.  These rare marmosets with magnificent manes have dwindling dependable food sources, predators hunting them everywhichway and are plagued by parasites. They are about 20-36 cm long with a tail length of 40 cm. They weigh around 1–2 pounds (14-29 oz.) with a body shape of a small feline. Their eyes are large, hazel to dark brown. They have little paws with very sharp, long claws and slender, webbed hands with five fingers. Their beautiful mane of golden hair frames the face and pelts are long and silken ranging in color from pale gold to a rich orange-reddish-gold. Golden lion tamarins are a social species, found in groups of 2-8. About 78% of all births in the wild are twins and both sexes care for the young cooperatively. The adult male often totes the young as the group roams, ranging the rainforest for food in daylight, feeding on small invertebrates living in pools of rainwater collected in bromeliad cups in the upper forest canopy.  Territory boundaries are marked using chest and genital scent glands. Early evening sees the tamarins return to nests, holed up in tree hollows, lined with body fur, providing protection and conserving heat. The entrance to the nest is too small for most nocturnal predators to invade. The Golden Lion tamarin is a very active and vocal little primate. However, calls are mostly soft and faint, thought to be an adaptation to avoid attracting predators’ attention (eagles and hawks). About 99% of the primary forests they need to survive have been radically reduced to isolated patches through logging and clearance for cultivation and development. A conservation education program in Brazil raised the Golden lion tamarins’ profile to the point that this little tamarin is now regarded with pride as a national symbol of conservation.
WWF: “The wild population in the early 80’s was estimated at only 200 individuals, but due to a captive breeding program and reintroduction into the wild, combined with a program to protect and restore habitat, the Golden Lion tamarin population has increased to 1,500.”