Golden Lion Tamarin - Mico Leão Dourado



This album is special.

It's about a visit we made to the Poço das Antas Natural Reserve, 150km from Rio de Janeiro city.
Probably the most important natural reserve here,
because it was made to save a close relative from extinction.

The species is the Golden Lion Tamarin (Leontopithecus rosalia).
One of the most beautiful primates measuring between 20 and 36 cm and weighting between 360 and 710gr, it became one of the rarest of all mammals in the wild, if not the rarest. Rarest to the point that it was almost extincted by 1970, with just around 200 individuals in the wild, all concentrated in a tiny region of Rio de Janeiro state.
It was then declared in "critical risk of extinction".

But there was some hope.
Many efforts began from several fronts trying to save him.
And some succeeded.

One of the efforts was the creation of Poço das Antas Natural Reserve, where the Golden Lion Tamarin still lives completely free, and is highly protected.
In 2003, the Golden Lion Tamarin left the list of animals in "critical risk of extinction" (although still being at risk):
there are now in 2007 around 1600 individuals in the wild. UPDATE: in 2015, more than 3000!
The Golden Lion Tamarin became the only primate to date to have its extinction risk downgraded.

The main challenge from now on is not to make the population bigger, but to connect the small patches of forest where the Tamarin lives.
Without these connections, there will be few hopes in the long term.

Enough of this. To the pics!



After a 300mts walk inside the forest, we finally found a group of around 12 individuals.
They were stressed at the beginning, but slowly they calmed down...




Mom and junior


Not very polite...


A cute enemy... A Common marmoset (Callithrix jacchus), appearing above in the middle photo:
formidable competitor, highly adaptable, spreading everywhere in Brazil


Golden Lion Tamarin skeleton



Go here to know more about the reserve



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