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TAMARIN MONKEYS FROM BRAZIL |
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TAMARIN MONKEYS FROM BRAZIL |
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Highlighted words
are explained at the end of the
passage. |
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The
reduction in population of golden lion tamarins is attributed to
forest clearing for agriculture and illegal trade in exotic pets. |
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Six
golden lion tamarin monkeys, bred in a captive program at
Brookfield Zoo near Chicago, arrived this week in Brazil, where
they are being introduced into the wild in a forest reserve in Rio
de Janeiro. The
squirrel-size monkey has been
brought back from the brink of
extinction through a global captive breeding effort involving more
than 100 zoos around the world. These small monkeys are primates
that have been reintroduced successfully to their natural
environment. In
the 1960s, only about 200 golden lion tamarins remained in the wild,
due to the destruction of their habitat, Brazil's Atlantic coastal
rain forest - Mata Atlantica. Less than 7 percent of the Mata Atlantica, which once covered over 100 million hectares, an area about the size of Egypt, remains today. Around Rio de Janeiro, the only place in the world where the golden lion tamarin is found, the figure is about 2 percent. |
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The
family of tamarins - mother, father and four youngsters -
arrived in Rio de Janeiro after a 24-hour flight from Chicago
via Miami. Last
week, firemen fought a
bush
blaze that destroyed about
300 hectares of the Poço das Antas reserve. A spokesman
for the reserve said the fire affected mostly ground vegetation. "The
tamarins were not at risk. A
small area at the edge of the forest reserve was burnt, but the
animals were much deeper inside," he said. It is believed the fire was started by a member of Brazil's landless peasant protest movement, Sem Terra. The man, who was clearing land in preparation for planting crops, fled the scene when the fire blazed out of control and spread to the tamarin reserve. The
tamarin conservation project, started in 1974, has been so
successful that the reserve and its surrounding fragments of
forest have reached saturation. "We've
had a lot of success in the past 25 years," said Denise
Mareal Rambaldi, executive director of Brazil's National Golden
Lion Tamarin Association, "thanks to the public image of
the golden lion tamarin." The
project aims to have 2,000
golden lion tamarins living in the wild by its deadline
of 2025. Population studies suggest that this is the minimum
number needed to ensure sufficient genetic diversity for the
future and unassisted survival of the species. Conservationists
working at the reserve estimate they will need 25,000 hectares
of forest to sustain a population of this size. Poço das
Antas and the surrounding pockets of Mata Atlantica
held by sympathetic private owners who support the program total
less than half that area. Rambaldi
said future progress will depend on successful reforestation
projects and greater collaboration with local landowners.
So far, 16 farms in the Poço das Antas region have provided
forest for more than 320 captive-bred golden lion tamarins. "...
One thousand animals is not enough, and the space we have is
full," said Rambaldi. "We need to plant forest
corridors to link the isolated habitats and increase the genetic
interchange between them. "More
importantly, we need to find private landowners with forest
willing to take part in the program. These partnerships are
vitally important to us." |
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