Tamarins are back from the brink?

Updated 09.45 Wed Aug 20 2008

Keywords: habitat, golden lion tamarin, extinction, conservationists, Rio de Janeiro, envornment, Amazon rainforest, monkey, Brazil, Atlantic rainforest, endangered, Poco das Antas, critically endangered, primates, rainforest

A captive breeding programme and conservation efforts may just prove enough to save Brazil's golden lion tamarins.

The news is welcome as nearly half the world's monkeys and apes are facing a worsening threat of extinction.

Over 150 tamarins were re-introduced to the Poco das Antas reserve in Rio de Janeiro state since the mid-80s and there are now an estimated 750

The small, bright orange primates, named after their lion-like manes, had been on the brink of extinction for decades because their habitat, the Brazilian Atlantic rainforest, has almost entirely vanished.

Some 130 million people, or 70 per cent of the Brazilian population, live in the area once covered by the Atlantic forest.

But a successful captive breeding programme has led to the golden lion tamarins being downlisted to endangered from critically endangered, according to the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

According to the project's coordinator Andrea Martins, over 150 tamarins were re-introduced to the Poco das Antas reserve in Rio de Janeiro state since the mid-80s and there are now an estimated 750.

The Golden Lion Tamarin Association, a symbol of Brazil's environmental conservation drive, has served as a model for several international organisations that followed in the steps of this initiative.

To save this species from extinction, the association said there must be at least 2,000 tamarins living in protected areas by 2025.

Golden lion tamarin monkeys are among the world's rarest mammals, with only about 1,400 to be living in the wild in or around Poco das Antas.