The only breeding pair of black lion tamarin monkeys outside their native Brazil are housed at Durrell, but they have not bred for more than a year. Conservationists want to import a new pair to enhance the species’ chances of survival.
The park keeps a total of five of the species, including a four-year-old called Francisco, who is ready to breed but is related to all the other monkeys there.
In the wild, the remaining population of 1,000 individuals is segregated into small, inter-related groups occupying fragments of forest separated by hectares of clear-cut pasture which was once a jungle canopy. Tamarins will not travel across open ground, forcing the monkeys to inbreed within their own groups, reducing their ability to resist disease. They also face increasing pressure from doubly-inherited genetic conditions.
For the past ten years, Durrell staff have worked with an NGO in Brazil to create tree corridors in native forests, although experts believe that the only way to save the species from extinction is in captivity outside the country, as a fire could wipe out the monkeys in the wild.
Rick Jones, communications officer at Durrell, said: ‘We have had several breeding pairs of black lion tamarins over the last 26 years at Durrell, and Belfast Zoo has started in the last five years to keep them, but unfortunately they are all related to each other. Nobody knew about genetics when we started out.
‘This is something we have experience of. We did something similar with the Mauritius kestrels, which were down to a population of four in total, so we bred them at Durrell and there are now 600 of them in the wild.’
Durrell are looking to raise a further £5,000 to complete their emergency fund of £20,000 to pay for the safe transportation of the monkeys to the Island.
Dom Wormell, head of mammals at Durrell and a world expert on black lion tamarins, said: ‘Durrell has been the pioneering institution in the care, breeding and conservation of lion tamarins. Staff have been pioneering in their husbandry techniques, having success with difficult species, such as the pied tamarin.
‘We have bought this species and others in South American rescue centres and zoos back from the brink of dying out in captivity and now we need to do the same for the black lion tamarin.’
Known as lion tamarins because of their fine mane of hair, miniature monkeys like these have brains as well as beauty – in proportion to their body size, they have more grey matter than humans! Since 1990, groups of the various species of tamarins and marmosets kept at Durrell have learned how to thrive in a complex habitat, such as a rainforest, by living free in our woods.
The Critically Endangered black lion tamarin (BLT for short) was bred for the first time at Durrell in 1990. This had never before been accomplished outside its native Brazil. In 1999 we reached a crucial stage in the species’ recovery programme – a group of BLTs trained in our woods returned to Brazil for reintroduction to the wild.
Just 3% of the BLT’s original habitat remains. This is made up of tiny fragments of forest – each one too small to sustain a viable population of tamarins. Without careful management they would probably all die out eventually. Ongoing work in Brazil involves the mixing of wild and captive BLTs, studies in the wild and protection of the remaining forest. We hope our efforts will give this little lion the best chance of survival.
Source: Durrell.org
