BRAZIL’S FAUNA
(Page prepared by a nature’s observer)

Monkeys, Marmosets and Tamarins (primates)

THE RARE TAMARINS

General considerations
        The Tamarins are among the animals that most call people's attention in zoos, and the zoologists their own, because besides the rarity in nature and of restrict distribution, they are so beautiful, combining colors as black, red and golden.
They are animals from the genus Leontopithecus, that together to the genus Callithrix,Cebuella and Saguinus belongs to the family Callitrichidae. The members of this family are the smallest anthropoids primates in the world, variating from 100 g in the Cebuella and 700 g  in the Leontopithecus.
There are four descripted species of tamarins, that occur just in Brazil, with the following distribution (Auricchio,1995):

   Golden lion tamarin;  Leontopithecus rosalia; Mico-leão-dourado
    Restrict to the South of Rio de Janeiro, more exactly in the woods of  Silva Jardim and Casimiro de Abreu, in the Biological Reserve of Poço-das-Antas and hills at Cácia do Rio São João.

   Golden-headed Lion Tamarin; Leontopithecus chrysomelas; Mico-leão-de-cara-dourada
       It is distributed from the South of Bahia, between Belmonte and Pardo Rivers in the South, and Contas River in the North.

    Golden-rumped Lion Tamarin; Leontopithecus chrysopygus;Mico-leão-preto
    It is found at the North of Paranapanema River, East of Paraná River, South of Tietê River and Wets of Serra de Paranapiacaba.
Nowadays its distribution is restrict to Reserva Estadual de Morro Grande in Teodoro Sampaio, Reserva Biológica de Caeteteus  in Gáliato, in São Paulo State. Recently it was discovered in the Estação Ecológica de Angatuba (Santos,2001)

    Black faced Lion Tamarin; Leontopithecus caissara;Mico-leão-de-cara-preta
       There is just in Superagui Island, north coast of Paraná State.

        The tamarins are tree species, living in Southwest Brazilian forests, more exactly at the South of Bahia State and North of Paraná State. It is in the North of Superaguí Island, Paraná, and West of Paraná River, where they roam through the reminiscent trees of primary wood, and in the secondary wood they look for fruits and insects, for their feeding.
    The are diurnal animals that sleep into trees' holes, so the reason for their necessity of forests where there are medium or big trees for using their holes as shelters.
    They form groups from 2 to 8 monkeys. More commonly are 4 or 6 (Auricchio,1995), and the gestation is around 126 and 134 days.
These animals are among the primates more threatened in the world, because of its restrict distribution and the devastation of its habitat, being classified as threatened by IUCN, being at CITES checklist (Walker’s,1991).
The big threats are: increasing unforestment for plantation and pasture; adaptation difficulties of tamarins in another environments; local illegal commerce; collect for personal collections; reduced population of the species; hunting and invasion of the occurrence areas  (Fonseca et al.,1994).
 There are good results in captivity reproduction, mainly of the Golden lion tamarin and the Golden rumped lion tamarin, but all the species are still threatened, as already said, being necessary urgent implementation of the preservation projects, as the institution of new projects and programs, or we can lose these beautiful primates in a few decades.

    Discovered the rare Black Lion Tamarin (Leontopithecus chrysopygus) for a new conservation unit in São Paulo- Brazil.

Specific sites about the Leontopithecus
       www.zoologico.com.br/primat.htm
       www.animalinfo.org/species/primate/leonchrp.htm
       www.primate.wisc.edu/ptn/factsheets/leontopithecus_chrysopygus.html
       http://thewilddones.org/Animals/tamarin.html
       www.blv.com.br/org/zoo/animals/zoo52.htm
       www.geocities.com/endageredsp2/SamericaM22.html
       www.aultimaarcadenoe.com/infobio.htm
       www.aultimaarcadenoe.com/infobioingles.htm