Golden lion tamarins are small orange-yellow monkeys, that live in the heavily populated coastal region of Brazil, where less than two percent of the forest remains.  Golden lion tamarins prefer swamp forests, which contains a high quantity and variety of vines and bromeliads, and have a high density of fruits.  This type of habitat provides the monkeys with easy arboreal pathways and protection from aerial predators.  The vegetation also tends to host many insects and small vertebrates that are important foods to these primates, the bromeliads are also an important water source.  These monkeys are endangered because their habitat has been logged and fragmented into small, unconnected areas, each area only capable of supporting a small number of groups. Without human intervention inbreeding would become inevitable which would lead to the local extinction of many of these small populations of tamarins, and eventually of the entire species.

Adult Male Golden Lion Tamarin

Female Golden Lion Tamarin & Her Infant

The National Zoo along with other zoos are working in tangent with the Brazilian government to save these primates. The Brazilian government is making a great effort to restore the forests that the monkeys are native to.  As these forests grow, the government moves the monkeys from the areas they currently occupy to these re-born forests.  Both in Brazil and America there are conservation educational programs that teach people about these creatures and why its important to protect them and to protect the forests.  The programs run at the National Zoo are breed and release programs.  The zoo will grow families of golden lion tamarins and then release them into the wild were they can reproduce and grow naturally.  Monkeys not strong enough to return to the wild or rely on humans too much and would be unable to provide for themselves remain in zoos where they are continued to be used as breeders and they are used for educational programs.  Before human intervention there were less than two hundred golden lion tamarins in the wild, now there are over 1,500 in the wild and around 450 in captivity.