Golden Lion Tamarin
(aka Golden Marmoset)
Leontopithecusus rosalia rosalia

Golden lion tamarins are small, squirrel-sized primates. They have long, silky golden-red hair, a dark hairless face, and a lion-like mane. Narrow hands with long, clawed fingers help them run and walk through trees and spring and leap between branches and vines.

What They Eat
These omnivores eat fruit, insects, and small lizards. They actively search crevices, bark, bromeliads, and other hiding spots for their prey, probing with their long slender fingers.

Where They Live
Golden lion tamarins are found only in the Atlantic coastal forests of Brazil. They prefer closed canopy swamp forests with many vines and bromeliads where there is an abundance of food. At night, they sleep in tree holes as protection from predators.

What They Do
Troops consist of 2-9 individuals, usually a mating pair and their recent offspring. Females usually give birth to twins once a year. All group members care for their young, with most of the carrying done by the adult male. Groups actively defend their territories through vocalizations and scent markings.

How They’re Doing
Golden lion tamarins are endangered. They live in heavily populated coastal regions of Brazil, where less than 2% of the forest remains. Their habitat has been fragmented into small, unconnected areas capable of supporting only a few groups. Over time, inbreeding could lead to extinction.

Things you can do

Offer your time or money to local zoos, nature centers, or wildlife agencies that actively work to conserve rainforests.

Don't buy wood products harvested from the rainforest unless you’re sure they come from sustainably managed forests.

Your visit to the Zoo helps support our conservation programs. You can also sponsor an animal at the Zoo.

 

 

Golden Lion Tamarin

With 90% of their habitat destroyed, and as few as 1,000 animals remaining in the wild, golden lion tamarins are considered endangered. In recent years, several Brazilian landowners have set aside areas on their properties as private forest reserves where tamarins can be reintroduced and protected. The golden lion tamarin has become a source of national pride and a symbol of conservation.

Things the Zoo's done/doing

The Minnesota Zoo participates in 23 Species Survival Programs (SSP), including The Golden Lion Tamarin SSP. Thanks to captive breeding with the SSP, this species is a conservation success story. Zoos have cooperatively bred and successfully reintroduced golden lion tamarins into the wild to increase genetic diversity in the remaining wild population. Offspring of these reintroduced animals are now successfully breeding in the wild.

The largest remaining protected area for golden lion tamarins is the Poço das Antas Biological Reserve in Brazil. Because the land surrounding the park is often used for subsistence farming, The Golden Lion Tamarin Association (Associação Mico-Leão-Dourado), has begun an environmental education program to encourage local families to farm in ways that provide income without harming the forest. The Minnesota Zoo, through its Ulysses S. Seal Conservation Grant Program, has provided funding for this project.