Zoo Atlanta is seeing double.
On Thursday the zoo announced the birth of twin golden lion tamarins the day they turned 1 month old.
“The birth of any animal at Zoo Atlanta is cause for celebration, but Zoo Atlanta’s long partnership in the conservation of this endangered species makes these especially important births that are crucial to the long-term viability of their species,” Jennifer Mickelberg, Ph.D., vice president of collections and conservation said in a press release.
Twin births are common for golden lion tamarins, while single and triplet births have been documented. In very rare cases, quadruplets have also been seen. Regardless of how many are born, the first month of this species’ life is particularly fragile — golden lion tamarins only weigh about 2 ounces at birth. As an adult, the small monkeys weigh 22 to 25 ounces, which is comparable to the size of squirrels.
That applies to Blixx and Tiete, the parents of the new arrivals. Zoo Atlanta noted that the pair continues to show appropriate parenting skills. For tamarins, mothers carry their young for the first two weeks or so, and then the father usually carries them. Blixx will continue to nurse her offspring and as the infants grow, Tiete will take over the majority of their care.
Patrons eager to get a glimpse of the family can see them outdoors in Zoo Atlanta’s KIDZone area as long as the temperature is above 50 degrees.
An endangered species, these primates are only found in a small part of the Atlantic Coastal Forest in Brazil. There, just 2% of their habitat remains, having been destroyed by deforestation from cattle ranching, highway development, lumbering and urban expansion, according to the Natural Habitat Adventures travel blog.
After just 200 individuals remained in the wild in the 1970s, a successful cooperative breeding program in the 1990s and early 2000s led zoo-born tamarins to be reintroduced into their Brazilian habitat. Among them were two family groups from Zoo Atlanta. Most of the wild population, which eventually grew to around 3,000, is descended from the reintroduced tamarins.
Still, yellow fever has led the population to have a steep decline in recent years. It’s believed that the viral infection has annihilated up to a third of the wild population that remains.
Zoo Atlanta has played a key role in conservation efforts or the species.
For more than 25 years it has been a principal partner of Brazil-based Golden Lion Tamarin Association, a non-governmental organization. Currently, an all-encompassing conservation program includes habitat protection and restoration, translocation of wild tamarins to safe forest habitats and education outreach. Efforts to vaccinate wild golden lion tamarins against yellow fever are among the most recent endeavors.
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