Endangered
Black Lion Tamarin
Leontopithecus chrysopygus
The black lion tamarin, also known as the golden-rumped lion tamarin, is a lion tamarin endemic to the Brazilian state of São Paulo, almost exclusively at the Morro do Diabo State Park.
The primate
On average, the black lion tamarin weighs 300–700 grams (11–25 oz).
Range and habitat
The black lion tamarin, also known as the golden-rumped lion tamarin, is a lion tamarin endemic to the Brazilian state of São Paulo, almost exclusively at the Morro do Diabo State Park. In 2016 an adult couple was found to the east, in the Caetetus Ecological Station, after six years with no sightings. A 2020 assessment by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) estimated that there were 1,600 individuals living in the wild, 1,200 of that are found in Morro do Diabo State Park.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
Diet and breeding
The diet of the black lion tamarin is seasonal and varies with the habitats it moves through. Independent of the environment it occupies, a tamarin spends long periods each day searching for different types of insects and spiders to feed on.
On average, 80% of its time foraging is spent searching for insects, such as by foraging the forest floor. The tamarin's foraging locations are very intentional: it spends extended periods of time looking under dry palm leaves, in loose bark, and in tree cavities, with hands that have specialized fingers for prying. Black lion tamarins mate and have offspring during the spring, summer, and fall months (August to March in Brazil).
In crisis
It was thought to be extinct for 65 years until its rediscovery in 1970. The black lion tamarin is rated endangered by the IUCN Red List due to its declining population trend. The main threat against it is the destruction of its habitat through deforestation, though it is also threatened by being hunted in unprotected forests, such as the Fazenda Rio Claro and the Fazenda Tucano (that have roughly 3.66 and 1.0 individuals per square kilometer respectively).
Their population decline in the wild, even so, could cause the black lion tamarins to become entirely endemic to the Morro do Diabo.
CITES lists this taxon on Appendix I. Confirm the current appendix on the CITES checklist.
Black Lion Tamarin is Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.
Sources
Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on Black lion tamarin, Wikidata item Q290591. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.
