Golden lion tamarin

Appearance

The golden lion tamarin gets its name from its bright reddish-orange pelage and the extra-long hairs around the face and ears, that give it a distinctive mane. Its face is dark and hairless. The bright orange fur of this species does not contain carotenoids, that commonly produce bright orange colors in nature.

It is typically around 261 mm (10.3 in) and weighs around 620 g (1.37 lb).

Published measurements include mass about 60.6.

Range and habitat

The golden lion tamarin has a limited current area of occupancy, as most of the original habitat in the Brazilian state of Rio de Janeiro has been lost to deforestation. Today, the species is confined to fragments of forest within the state, among them Poço das Antas Biological Reserve, União Biological Reserve, other protected areas, and privately owned lands. Most of the area of occupancy is characterized by vegetation types classified as dense broadleaf evergreen or seasonal deciduous and semideciduous forest, with some tamarins living in areas closest to the coast found in a sandy soil forest type called "arboreal restinga".

The first such census, carried out in 1990-1992, counted about 560 wild individuals and about 100 additional individuals from the reintroduction program were living in the wild. Since then, the population has grown significantly, following conservation efforts that include reintroduction of zoo-born animals and rescue and translocation of wild individuals from small, at-risk forest fragments (both largely to areas then unoccupied by tamarins), reforestation with a particular focus on connecting separated areas of habitat, and community-based conservation and engagement programs.

Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.

Diet and breeding

In the wild, golden lion tamarins eat mostly fruits and small animal prey, in addition to smaller quantities of nectar and plant exudates (tree gum). The younger members of the groups may lose breeding opportunities, but they gain parental experience in helping to rear their younger siblings.

In crisis

A 2022/2023 census estimated about 4,800 individuals living in the current primary area of occurrence in the non-coastal area of the São João and Macaé river basins, with unknown but smaller additional numbers in limited coastal forests and to the west of the primary area of occurrence. There is a captive population maintaining about 490 individuals among 150 zoos. Even so, no estimates of the size of the population before 1500 are known, and the first published estimates did not appear until the 1970s.

By then, golden lion tamarin population estimates ranged from only 100 to 600 surviving individuals, although these estimates were not based on range-wide censuses. Key threats include habitat loss and fragmentation, hunting and trapping for the pet trade, the recently highlighted threat of a yellow fever or other disease epidemics, and the potential impact of non-native species, most notably the introduced marmoset species that are now found in many of the forest areas occupied by golden lion tamarins, and a feral population of introduced golden-headed lion tamarins (Leontopithecus chrysomelas) within 50 km of the geographic range of the golden lion tamarin, presenting a threat of hybridization (most of the golden-headed lion tamarins were removed between 2015 and 2018).

CITES lists this taxon on Appendix I. Confirm the current appendix on the CITES checklist.

Golden 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 Golden lion tamarin, Wikidata item Q208486. 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.