Jersey Zoo welcomes endangered baby Black Lion Tamarin to family
Jersey Zoo has welcomed a baby Black Lion Tamarin to its family.
There are now eleven of them in Jersey Zoo, with Grace being the latest addition.
The primate is highly endangered and was thought to be extinct at one point.
Aside from its native country of Brazil, Jersey is the only place where people can see the Black Lion Tamarin.
Grace was born on 12 December 2021 and was found alone by keepers. She was too weak to hold onto her mum so the zoo's team stepped in to care for her.
It meant feeding her every two hours throughout the day and night at the start.
Keepers would usually only hand-rear an animal for a short time but Grace did not manage to return to her mum to suckle.
She fully returned to the family at around two and a half months.
Dominic Wormell, Head of the Mammal Department at Jersey Zoo, said: “Black Lion Tamarins are under extreme threat in the wild, with only 6% of their native forest home remaining due to deforestation.
"Because of this, they end up trapped in small fragments of forest, meaning their habitat is very restricted and populations are isolated.
"With only 1,000 Black Lion Tamarins estimated to be left in the wild, every single birth at the zoo is crucially important in helping to build a safety-net population for the species.”
Different species of tamarin and marmoset have been hand-reared at the zoo for the last three decades as part of Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust's bid to save the species.
“Grace is a very welcome addition to the breeding programme, which we established over 30 years ago to save the Black Lion Tamarin from being lost forever,” Wormell continued.
“She is now back with her family full-time, sleeping and feeding with the group, which is wonderful to see.
"Her mother is the only breeding female outside of Brazil, and now Grace too will play a very important part in the breeding programme to help safeguard the future of her species.”
Durrell also works with its partner in Brazil to help revive the Atlantic Forest where the Black Lion Tamarin is from. They do this by planting trees to reconnect areas of isolated forest.