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Judi Lynn

(160,211 posts)
Mon Aug 3, 2020, 03:57 PM Aug 2020

New viaduct links ecosystems to preserve golden lion tamarin



This is another attempt to save this endangered species

Published in 03/08/2020 - 15:26 By Vitor Abdala - Rio de Janeiro

The first step towards bringing the golden lion tamarins living in the Poço das Antas Biological Reserve together with other specimens living in the strip of Atlantic Forest in Rio de Janeiro was taken this Sunday (Aug. 2). The first viaduct with native Atlantic Forest species over highway BR-101 was inaugurated, in exchange for the permit to duplicate the road, which connects the North to the South of Brazil.

According to NGO Golden Lion Tamarin Association council chair and State University of Northern Rio de Janeiro (Uenf) Professor Carlos Ramon Ruiz, the duplication of BR-101 has severed the Poço das Antas Reserve from the rest of the Amazon Forest. The highway underpasses do not serve for the traffic of tamarins.

This has deprived the population of golden lion tamarins in the reserve of their chance to communicate and mingle with other specimens living across the road, leading to little genetic variability in the future population.

“If they remain isolated, it’ll be difficult to keep this population viable indefinitely. We’d have to take specific action to tackle the issue, removing and bringing animals [from other places] in the reserve,” Ruiz said.

The evidence that the population that is isolated and has no genetic diversity faces difficulties remaining viable in the long run was the outbreak of yellow fever in 2016 in Rio de Janeiro state. The disease brought the population of golden lion tamarins in Poço das Antas was virtually decimated, going from 300 individuals to approximately 30 or 40, Ruiz reported. In order to repopulate the area, animals had to be brought from other locations.

More:
https://agenciabrasil.ebc.com.br/en/geral/noticia/2020-08/new-viaduct-links-ecosystems-preserve-golden-lion-tamarin







How the Golden Lion Tamarin Is Helping to Heal Brazil’s Rainforest
It took a decade of hard work, but one of the world’s most important wildlife corridors is now emerging from the fragmented forests of coastal Brazil.

Public Lands & Protected Spaces

May 17, 2018 - by John R. Platt

Sometimes conserving rare species and habitats requires waiting a few years for all of the pieces of a puzzle to come together.

For one project in coastal Brazil, that process took the better part of a decade. But now, after years of hard work, the puzzle’s nearly complete, and what could end up being one of the world’s most important wildlife corridors is about to emerge.

The Fazenda Dourada corridor in the state of Rio de Janeiro will link two isolated federal biological reserves — União and Poço das Antes — with newly restored forests and a bridge over a major highway, creating a migratory pathway for the endangered golden lion tamarin (Leontopithecus rosalia) and potentially thousands of other imperiled species to travel through previously degraded and fragmented landscapes.

The project is an initiative of Brazil’s Associação Mico-Leão-Dourado (Golden Lion Tamarin Association) and the U.S. nonprofit SavingSpecies. It was enabled by a grant from a Dutch foundation called DOB Ecology.

The iconic golden lion tamarin served as the flagship species for this restoration “because it’s such a charismatic animal,” says Stuart Pimm, Doris Duke chair of conservation at Duke University and president of SavingSpecies. The species was nearly extinct 30 years ago, and the corridor will be essential for their continued recovery, but the location will also serve many other unique species. “Coastal Brazil has more endangered species probably than anywhere else in the Americas,” he says. “It certainly has more endangered birds, but it’s also a major center of endemic mammals and amphibians and something like 6,000 plant species.”

More:
https://therevelator.org/golden-lion-tamarin-rainforest/



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