National Geographic reports that –
The rampant spread of COVID-19 across Brazil is threatening more than half a century of conservation efforts to protect a small, bright orange monkey called the golden lion tamarin.
Named for their leonine manes and found only in Brazil, golden lion tamarins had shrunk in number to a mere 200 in the 1970s, because of their capture for the pet trade and the destruction and fragmentation of their Atlantic Forest habitat. A series of efforts—ranging from genetic and reproductive research to captive breeding and relocations to habitat areas needing the biggest population boost—brought their numbers back up to about 3,700 by 2014. (Read about the creation a wildlife corridor in the Atlantic Forest to help golden lion tamarins cross a busy highway and enter new territory.)
Then, another setback: a 2017 outbreak of yellow fever killed some 30 percent of their restored numbers. Now, a years-long effort to vaccinate the monkeys against yellow fever has been put on hold because of the coronavirus pandemic.
“It was a surprise that the tamarins died” of yellow fever, says Russ Mittermeier, chief conservation officer at the nonprofit Global Wildlife Conservation, who has been studying the golden lion tamarin since the 1970s. Other monkey species were known to be susceptible to the disease, but not golden lion tamarins. “Another outbreak would be disastrous.”
Population plummet
It was mid-2017 when the golden lion tamarins started to disappear.
( source – https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2020/08/coronavirus-delays-golden-lion-tamarin-vaccine/?cmpid=org=ngp::mc=social::src=twitter::cmp=editorial::add=tw20200824science-goldentamarinvaccine::rid=&sf237125466=1 )
