The Ginger Naturalist : Poco Das Antas Biological Station

At the end of our trip we spent some time in Rio de Janerio, but on one of the days we arranged a visit to the golden lion tamarin project at Poco das Antas. The visit to the reserve is very expensive, but a lot of the cost is a donation to the project. We were picked up from Rio and drove around 2 hours into the Silva Jardim district where the remaining Atlantic rainforest is very fragmented but the area around poco das antas has a large tract of forest that is being connected to the remaining pockets.

When we arrived, we met someone in charge of the project and one of the field researchers who had some radio telemetry equipment to help us track one of the troops of tamarins. Most of the troops have a male fitted with a satellite tag to help monitor their movements. As soon as we arrived in the forest the researcher picked up a signal from a troop and set off into the forest. We mostly followed a small path but at points the researcher had to use a machete to clear the way. When we found the tamarins they actually approached us, to investigate the other primate staring back at them making lots of awwhh noises!

Golden lion tamarins

They even came to within 1 and a half meters of us but always remained in a position they felt safe in the branches. They are completely wild, but have become used to the researchers following their daily movements and some of their descents originate from captive breeding programmes.

After we had our fill we drove to the headquarters of the project for a presentation and small tour.
We had 2 English speaking guides with us that could translate the information. It is only thanks to some passionate conservationists that this species did not become extinct, as the population did reach a low of just 200 individuals, but thanks to efforts to connect populations, re-forest, raise awareness and successful captive bred releases the population is now 1,500 in the wild.