Leaf is the newest attraction at the Yorkshire Wildlife Park who has arrived as part of an important breeding programme
Leaf and Demonio at the Yorkshire Wildlife Park(Image: Yorkshire Wildlife Park)
Romance could soon be in the air in Yorkshire. . . but this exotic miss can’t be wooed with chocolates and flowers. Crunchy crickets, mealworms and boiled eggs are the love tokens of choice for Leaf, who has travelled across the country for her crucial blind date.
For Leaf is a 13-year-old female Golden Lion Tamarin – one of only 39 now living in UK zoos and wildlife parks – an endangered, nimble and charismatic monkey who has arrived at the award-winning Yorkshire Wildlife Park as part of an important international breeding programme.
She has joined the park from Chester Zoo, after being carefully matched with resident male Demonio under the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA) Ex-situ Breeding Programme (EEP) – a scheme which helps to safeguard the future of endangered species through coordinated conservation breeding. Now zookeepers hope she will play an important role in helping to maintain a healthy and genetically diverse population of the species.
Dr Charlotte MacDonald, director of animals, said: “Breeding this endangered species is important for the global insurance population. Under 10% of their original coastal rainforest remains intact. Because their habitat is naturally broken into isolated patches, populations are small and prevented from breeding between groups.
“Outbreaks of mosquito-borne diseases like yellow fever are also a major ongoing threat that can wipe out such vulnerable groups. She has settled in brilliantly and has now been fully introduced to Demonio and the other primates in the Amazonas reserve.”
Golden Lion Tamarins are known for their striking golden-orange fur, distinctive manes and expressive faces. Native to the coastal rainforests of Brazil, they are classified as endangered due to habitat loss, fragmentation of their forest home and disease outbreaks that continue to threaten wild populations.
The species was once reduced to around 200 in the wild, but decades of conservation work, including captive breeding, habitat restoration and successful reintroduction programmes, have helped bring them back from the brink of extinction.
As part of international conservation agreements, all Golden Lion Tamarins are officially owned by the Brazilian Government, which gives permission for them to be kept elsewhere around the world.
Greg Clifton, section manager of primates and carnivores at Yorkshire Wildlife Park and Chair of the EAZA Taxon Advisory Group for Callitrichids, said: “Welcoming Leaf is an exciting step forward for our primate team and our ongoing conservation work.
“By bringing her together with Demonio, we are playing a vital role in ensuring a genetically diverse and sustainable population of Golden Lion Tamarins for generations to come, particularly as wild populations continue to face threats such as disease and habitat loss.”
To celebrate International Golden Lion Tamarin Day on Sunday August 2, Yorkshire Wildlife Park will be hosting a range of themed activities in the Amazonas reserve. Visitors will get the opportunity to learn more about the remarkable primates and the conservation work helping to protect them.
There will also be the chance to enter a raffle, organised by the Yorkshire Wildlife Park Foundation, to win a Primates of South America Experience, with proceeds supporting the Foundation’s vital conservation work.
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