The Golden Lion Tamarin Comes Home 6-2

 The Golden Lion Tamarin Comes Home            6-2

    The nonfiction selection The Golden Lion Tamarin Comes Home is about the work people are doing to bring a kind of monkey called a golden lion tamarin back to its natural habitat, the coastal Brazilian rainforest. The rain forest was once 1500 miles long, but most of the trees have been cut down or burned to clear the land. Only a small part of the rainforest remains. As the forest disappeared, so did the tamarins. The Golden Lion Tamarin Conservation Program was begun to help bring the tamarins back into the wild.
    Today zoos around the world breed tamarins. But zoo tamarins do not know how to hunt for food or how to survive in the wild. One zoo in Washington, D.C., has been trying to prepare tamarins to live in the wild. Then the zoo sends the tamarins to the Brazilian rainforest.
    The tamarins are flown to Brazil and taken to a reserve. First, they are put into cages in trees to get used to the sights and sounds of the forest. Then, when they are ready, they are set free. Observers watch the tamarins closely to see how they are doing. Some of the tamarins wear radio collars so observers can keep track of them.
    Tamarins need the most help just after they are released from the cages. They can get lost or injured very easily. The observers give them plenty of food and water at first. When the tamarins become more independent and know their way around, the feedings stop. Unfortunately, only about thirty percent of these tamarins survive for more than two years in the wild. The goal of the conservation program is to make the number grow.