The golden lion tamarin has been moved by the World Conservation Union (IUCN) to a lower- risk category – and the trust has had a major role to play in bringing this about.On Tuesday the IUCN made the announcement that it had added a further 2,000 species to its annual Red List of the world’s most endangered animals and plants, bringing the total to more than 12,000 entries.
The Red List threat categories are: critically endangered, endangered, vulnerable, near-threatened and least concern.
The golden lion tamarin has now been moved down from critically endangered to endangered status.But it is not such good news for another of the trust’s small mammals.
Thanks to the loss of much of its native Brazilian habitat, the pied tamarin has moved up the IUCN’s scale to critically endangered.
However, the Zoo is at the forefront of the battle to save this species too.
It is home to more than 40 pied tamarins – some 45 per cent of the world’s captive population.
