Golden success

The birth of a male golden lion tamarin last month has taken the number
living in the wild above the 1000 mark. “It is a big day for a little primate,”
says Stuart Chapman of the World Wide Fund for Nature in Britain. The
catastrophic destruction of the tamarin’s habitat is the main threat still
facing the Brazilian primate, whose numbers had shrunk to just 200 by the early
1970s. But nearly 30 years of conservation has paid off. “It’s a milestone,”
says Chapman. “We really can make a difference.”