Over the weekend I visited my hometown for the holiday and
stopped by my local zoo. I had heard that they were successful in getting their
two Cotton-top Tamarin Monkeys to breed so I wanted to go see them.
Visiting monkeys may seem unimportant at a glance, but the
Cotton-top Tamarins are a critically endangered species with only 6,000 left in
the wild. This occurred after over 60,000 of the monkeys were shipped to the
United States for animal testing in the 1960s (this was banned in 1974). The
Tamarins have a very low infant survival rate so the fact that a small zoo in
Saginaw, Michigan, was able to breed the monkeys, and the monkeys produced
healthy twins is an amazing accomplishment. (To read more about the Tamarin
family of Clementine, Gizmo, Pax, and Bean, click here!)
Cooperative breeding strategies put in place by the
Association of Zoos and Aquariums “Species Survival Plan Programs” are
responsible for outcomes like this one of the Tamarins. Each survival program
works with an accredited zoo to oversee population management and to help
conserve species.
I wanted to share
this because zoos and aquariums are usually almost always talked about in a
negative light even though they have a plethora of programs that help to conserve,
rehabilitate, and learn more about different species.
A.C.
Works Cited
"Species
Survival Plan Programs." AZA, https://www.aza.org/species-survival-plan-programs.
"Endangered
Species Birth." Children’s Zoo, 28 Feb. 2016, https://www.saginawzoo.com/endangered-tamarin-birth.
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