Chemnitz Zoo: New resident in the marmoset house
Golden yellow male lion monkey to provide offspring
The marmoset house at Chemnitz Zoo has had a new resident since the end of September: Stitch, a male golden lion tamarin, came to Chemnitz from the Zoo du Jardin des Plantes in Paris. Here he will live together with female Anja and ideally also provide for offspring. This took place in the European Endangered Species Programme (EEP), in which the zoo participates.
As marmosets - to which the golden lion tamarins belong - have a rather complex social behaviour, patience and caution must be exercised when bringing two unfamiliar animals together. So Anja and Stitch first got to know each other behind the scenes - in neutral territory. As Anja has lived at Chemnitz Zoo since 2018, she considers her enclosure to be her territory. A different enclosure was chosen for the two so that she would not be too dominant there. This was located in an area of the zoo that was inaccessible to visitors, giving them the peace and quiet they needed to get to know each other.
Anja and Stitch now share the enclosure in the marmoset house and can also be seen by visitors. They harmonise with each other, often spending the nights together in a sleeping den, but also like to go their own ways during the day.
Golden lion tamarins can live together in groups of more than ten animals. They are led by a female, who usually tolerates an adult male at her side. The remaining members are the young animals from previous years. The dominant female is the only one who reproduces. The other members of reproductive age are either actively prevented from mating or are kept infertile by scents, so-called pheromones.
The population of golden lion tamarins is declining significantly in the wild as a result of habitat loss. They now only live in a small distribution area in the tropical rainforest on the Brazilian Atlantic coast. They are therefore currently categorised as "critically endangered" on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species - the third of four endangerment categories. From 1996 to 2003, the species was even categorised as "threatened with extinction".
However, thanks to the commitment of zoological institutions to species conservation, the endangered status was downgraded again. Thanks to the successful and coordinated breeding of this endangered species, even zoo-born animals have been released back into the wild. As a result, the number of animals living in the wild has more than tripled. However, the number is still very low at around 2000 animals.
Chemnitz Zoo now hopes to be able to contribute directly to the conservation of the species again in future.
Zoo and wildlife enclosure - opening hours from November to February:
9 a.m. to 4 p.m., last admission 3 p.m.
www.tierpark-chemnitz.de