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Zoo Atlanta has been an active participant in the Golden Lion Tamarin (GLT) Conservation Project since 1992. Through this program, two groups of captive-born tamarins have completed "boot camp" (a free-ranging experience designed to teach them the necessary locomotion, climbing and foraging skills for survival in the wild) and returned to Brazil. Destruction of the Brazilian coastal rain forest has greatly reduced the GLTs' native range. Zoo Atlanta's project is now responsible for 7 of 100 GLTs that have been reintroduced in the San Joao Basin. Debbie Forde and Dr. Tara Stoinski manage this scientific and educational program with a dedicated cadre of volunteer "Tamarin Trackers."
The GLT "boot camp" operates between May/June and August, on weekends when there is good weather. A family of GLTs can be viewed in the free-ranging exhibit in the Children's Zoo.
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