The golden-headed lion tamarin is a small monkey with a black body and a conspicuous golden mane. It lives in small groups in forests of southeastern Brazil.
Most of its body is black, with golden hair forming a mane around the face and over the head. The mane occurs in both sexes.
Golden-headed lion tamarins live in small groups and move through the forest canopy while feeding on fruit. In southern Bahia, Brazil, researchers observed one group using a rubber plantation.
Golden-headed lion tamarins were observed in a rubber plantation in southern Bahia, Brazil, from August 2013 to January 2014. One group used the plantation on 16 of 22 observation days. Researchers recorded feeding, grooming and sleeping, behaviors consistent with the plantation forming part of the group’s home range rather than serving only as a passage.
Sightings were unevenly distributed across the plantation. The authors noted jackfruit and epiphytic bromeliads as possible attractions for the tamarins and Wied’s marmosets. The report also proposed that rubber plantations with suitable structure could add to forest connectivity in southern Bahia, alongside shaded cacao agroforests.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.
The paper proposes that rubber plantations with suitable vegetation structure could improve forest connectivity in southern Bahia and contribute to tamarin conservation.