Brazil has opened its first rehabilitation center for golden-headed lion tamarins, an endangered monkey species threatened by urban expansion and the loss of agroforestry farms to monocrop plantations.

The tamarins, Leontopithecus chrysomelas, have been filmed in and around Ilhéus, a coastal city in Bahia state, eating fruit inside a supermarket or running across high-voltage electricity lines; many have been electrocuted this way. Road strikes have also injured or killed several individuals, as have attacks by domestic dogs.

Until now, there wasn’t any specialized place to take the monkeys and prepare them for reintegration into the wild, according to Leonardo Oliveira, a biologist who has studied the species for more than 20 years.

“Often, for the general public seeing these monkeys in their backyard or at the market gives them the false impression that everything is fine: ‘Wow, there are so many of them, they’re even coming into the city.’ No. The city is the one moving into their space,” Oliveira, who will work with the new rehabilitation center, told Mongabay by phone.

A golden-headed lion tamarin on an electricity pole in Ilhéus. Image courtesy of the Tamarin Trust.

Golden-headed lion tamarins are found only in Brazil. From 1992 to 2024, their range shrank by 42%, from an estimated 22,500 square kilometers (8,700 square miles) to 13,000 km2 (5,000 mi2). This resulted in a nearly 60% population decline, from an estimated 50,000 individuals 30 years ago, to fewer than 24,401 individuals today, according to a 2024 population reassessment.

A large part of the tamarins’ existing range is cacao farms, where the crop is grown underneath a canopy of native trees. Cacao is also one of their favorite fruits. In recent years, however, some agroforestry cacao farms have been lost to soy monocultures and livestock pasture, according to the Tamarin Trust, a U.K.-based charity funding the new rehab center.

In 2024, the city of Ilhéus adopted the species as its official mascot and dedicated a day to it, March 26, which coincides with Brazil’s national cacao day, to highlight the symbiosis between the two.

The rehab center was inaugurated at the State University of Santa Cruz on March 26, the second anniversary of the species’ local day. It has the capacity to accommodate up to three groups of tamarins, with plans to expand to hold up to eight groups at once.

According to Oliveira, the center will receive injured and displaced tamarins for veterinary care and rehabilitation, with the goal of relocating them away from urban centers, where they face fewer threats.

Banner image: A golden-headed lion tamarin. Image courtesy of Leonardo Oliveira.