Zoo Role in Animal Conservation
Kenton Kerns, International GLT Studbook Keeper, of the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute and Kristin Leus, Conservation Biologist of the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria and Copenhagen Zoo, gave a presentation “The Role of Zoos in GLT Conservation and in Reducing Illegal Trade” at the Symposium “Wildlife Trafficking: the Case of the GLTs” organized by AMLD and the Brazilian Federal Police at the GLT Ecopark in Brazil on Aug. 8, 2025.
Photo Credit- Gina Ferrie, Zoo Atlanta
Why zoos and aquariums are important for conservation of GLTs in the wild
Once seen primarily as entertainment, zoos and aquariums have become vital players in global conservation efforts by safeguarding endangered species, including golden lion tamarins, in accredited facilities and institutions and in the wild.
There are currently about 150 zoos around the world caring for around 500 GLTs. These zoos coordinate with each other and with wildlife conservationists to manage the overall survival of the species and protect these small monkeys from disease, inbreeding, habitat destruction, trafficking and other threats. GLTs’ native habitat is in Brazil’s Atlantic Forest.
Kenton Kerns, a curator of the Small Mammal House at Washington, D.C’s Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute, says zoos are integral in the conservation of GLTs in the wild. That’s because captive GLTs serve as an “insurance” population if the animals in the wild suffer catastrophic losses. Zoos also help educate the public about the importance of threatened animals and the work being done to save them, he says.
In fact, progress of GLT’s endangered status over the past four decades would not have been possible without the collaboration of conservation biologists in Brazil and around the world, working with captive animals in zoos and protecting them in the wild.
GLTs in the wild were nearly extinct in the 1960s, with the wild population estimated to be between 200 and 600 individuals. Under the leadership of Dr. Devra Kleiman at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo, several zoos from around the world partnered to care for the captive GLTs. These efforts led to reintroductions of zoo-born GLTs into their wild habitat in Brazil, as well as the research and care of maintaining healthy zoo and wild GLT populations.
To further this work, GLTs, in 1981, became one of the first species to be designated as part of the Association of Zoos & Aquariums’ Species Survival Plan (SSP) in North America and the European Association of Zoos and Aquariums’ Ex-situ Species Population Management and Conservation Program (EEP). These plans help partners within a region manage zoo species populations to be healthy, genetically diverse, and demographically varied among accredited zoos.
These programs overseeing the care of GLTs coordinate closely with Brazil’s Associação Mico-Leão-Dourado, a sister organization of Save the Golden Lion Tamarin. In 1990, the Brazilian government recognized the managers of these programs as the official advisory committee to the Brazilian government on both wild and captive issues for golden lion tamarins. Today, the integrated management of the wild and captive golden lion tamarin populations worldwide is part of the official Brazilian National Action Plan for the Conservation of Endangered Atlantic Forest Primates and Maned Sloths.
A population census conducted in 2023 shows the total number of GLTs in the wild is 4,800, of which more than 2,500 are descendants of the original reintroduced GLTs.
“The missions of zoos continue to evolve and are focused on conservation of species,” says Kerns who manages the Association of Zoos & Aquariums SSP for GLTs. “Zoos know that if we don't protect the wild and we don't protect the animals, there's no zoo in the future.”
Zoo visitors also contribute to this mission. A portion of accredited zoos and aquarium’s revenue from parking, concessions and retail sales goes toward conservation.
And zoos are “working together to promise that this species has a future,” Kerns says.
Kristin Leus of the Copenhagen Zoo photographs a wild golden lion tamarin on Aug. 23, 2024, in a forest fragment in the São João River Basin, Rio de Janeiro State, Brazil. This GLT is a descendant of reintroduced zoo-born GLTs.
Photo Credit- Gina Ferrie, Zoo Atlanta
Careful planning for GLT care
To help ensure healthy zoo populations of GLTs, zoologists carefully track the sex, age, family status, social habits and genetic makeups for each animal in their care. GLTs are sometimes transferred between zoos — an activity that’s referred to as translocation — to help create diverse and healthy populations of GLTs, says Kristin Leus, a conservation biologist at Copenhagen Zoo in Denmark.
But these translocations have to be carefully planned by taking into account each GLT’s contribution to its new home, or potential problems that may cause. For instance, GLTs are monogamous and newborns live with both parents and older siblings. That means sometimes whole families need to be translocated.
“You can't just pick up a monkey from a group and then plunk another monkey in there,” Leus says.
Imagine if a hotel overbooked its rooms and the guests are crowded and unhappy. While zoos don’t exactly operate like hotels, Leus says conservation biologists have to work diligently to ensure there’s enough space in zoos to accommodate the ideal levels of genetic diversity and comfort for GLTs.
Those managing zoo populations of GLTs also must coordinate with their zoo associations that are also caring for other species of threatened animals. “We need to work with our colleagues who deal with other species to try and lay this puzzle and to continuously make sure that we have enough hotel rooms,” for GLTs and the other threatened species, Leus says.
Leus called the management of zoo and wild GLTs one of the best examples in the world of a “one plan approach” that cohesively takes into consideration the needs of the animals in the wild and in zoos worldwide.
“We really are one family,” she says of the experts managing wild and zoo populations of GLTs. “We plan everything together.”
Global zoo population managers meeting with colleagues from the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (Brazilian Government) and Save the Golden Lion Tamarin on Feb. 25, 2018, in Brazil. The group discussed the administrative aspects of the international breeding programs for lion tamarins.
Photo Credit- James Dietz
Conservation in action
While the day-to-day coordination between zoos and wildlife biologists is vital to GLTs’ survival, there are examples of how this coordination has been beneficial in crisis situations too.
In 2016 and 2017, yellow fever began threatening humans and animals in Brazil. Researchers estimated that 32% of the wild golden lion tamarin population, or about 1,200 of 3,700 of the animals in the wild, died due to yellow fever. A successful vaccination campaign involved capturing, monitoring and releasing golden lion tamarins.
And in August, six male-female pairs of GLTs were returned to the wild after being confiscated by traffickers in 2023 and 2024. Government and conservation organizations helped return the GLTs to Brazil where Brazilian zoos cared for them until they were ready to return to their wild habitat.
There are also stories of how zoo-goers and the general public are part of this partnership in supporting the international effort to save GLTs. In 2017, children who visited the Philadelphia Zoo in Pennsylvania, wrote letters that influenced the Brazilian government to build a wildlife bridge over a major highway that cut through a vital GLT habitat.
Zoo partners and supporters raise funds to provide financial support for GLT conservation, including Zoo Atlanta, the American Association of Zoo Keepers’ chapter of Greensboro Science Center, Frankfurt Zoo, to name a few. Additionally, public education programs like those of the Brazilian Zoo Educators and the Philadelphia Zoo’s Unless contest raise awareness of the importance of animal conservation in zoos and in the wild.
Leus and Kerns emphasize that the work of conservation biologists, zoos, government entities, and the public to raise awareness of GLT species survival is critical. “It is important for us to continue this genetically diverse insurance population because conservation efforts never end,” Kerns said.