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Race to vaccinate rare wild monkeys gives hope for survival

A golden lion tamarin sits in a tree in the Atlantic Forest region of Silva Jardim, Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil, Friday, July 8, 2022. The little primate, whose name derives from the shock of orange fur that frames its face like a mane, has watched its habitat shrink over decades — even centuries -- of rampant deforestation. Animal traffickers have also targeted the brightly colored monkeys. (AP Photo/Bruna Prado) Field coordinator Andréia Martins releases a golden lion tamarin after it was inoculated against yellow fever, in the Atlantic Forest region of Silva Jardim, Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil, Tuesday, July 12, 2022. The longtime biologist for the nonprofit Golden Lion Tamarin Association can spot the tiny shimmer of golden fur among a green canopy and recognize more than 18 distinct vocalizations – from the specific calls of alpha males to their mates, to varying sounds to alert young monkeys to different types of food and predators. (AP Photo/Bruna Prado) Research assistant Ademilson de Oliveira wraps sheets of newspapers around a cage holding a golden lion tamarin as a way of reducing stress for the animal, before it is vaccinated against yellow fever in a lab run by the nonprofit Golden Lion Tamarin Association, in the Atlantic Forest region of Silva Jardim, Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil, Monday, July 11, 2022. While authorities elsewhere have inoculated animals to safeguard human health, it's still very rare for scientists to administer vaccine injections to directly protect an endangered species. (AP Photo/Bruna Prado) A golden lion tamarin is measured before it is inoculated with a yellow fever vaccine at a lab run by the Golden Lion Tamarin Association, in the Atlantic Forest region of Silva Jardim Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil, Monday, July 11, 2022. While authorities elsewhere have inoculated animals to safeguard human health – vaccinating feral dogs and wild animals such as raccoons for rabies and other diseases – it's still very rare for scientists to administer vaccine injections to directly protect an endangered species. (AP Photo/Bruna Prado) Carlos Ramon Ruiz Miranda, right, president of the Golden Lion Tamarin Association, talks with field coordinator Andréia Martins, while logging in information, in their lab in the Silva Jardim region, Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil, Monday, July 11, 2022. Martins has been tracking golden lion tamarins in the rainforest for nearly four decades. (AP Photo/Bruna Prado) A golden lion tamarin is examined before it is inoculated with a yellow fever vaccine in a lab run by the nonprofit Golden Lion Tamarin Association, in the Atlantic Forest region of Silva Jardim, Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil, Monday, July 11, 2022. When the golden lion tamarin population was being decimated by yellow fever, conservationists who had toiled for decades to protect the monkeys were sharply divided over whether to inoculate the tamarins. Some were hopeful, at first, the virus wouldn't impact the monkeys; others worried that any kind of novel intervention would be too risky. (AP Photo/Bruna Prado) Veterinarian Suelen Sanches Ferreira, left, inoculates a pregnant golden lion tamarin with a yellow fever vaccine, in a lab run by the nonprofit Golden Lion Tamarin Association, in the Atlantic Forest region of Silva Jardim, Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil, Monday, July 11, 2022. Conservationists who had toiled for decades to protect the monkeys were sharply divided over whether to inoculate the tamarins. Some were hopeful, at first, the virus wouldn't impact the monkeys; others worried that any kind of novel intervention would be too risky. (AP Photo/Bruna Prado) Marcos da Silva Freire, who led the work of experimental vaccination of golden lion tamarins for yellow fever, walks on a dirt road on his family’s property in the Atlantic Forest region of the Silva Jardim region, in Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil, Saturday, July 9, 2022. The first monkeys were released near here, behind that hill,” he said, recalling the afternoon nearly 40 years ago of one of the first successful reintroductions of golden lion tamarins. (AP Photo/Bruna Prado) A vehicle drives under an ecological corridor that allows animals to cross over a highway in Silva Jardim, Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil, Sunday, July 10, 2022. The bridge connects the Poco de Dantas biological reserve with a farm that the nonprofit Golden Lion Tamarin Association acquired to transform into an ecological park. (AP Photo/Lucas Dumphreys) A golden lion tamarin that has been vaccinated against yellow fever is transported in a cage, to be released in the Atlantic Forest region of Silva Jardim, Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil, Tuesday, July 12, 2022. Around the 1960's, before conservation efforts were put into effect, habitat loss and poaching for the pet trade had reduced the number of golden lion tamarins to as low as 200 in the wild. (AP Photo/Bruna Prado) Research assistant Ademilson de Oliveira uses a telemetry device to locate golden lion tamarins in the Atlantic Forest region of Silva Jardim, Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil, Friday, July 8, 2022. Many golden lion tamarins are descendants of animals carefully released in 1984, in cooperation with local landowners. That effort and subsequent campaigns to replant and connect parcels of rainforest, has seen the population of tamarins slowly recover. (AP Photo/Bruna Prado) Golden lion tamarins, vaccinated against yellow fever, are carried in cages to be released, in the Atlantic Forest region of Silva Jardim, Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil, Tuesday, July 12, 2022. The effort to save the charismatic monkeys has led to a pioneering captive breeding program, coordinated among around 150 zoos worldwide, including the Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington, DC. (AP Photo/Bruna Prado) A golden lion tamarin sits in a cage after it was captured in order to be vaccinated against yellow fever, in the Atlantic Forest region of Silva Jardim, Rio de Janeiro state, Tuesday, July 12, 2022. The pioneering inoculation campaign started last year. The first such effort in Brazil, and one of the first worldwide. (AP Photo/Bruna Prado) A golden lion tamarin is handled by researchers after it was vaccinated against yellow fever in a lab run by the nonprofit Golden Lion Tamarin Association in the Atlantic Forest region of Silva Jardim, Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil, Monday, July 11, 2022. Scientists in Brazil adapted a human yellow-fever vaccine to inoculate these endangered monkeys after yellow fever began to spread among the human population in Brazil in 2016, which quickly killed a third of the highly vulnerable tamarins, the majority of them in just a few months. (AP Photo/Bruna Prado)