AMAZING GRACE

The birth of a highly endangered primate once believed to be extinct is helping to give this irreplaceable species a future.

On 12th December 2021, we welcomed a precious baby black lion tamarin, named Grace, to the troop at Jersey Zoo. Sadly, the tiny baby did not have the easiest start to life and was discovered alone by keepers, too weak to hold onto her mother. So, our expert team, who have extensive experience of hand rearing different species of tamarin, made the decision to step in to give her the best chance of survival. Our dedicated team of mammal keepers took it in turns to care for Grace, who, in the beginning, needed to be fed every two hours throughout the day and night.

Usually, the keepers would only hand-rear an animal for a short period of time before returning the baby to the mother to suckle. Unfortunately, Grace did not manage to do so during the first two weeks, so the keepers continued to care for her until she was strong enough to fully return to the family at around two and a half months old. She is now back with her family full-time, sleeping and feeding with the group. Her mother is the only breeding female outside of Brazil, and now Grace too will play a very important part in the breeding programme to help safeguard the future of her species

Durrell has been working to save the black lion tamarin for over three decades and Jersey is currently the only place in the world you can see the beautiful black lion tamarin outside of its native Brazil.