Onychorhynchus coronatus
Well-Known Member
Thanks, I'm definitely gonna check it out!
I was talking about the Superagüi tamarin, because I was thinking the same about the capture.
Besides what you said, I think nowadays there is also the problem of the *****ng... oops... dumb "activists" that, if just read "tamarins taken from the nature", are gonna start making silly campaigns on Instagram to set the animals free, and although it probably won't disturb the conservation program itself if it's well prepared, it will surely cunfuse the public opinion about the project and it's objectives... So it would have been better, as you said, if some of them were captured when they were discovered actually...
With the Superagüi lion tamarin it is really very difficult to know whether at this stage ex-situ captivity is a good option or more intensive in-situ work.
I tend to think in-situ over ex-situ as I think there is a need to improve habitat connectivity between the different meta-populations to prevent the likelihood of inbreeding depression / genetic bottlenecks and of course to secure the future of the species in the wild.
I know that ex-situ is currently only being considered by SPVS as a short-term option for injured tamarins and a long-term option for those that are injured and are unable to be rehabilitated to the wild.
That said, I do think that ex-situ insurance population of this species would have once been a good idea and absolutely should have been created in zoos way back in the 1990's when first proposed but unfortunately too much time was wasted and nothing done.
Yes, you are right, the capture of any species for ex-situ conservation is going to definitely be interpreted in the wrong way by the more radical elements in the animal rights activist movement.
Sadly for these activists it will be seen and portrayed as an "imprisonment" even if this action is a desperate way of preventing the outright extinction of a species. This is of course an incredibly ignorant and frustating attitude to have to deal with.
