Baby tamarin born by C-section in Jersey

BABY BOY: The young tamarin is doing well

May 2011: The birth of a healthy male black lion tamarin has been announced by keepers at Durrell.

The baby, which was born at the end of March by Caesarean section, represents a great achievement for the conservation charity as this is the first black lion tamarin baby to have been successfully bred outside of Brazil in the past eight years.

Commenting on this exciting news, Mark Brayshaw, Head of Durrell's animal collection said: ‘This birth is great news; monitoring and successfully delivering the baby has been a very tricky event to manage. Predicting when the infant would be sufficiently developed yet intervening prior to natural parturition has been key and has involved dedicated input from the mammal team with lots of early mornings and late nights to monitor progress.'

'This is a step in the right direction'
Discussing the significance of the birth he went on to say: ‘The importance of this is that it is the first live birth of a black lion tamarin in captivity outside of Brazil for eight years and thus incredibly important to the European Endangered Species Programme. There is still a very long way to go to ensure that the captive population's viability is assured but this is most definitely a step in the right direction. It has been a fantastic demonstration of Durrell's mammal and vet departments' skill, collaboration and tenacity.'

There are nine critically endangered black lion tamarins, including the new baby, at Durrell's headquarters in Jersey. In 1999 the Durrell team reached a crucial stage in the species' recovery programme, when a group of black lion tamarins trained in woods at the Trinity wildlife park were returned to Brazil for reintroduction to the wild.

This baby has been named Francisco after the head of Durrell's veterinary department who delivered him. He is the first healthy baby born to new mum Roxanne, who has previously lost two babies and suffered several miscarriages. Due to her previous problems, the decision was made to monitor her four-and-a-half-month pregnancy carefully and to deliver the baby by caesarean section at the appropriate time.

So far both mother and baby are doing well. The infant is being hand-reared and syringe fed every two hours throughout the day and night and over the next few weeks they will slowly teach him to lap milk from a dish. When he is able to do this successfully he can be returned to his family.