Dwindling habitat and the pet trade have pushed these tiny monkeys to the brink of extinction.
With their flash of white hair and tiny stature – cotton-tops fit in the palm of your hand – it’s easy to understand how they’ve been snagged as desirable pets.
Although they were declared endangered in 1973 they only recently became the focus of conservationists.
David Gill has been working with the multidisciplinary Proyecto Titi, or Project Tamarin, for three years now.
As well as providing funding, Mr Gill was recently invited to Baranquilla, on the northern Caribbean coast of Colombia, to offer practical assistance to the project.
His style of semi-wild facilities at South Lakes Wild Animal Park is in great demand across the globe, with many zoos wishing to move away from cages to create more natural enclosures.
While he was there Mr Gill started looking creatively at practical ways Dalton zoo could help the tamarins.
His idea is to sell square-metre patches of rainforest here in Furness to conserve the equivalent area of land in Colombia.
Explaining the concept, Mr Gill said: “We went out to the forest and saw the fragments that were left suitable for cotton-topped tamarins. It’s frightening how vulnerable these tamarins are.
“We want to look at these forest fragments to see if we could get involved with purchasing them to protect them forever. We thought we could start a small project, based in El Ceibal.
“On that ranch there’s a 400 hectare plot of forest, full of life. It’s full of howler monkeys, three different species of macaw, tortoises and cotton-topped tamarins.
“It’s an island of forest surrounded by cattle ranches. That particular area floods in the wet season. It isn’t being used because it isn’t easy to turn into grassland, otherwise it would have been destroyed by now. Further across there’s an area of forest that’s also suitable.
“So what we thought was we would try to buy the grassland to be a corridor in between the two plots.
“We came up with a scheme to encourage visitors to buy a metre square of rainforest. It’s 400 hectares and there’s 10,000 square metres in a hectare.
“It still seems like a very achievable thing, even if we can only put down half of it.
“We want to try and buy it so we could protect it for all these species.”
Key to conserving Colombia’s natural habitats is getting the local communities on board.
How do you convince the villagers that the tamarins are not worth sacrificing to the pet trade?
Through education programmes and by creating more sustainable living solutions, the tamarin has now become a living emblem, to the extent that the species is celebrated in an annual cultural festival.
“The problem was the local villagers saw the forest for firewood and tamarins for the pet trade,” explained Mr Gill.
“So we had to go to the villages and come up with some sort of idea of how to help them so they could help the forest. They came up with an outstanding idea themselves. They started collecting supermarket carrier bags that people were recycling.
“They slit the bag open with scissors into really long strips of plastic and crochet them into solid, reusable shopping bags. It’s an amazing little business and so useful.
“Now they’ve got this totally sustainable business. What they’ve seen is if they protect the forest and animals they’re going to see big rewards in their village. It works really well.”
Mr Gill then moved to the country’s capital city Medellin and its Santa Fe Zoo.
The park has been funding a project to rehabilitate red howler monkeys since 2005. Although these monkeys once thrived in South America, they have also suffered at the hands of the pet trade and through deforestation.
With their huge black eyes baby howler monkeys are sought-after pets. Their parents are shot and the babies are sold as pets, for as little as £5 each, despite it being prohibited.
The illegal pets are confiscated by police and brought to Santa Fe Zoo, often badly malnourished after being fed anything from dog food to leftovers.
“When they get socialised they’re moved from Medellin to La Pintada,” said Mr Gill. “At that site they have lots of different cages and then they go into semi-wild areas.
“We’ve now got three groups of red howler monkeys in the wild that are breeding.
“Santa Cruz was born while I was there. He was born on Santa Cruz day.
“It was wonderful to see them because it takes two years at least to get them out. It’s a dedicated team. I’ve always been impressed by them.
“Medellin, significantly, is behind the whole thing.”
While he was there Mr Gill signed an agreement to support the zoo for the next 10 years.
The zoo is twinned with South Lakes Wild Animal Park to exchange knowledge and staff.
“This is the first time a zoo from Europe has twinned with a zoo from South America,” said Mr Gill.
“They don’t have a lot of money and it’s a traditional zoo with horrible cages but they have the will and want to change.
“When I went this year they had quite a few ideas and asked me to look at the redesign and redevelopment of the zoo. My main thrust is to get their monkeys out of cages into the trees.
“So far 32 animals have been released. There are about 27 in the project at the moment being trained.
“When we went down we took another four animals with us.
“If we weren’t supporting them they wouldn’t be able to do the work.
“We’ve been the only people supporting their work for three years.
“They provide the staff and veterinary equipment and we will provide all the other stuff they need.”
At South Lakes Wild Animal Park live cotton-tops and howlers, along with their story, are on display to educate people about these fantastic monkeys.
By supporting the park, visitors are helping to protect these monkeys from a distance.
