We organized the “Black lion-tamarins’ walk” (A Caminhada dos Micos), together with the Secretaria do Meio Ambiente of the Municipality of Guareí which involved 165 10-to-11-year-old children and their teachers.
The aim of the event was to transmit important information about the distribution, behavior, ecology and conservation of the Black Lion Tamarins and how to protect them through different activities and an educational walk in the area where two Black Lion Tamarin groups are frequently seen crossing the road. Along the educational walk, we placed four posters about:
1) How to recognize the Black Lion Tamarin?
2) Where does the Black Lion Tamarin live?
3) What do the Black Lion Tamarin eat?
4) How to protect the Black Lion Tamarin?
Then, the children were invited to take part in different games aiming to explain why the species is threatened and why it is important to protect it. The activities broached the following topics: primate distribution, Black Lion Tamarin diet, the role of Black Lion Tamarins as seed dispersers, the importance of the forest for the protection of the species and the effect of fragmentation on gene flow. The event had a great success and we hope that, by reaching the young generation, the word to protect the Black Lion Tamarins will be spread to all ages. In order to measure that, we planned a new survey to re-evaluate the knowledge of the population about the species in the beginning of 2016.
Funding: PROEX (Pró-Reitoria de Extensão Universitária)
Collaborators: Secretaria do Meio Ambiente