The Tamarin Trust – Saving the world's smallest monkeys from extinction

The Tamarin Trust supports the conservation of the smallest monkeys in the world – the marmosets and tamarins. For more information about our projects, please click on the projects or images below, or watch our short introductory video.

I was so inspired by the work of the late Jeremy Mallinson with the conservation of tamarins in Brazil, especially his support for golden-headed lion tamarins, that I decided to devote my life to working with these wonderful little primates and fight for their conservation. I hope I can do justice to the initiatives that Jeremy started, and develop and set up further projects to conserve some of the most threatened primates on this planet.

– Dominic Wormell, founder of Tamarin Trust

Saving the world’s smallest monkeys from extinction

News

Tamarin Trust heads back to Brazil

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28 March 2025

Support needed now

Tamarin Trust is currently raising funds to buy a car for the Mountain Marmoset Conservation Program.

Buffy tufted-ear marmoset

Buffy-headed marmoset

Example of the vehicle we are hoping to buy

The Mountain Marmoset Conservation Program (MMCP) focuses on two endangered marmoset species, the buffy-headed marmoset and the buffy tufted-ear marmoset. Both face severe threats through isolation in small fragments of forest, competition and hybridisation with invasive marmoset species, and the re-emergence of yellow fever. The project, led by Dr Rodrigo Salles de Carvalho, is part of the Brazilian government’s conservation strategy for the primates of the Atlantic rainforest.

Vital to the MMCP are surveys to find all remaining populations of the mountain marmosets and assess their situation. These are often in remote mountainous areas that are extremely difficult to search, and most of the tracks used are completely unsuitable for the normal road vehicle that the researchers are having to use at present.

So it would be a huge help if the project could buy a small off-road vehicle (costing about £9000). Individuals willing to help with the purchase would be named on our website if they wished, and institutional sponsors would have their logo on the vehicle, a fantastic PR opportunity to publicise their support for work to help save the rarest marmosets on earth. If you can help please get in contact with Dom Wormell (domwormell@tamarintrust.org) or Rodrigo Carvalho (rodrigosallesdecarvalho@gmail.com).

Saving the world’s rarest marmosets

The buffy-headed and buffy tufted-ear marmosets are found only in the highlands of Brazil’s Atlantic forest. They are very threatened by habitat loss, and also by other species of marmoset that have invaded their ranges, competing with them for resources, and sometimes hybridising with them. If this continues, these two marmoset species face extinction. Our partners in the Mountain Marmoset Conservation Program urgently need to carry out a rapid survey of the remaining populations, to identify where they live, and where they are most at risk.

We are also hoping to fund a documentary about the conservation of these marmosets, to raise awareness of their plight.

Rescue centres for pied tamarins

Pied tamarins are living on the edge in and around the Amazonian city of Manaus. As they try to move between one tiny patch of forest within the city and the next, they are at risk from road traffic, cats and dogs, and electrocution from power lines. Tamarins in trouble are taken to rescue centres, where they can be treated for illness or injury, prior to being released again into the wild, or if they cannot, become part of a breeding programme.

We are planning to support the building of a specialist centre for pied tamarins in Manaus, alongside helping the existing rescue centres with enclosure upgrades, purchase of appropriate transportation boxes, and their medical and maintenance expenses.

Tamarin and marmoset workshops

We are continuing to run a series of workshops in Brazil focusing on the conservation management of threatened marmosets and tamarins. The workshops bring together Brazilian conservationists and policy makers working in rescue centres, zoos, universities, national and local government. All accommodation and food for attendees is paid for by the workshop organisers. This helps key staff working directly with our target species to attend.

Workshops in our species’ home countries help to build up skills and expertise, so that captive populations and reintroductions can be as successful as possible.