At the beginning of December 2025, Tamarin Trust, with our partners Zoomelhor, coordinated a conservation husbandry workshop in southern Brazil, bringing together rescue centres, zoos, universities, and government agencies to improve the management of primates in human care and threatened primate populations in the wild.

The workshop, in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, was held at Sapucaia do Sul Zoo and focused on improving protocols for the care of sensitive primates. The goal is to increase the number of institutions in Brazil managing endangered species, building secure conservation populations of 100–200 individuals for each species. These safety-net populations are essential to prevent extinction in the wild, and to carry out future reintroductions into forest areas that have been protected or restored. As it is best to establish these assurance populations within the species’ home range, in their own countries, Tamarin Trust has an ongoing programme of workshops focusing on building the necessary skills and knowledge, of which this was the latest.

Several experts in primate husbandry from the UK and America also took part in the workshop. Mark Brayshaw (curator of mammals at Chester Zoo), Suzanne Husbands (curator of mammals at Toledo Zoo) and Gale Glendewar, who worked for many years at Jersey Zoo with marmosets and tamarins, along with Tamarin Trust’s Dom Wormell, collectively have well over 100 years of experience in primate husbandry. This is so important to disseminate to others: sharing experiences, successes and failures can help to improve husbandry protocols and put institutions that may have little previous opportunities to develop the necessary skills and expertise on the fast track to success. Importantly it also builds international partnerships that will work together over time to strengthen the situation for primates both in the wild and in captivity.

One of the major threats discussed during the workshop was the widespread electrocution of primates. Unprotected power lines are a serious hazard, particularly in urban areas, and electrocution is now a leading cause of death for several species where there habitat has been taken by urban development. Addressing this issue at a national level may become a key focus of future work. Threats like this mean that rescue centres that operate at the acute end of rehabilitation and reintroduction will be crucial to many species’ survival in the future, improving the welfare of animals that become injured, isolated or trapped by human development and habitat loss. They also have a hugely important role in developing the skills to successfully reintroduce and monitor released animals and to be able to manage fragmented populations across the landscape. Large scale management of tiny satellite populations will need to happen to avoid local extinctions over time.

All in all, it was an inspiring week with many new partnerships forged, plans for new NGOs and specialist rescue centres developed, and new approaches adopted. We are very grateful to the Balcombe Charitable Trust for supporting this workshop.

Here is a video of Dom Wormell discussing his thoughts after the workshop: https://www.facebook.com/reel/3968971373404656