Nature's Babies by Mike Dilger

Author:Mike Dilger
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2014-03-22T00:00:00+00:00

Sea lion

© Tui de Roy/FLPA

It’s sea lion milk for breakfast, lunch and dinner until the pup is finally ready to venture out to sea.

GOLDEN TWINS

With barely a thousand left in the wild, there are very few rarer monkeys than the highly threatened golden lion tamarins of Brazil’s beleaguered Atlantic coastal forests. These engaging, alert little monkeys are aptly named due to the long, silky golden fur around their faces.

Reduced to the precipice of extinction by logging and resulting forest fragmentation, their homes consist of small territories amongst the dense tangle of vines, high in the forest canopy. The tamarins use these labyrinthine corridors to scamper around during their never-ending search for fruit, the occasional insect and rainwater concentrated in aerial bromeliad plants. The species forms small troops of up between five to fourteen individuals, consisting of a dominant mating pair, who are usually the only pair to rear young, and their offspring from previous breeding seasons.

Following a surprisingly long gestation period for such a small mammal of between 126 and 130 days, twins are quite commonly born to the leading female. After the birth, all the adult members of the troop are keen to help with babysitting, with the ‘lion’s’ share of the duties surprisingly being carried out by the father, who adopts a very hands-on approach to his offspring. The youngsters become weaned by their mother at around 90 days, and if they can survive the perils of their first year, such as being eaten by birds of prey, cats or snakes, they may live for up to 15 years. Providing the tamarins’ homes can be protected, and after a very successful captive breeding programme, there are hopes that the babies of these charming animals will continue to be reared in the tree-tops for many years to come.

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