5-6-21

My son is so done with school. He and I are in much need of some time off. Yesterday was rough. We ended up calling it quits early in the school day because he was mopey and cranky. He asked me when the last day of school will be. I told him I don’t have a specific day marked on the calendar. Instead, I have a list of assignments I want to complete. When all the assignments are done, the school year will be over. In truth, we finished the fifth grade curriculum weeks ago. Now, we are basically operating on an independent study model. So I could conceivably end school tomorrow. But I won’t, because then he’d want to spend his days watching television. And that would drive me mad. However, we will take a long break since we both would go mad without it.

Today, G3 finished his third and final science research paper. As a result, I have concluded that science is over for the year. When he hit save and I announced, “One subject down, four to go,” I expected a sigh of relief. A cheer of celebration. Instead, he groaned, “But I like science. I want to keep doing it.” In short, I can’t win. I make him work and he complains. I tell him from now on our school days will be shorter and he still complains. 

In this, his most recent paper, he wrote about golden lion tamarins. I’m not sure I ever heard of them until he started doing the research. I told him he could chose either a science or history topic for his essay. He chose science. And when I asked him what specifically he wanted to research he immediately said, “Another animal.” Which animal took him a little longer to decide.  What I found most interesting was what he discovered in regards to COVID and conservation. We’ve all been living a nightmare this past year. We can all talk about how COVID has negatively impacted our lives, but it’s not just us it’s affecting. 

In writing this essay, G3’s exasperation with all the writing I’ve made him do is evident. He’s frustrated, but he was able to channel his frustration into a bit of humor. If nothing else, this year, I feel he’s really found his voice and he expresses himself very well in his work. I fear next year, his teacher will not quite approve. In school, kids are taught how to write in a very dry manner. They are taught to keep the “I” out of their work and to follow a strict formula and endless rules. Yes, rules are important, but some of them serve no purpose but to stifle creativity. I will be curious to see how G3’s writing evolves when he returns to real school.

Golden Lion Tamarins: The Real Lorax

Alright, I am going to be honest, I have no reason whatsoever to research golden lion tamarins. My mom wanted me to research another animal so I could write a 54th paper. I might have chosen them because they look like they know a dirty secret and are dying to tell it. But I am being honest, so I will say that this animal was the third primate I came across in Wikipedia. I do know that Wikipedia is not a reliable site, but I just needed an animal since I forgot to find one over the weekend. In this paper, I will talk about how the golden lion tamarins are endangered, how scientists are trying to save them, their habitat, family, and more.

The golden lion tamarin was named after its ancestor, the lion. No, I am just messing with you. It was named after the fact that it has a mane that resembles a lion’s. This tiny endangered omnivore has a black face and long silk-like golden fur.  A golden lion tamarin’s  scientific name is Leontopithecus Rosalia. Leontopithecus is the genus; Rosalia is the species. 

Each group of these primates is called a troop. The father of young tamarins helps care for them. He also carries them on his back. The mother usually gives birth to two young at a time. A family can have two to eight members.

There are two things that make them unlike my mom. One is that they are social animals and the other is they weigh 21-29 ounces. My mom is not social and she is fluffy. The usual length for this creature is 13-8 inches and the tail is 12-16 inches in length. There are four lion tamarin species. Due to the fact that they live in trees, they have really long fingers which help them grip branches. In the trees in which they live, they usually sleep 3-10 meters high. Their life span in the wild is 15 years. If you are wondering, they are diurnal with means they like to sleep at night like my moms. Other monkeys have a lot in common with these primates.

The tamarins live in the rainforest in Brazil. Before I say more about the tamarins, I want to say the largest river basin in the world is the Amazon. This tropical rainforest has high humidity and a lot of rain. Organisms are everywhere and there are almost a million different species. There are a lot not recored. (The area in which the golden lion tamarin lives is only ten percent of what the conquistadors saw.) The Portuguese deforested so much land in the 1500s that in 1797 Queen Maria ordered it to stop. The rainforest has 2,155 vertebrae species, 20,000 plant species, and 8,000 endemic species. Brazil passed a law in 2006 prohibiting the removal of vegetation.

Insects, lizards, fruit, and birds is not the meal I would choose. But every morning, noon, and night this primate feasts on all of these types of food. The food they eat, they find in their habitat which is in the Rio De Janeiro state of Brazil. Like chimps, they use their long fingers to stripe off bark to look for food. Children may steel food from siblings or adults. Just like any parent, they give their child food if they are hungry.

Logging, industry, and agriculture slowly peel away at the tamarins’ habitat. In 1970, only 150 golden lion tamarins were left in the wild due to humans’ selfish existence. We only care about money and don’t care if wildlife gets hurt. The deforestation has forced the population to become smaller and live in smaller quarters. By living like this the population does not have generic diversity which weakens the species as a whole. Some scientists are breeding the primates then releasing them into the wild. This act helped the population climb to 3,200 animals in 2014.

Yellow fever outbreaks happened in the communities in 2017. It was the worst outbreak in this species in 180 years. Thirty percent of the population (or if it is easier to understand 1,000 tamarins) died of yellow fever. Tracking the monkeys helped with giving them a diluted version of the vaccine given to humans to prevent the disease from spreading. If they were not vaccinated, they got sick and were not able to climb up the trees to get to their homes. It took about seven months before scientists were able to put vaccines in the furry arms because they needed a permit. 

While vaccinating the tamarins, COVID-19 struck putting a large damper on preventing yellow fever. Without the vaccine, the primates could go extinct. COVID-19, for the past year, has been threatening the efforts of conservationists and scientists. The government eventually allowed them to work in small groups while wearing masks to vaccinate the tamarins.

I have now just learned things myself and grew to like these furry primates. They are not a danger to us, but we are a danger to them. We have to remember, if we take away too much forest many animals might die. This will disturb the ecosystem. No matter what, we have to think of nature because animals can’t defend themselves. Just like many prophecies in novels,  we are either the destruction or the savior of animals, including the golden lion tamarins. 

Bibliography

“Amazon Rainforest.” Encyclopedia Britannica 

“Golden Lion Tamarin.” Encyclopedia Britannica 

“Golden Lion Tamarin,” National Geographic. March 10, 2011. nationalgeographic.com (Accessed 4-10-21).

“Pandemic Threatens Half-Century of efforts to Protect Rare Monkeys,” National Geographic. August 24, 2020. nationalgeographic.com (Accessed 4-10-21). 

Garbus, Julia, and Noah Berlatsky. “Tamarin, Golden Lion.” UXL Endangered Species, edited by Kathleen J. Edgar, 3rd ed., vol. 1: Mammals, UXL, 2016, pp. 234-236.

Russo, Gene. “Biodiversity’s Bright Spot: While species losses mount worldwide, conservationists in Brazil have made great strides towards saving the golden lion tamarin and its forest habitat from destruction.” Nature, vol. 462, no. 7271, 2009, p. 266.

Zajac, Linda. “Searching for monkeys: a scientist journeys into the world of the golden lion tamarin.” Highlights for Children, vol. 69, no. 12, Dec. 2014, p. 16.

National Zoo. https://nationalzoo.si.edu/animals/golden-lion-tamarin (Accessed 4-30-21)