[monkeywire] Endangered monkey now more endangered
Carrie McLaren
temporary181 at stayfreemagazine.org
Wed Jun 6 17:32:15 EDT 2007
Rare Monkey Stolen From Zoo In Brazil
Zoo Officials Say Theft Of Amazon Monkey May Hurt Efforts To
Repopulate Endangered Species
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/06/06/ap/tech/main2894404.shtml
SAO PAULO, Brazil, Jun. 6, 2007
(AP) The theft of a rare Amazon monkey from a Brazilian zoo could
harm biologists' efforts to repopulate the endangered species, zoo
officials said Wednesday.
Workers arriving at the zoo Tuesday morning noticed the male pied
tamarin was missing, and found a wrench and a coat left behind in its
cage.
"This is a significant loss," said Luiz Antonio da Silva Pires,
director of the city zoo in Bauru, 220 miles northwest of Sao Paulo.
"The monkey was likely one of the few still alive in captivity and we
were hoping to use it to start a new population and keep the species
alive."
Pires said the pied tamarins have increasingly lost their natural
habitat because of urban growth and as farmers slash down jungle to
graze cattle. How many are still alive is not known, although they
have occasionally been sighted near the jungle city of Manaus, 1,700
miles northwest of Sao Paulo.
The zoo has been trying for months to find a female pied tamarin to
mate with the 2.2-pound monkey.
"It's hard to say who would do this," Pires said. "This monkey would
not be sold very easily; it's not usually used as a pet." Police did
not have any suspects.
According to Renctas, a Brazilian organization that fights animal
smuggling, illegal trafficking of rare species generates about $2
billion a year in the country. Many of the animals are sold to
collectors in the United States, Europe and Asia.
Brazil's environmental protection agency alerted agents nationwide in
an attempt to find the monkey, spokesman Gustavo Rick said.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This
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