Saving Brazil's golden monkey, one green corridor at a time - Times of India
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RIO DE JANEIRO: Dozens of young people kneeled under the scorching sun this week in Rio de Janeiro 's rural interior, planting a green corridor that will be a future safe passageway for an emblematic and endangered species, the golden lion tamarin. The 300 tree seedlings they planted this week - only inches tall at present - will eventually connect two patches of forest together.It is the latest in a series of incremental forest growth initiatives driven by environmentalists, providing an ever-larger habitat for the monkey. Until recently, the bare and dry land they were replanting belonged to a ranch owner who had torn down its trees for cattle pasture. Rampant deforestation over centuries has decimated this part of Brazil's Atlantic Forest , the only place in the world where the small, copper-colored monkey whose face is framed by a silken mane can be found. With fewer than 5,000 individuals, it is considered an endangered species. "One of the biggest pr