Native only to northwestern Colombia, cotton-top tamarins are one of the most endangered primates in the world. CNN recently covered these tiny monkeys on one of their Call to Earth episodes featuring Rosamira Guillen, Executive Director of Proyecto Tití (PT), and discussed her efforts to protect these monkeys and their habitat.
A cotton-top tamarin and its baby.
Before her career in conservation, Rosamira was a landscape architect. She was hired to help build a zoo, where she first encountered the cotton-top tamarin, affectionately known as the “titi” by the locals. Due to being illegally sold as pets and their tropical habitat being destroyed for cattle ranching, cotton-tops have been driven to the brink of extinction. For the last two decades, Rosamira and PT have been trying to restore the fractured habitat of cotton-tops in Colombia.
By purchasing land and restoring forests, Proyecto Tití is reconnecting cotton-top habitat.
PT has developed strategies to acquire land in an effort to connect fragmented patches of forest. Through collaboration with private landowners, conservation organizations like Wildlife Conservation Network, and crowdfunded conservation platforms like ReWorld, PT has been able to secure key sections of land for cotton-tops and reconnect fragmented forests into larger, protected ecosystems that will be protected forever.
Learn more about Proyecto Tití’s forest restoration work by watching Call to Earth.
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