A bridge has been built to help endangered monkeys cross motorway

Virgin Radio

15 Dec 2021, 12:15

How clever (and cute) is this?

A bridge has been built in Brazil, to protect some endangered monkeys.

As the world becomes increasingly busy, it becomes harder for animals to navigate around built-up areas.

The new bridge has been specially built for the monkeys, to help them cross a busy road safely to access the forest.

It comes after conservationists in Rio de Janeiro were concerned about the adorable golden lion tamarins and their safety.

The threatened monkeys are now only found in the Atlantic Forest.

Conservationists worried that the tamarins were now isolated in a small area due to the busy roads, but by building this new bridge they hope the monkeys will now spread over a wider area.

Sadly in 2018, a yellow fever outbreak wiped out 32% of the population, which left just 2,500 of the tiny monkeys in the wild.

This huge setback was a tragedy for the monkeys after experts and conservationists had spent decades building their population back up.

Luis Paulo Marques Ferraz is the executive director of the project helping the tamarins and said: "Scientists have shown that the population living there would be completely isolated from the other side of the road and that would create a real problem in terms of conservation.

"Genetically that population would be isolated and that is really bad. ‘We need a large forest protected and connected."

The conservationists believe around 95% of their original habitat has been lost in Brazil.

Mr Ferraz said: ‘That’s why this bridge here was so strategic and important for the conservation program.’

Apparently a population of 2,000 golden lion tamarins should have at least 25,000 hectares of forest.

This is no standard concrete bridge, as it has been planted with trees, shrubs and plants.

The scientists hope it will make the bridge attractive to the monkeys, however, the plants have to grow big enough to support the monkeys.