RIO DE JANEIRO — The overpass juts from a forest over a four-lane highway in a rural area outside Rio de Janeiro. It’s meant for a very special sort of pedestrian: golden lion tamarins, small orange primates that for decades have been at risk of extinction.
The little primate, whose name derives from the shock of orange fur that frames its face like a mane, has watched its habitat shrink over decades — even centuries — of rampant deforestation. Animal traffickers have also targeted the brightly colored monkeys.
Bowing to pressure from an environmental association the highway’s administrator in late July finished construction of the overpass that’s aimed at helping conserve the species.
About 65 feet wide and twice as long, the bridge connects the Poco de Dantas biological reserve in Rio state’s Silva Jardim municipality with a farm that the Golden Lion Tamarin Association acquired to transform into an ecological park.
Recently planted trees on the overpass are expected within two years to reach heights allowing the monkeys to cross from one swath of Atlantic forest to another.
Some of the monkeys, which weigh about a pound, can be seen clinging to the trees beyond in the forest beyond.
“Our objective is to consolidate a landscape of conservation for the monkey. The biggest problem is the fragmentation of the forests, which were already very deforested by the expansion of urban centers,” said Luiz Paulo Ferraz, a geographer and executive secretary of the association, known by its Portugese initial as AMLD. Connecting the forests means more space for the primates to roam and reproduce, and so to sustain genetic diversity, he said.