Conservation Efforts for Pied Tamarins (Saguinus bicolor) - Evaluating Ecological Corridors for Restoring the Forest Fragments of Urban Manaus, Brazil

Sammanfattning: One of the Amazon´s most endangered species is the small New World primate, ´pied tamarin´ (Saguinus bicolor). The species only occurs in the vicinity of the Brazilian Amazonas state capital city Manaus, where greatly scattered and fragmented small patches of highly degraded forest remain. The on-going growth of Manaus urban area has created habitat fragments where the pied tamarins now try to persevere. However, the city’s incriminating matrix of busy roads and power lines, along with humans and both feral and domesticated pets, creates an impenetrable landscape for the dispersal of the species. The reduced size and poor quality of most forest fragments and the ultimate need for the dispersal of surplus individuals has highly deleterious implications for the survival of the local populations. By analysing the remaining forest fragments in urban Manaus, the aim of this study was to identify specific corridors in central Manaus that can be implemented and then to rank them according to their attributes. Having knowledge of the attributes of each passage while creating a ranking list makes planning of how to connect the fragments in order to aid the tamarin dispersal quicker and more direct. By assessing the individual grades of the corridors it will be easily recognisable where Governments, Universities, Zoos and Conservation Organizations should concentrate the most energy and resources into conserving the species.