Charity set up to help save endangered monkeys

The Tamarin Trust was set up in March to help save critically endangered primates

The former head of mammals at Jersey Zoo has created a new charity to help save the most critically endangered primates on Earth.

Dominic Wormell set up the Tamarin Trust in March after working for the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust for 34 years.

The charity supports efforts to protect threatened species of tamarins and marmosets which are found in South and Central America.

Mr Wormell said 60% of all marmosets and tamarins were in decline.

The pied tamarin can only be found in the wild around the city of Manaus

He said the pied tamarin, which are only found in the wild around the city of Manaus in Brazil, were critically endangered.

"The pied tamarin is officially the most threatened of all the primates in the Amazon base, so we really have to make a stand," he said.

"They need help, part of that help is to manage those populations in those fragmented habitats."

Dominic Wormell said the charity supported efforts to protect the threatened species

Mr Wormell said the species would go extinct if they were not managed in the wild.

"Building captive populations is essential to the assurance of those populations in the wild," he said.

"Here in Jersey, Durrell has been working with marmosets and tamarins for over 50 years so we need to use that experience."

Durrell said it still had tamarins and marmosets at the zoo and it was working with local partners in Brazil to protect black lion tamarins and "reconnect isolated forest fragments by building tree corridors".