We've successfully hand-reared golden lion tamarin twins!

It’s been a long and rewarding journey to get the twins, female Aurora and male Raffino, to this point and has required the considerable skill, passion and commitment of our primate keepers.

As Primate team leader Amy explains, the decision to hand-rear is never taken lightly as there are always risks involved. Our primate team used their expertise, coupled with the best science and the knowledge that the twins would have each other to bond with, to make this decision and without it these critically endangered twins would have simply not survived. 

Filmed over the past three and a half months, we put our primate team’s mahi on show as they go from feeding the twins around the clock, to weaning them off of milk and onto solid foods like delicious mango, the successful integration with their parents Alonzo and Frida, and finally, welcoming the family unit into their Rainforest habitat!

We’re now one of the few places in the world that can proudly say we’ve successfully hand-reared golden lion tamarins and will be adding to global knowledge about the species. You can see the new family troop of four at Auckland Zoo this weekend.