Race to vaccinate rare wild monkeys gives hope for survival

By CHRISTINA LARSON
AP Science Writer

SILVA JARDIM, Brazil (AP) — A pioneering campaign to vaccinate endangered monkeys in Brazil against yellow fever may help save the beloved golden lion tamarins from extinction. But it also raises profound questions about when scientists should intervene to protect animals in an increasingly human-disrupted world. When yellow fever began to spread in Brazil in 2016, resulting in more than 2,000 human infections and around 750 deaths, it also quickly killed a third of the highly vulnerable tamarins. So scientists in Brazil developed a yellow-fever vaccine customized for the endangered monkeys. So far, they’ve vaccinated more than 300 tamarins. The campaign has risks, but if the scientists get it right, it could show what’s possible to save threatened wildlife.