about 50% of its time in only 11% of its home range. Its ranging patterns appear to be strongly influenced by resource acquisition and much less by territorial defense. The groups showed very few encounters with neighboring groups, but when it did occur, the encounters were always aggressive, and included intensive bouts of long-calling, chases, and fights between the different groups. The golden-headed lion tamarin spends much of its time foraging and traveling within its home range to the next foraging site. Keep in mind that this study was completed at the biggest intact forest available to L. chrysomelas, so its behavior may change depending on the habitat and resources available. At a golden-headed lion tamarin site in Lemos Maia, it was shown that groups had an average home range of only 63 hectares, but they ranged in a patch of forest that was almost entirely discontinuous from the neighboring forests. Range Its home range may be large in order to provide a sufficient amount of easily depletable fruit and prey foraging sites over the long term. On average it defended home ranges that are 123 hectares. Space is not necessarily used exclusively, and golden-headed lion tamarin groups may occupy areas that overlap to some extent at their borders Conservation The IUCN Red List categorized the golden-headed lion tamarin as endangered in 1982. According to Costa, Leite, Mendes, and Ditchfield, Brazil accounts for about 14% of the world's biota and has the largest mammal diversity in the world, with more than 530 described species. According to the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA), out of the 24 endemic primates of the Atlantic Forest, 15 of them are threatened. Brazil's Atlantic forest is one of the most endangered ecosystems on earth, in which the majority of the original forest has been cleared for farming, mining, ranching & expanding urban centers. The four species of lion tamarin have been studied and managed extensively, combining research on ecology, captive breeding, reintroduction and translocation, habitat restoration and protection, and environmental education. Threats to survival The forest of Bahia, Brazil has been reduced to 2% due to farming, ranching, mining and urbanization. The Atlantic Forest is highly fragmented, and the disappearance of this habitat is the main reason for the golden-headed lion tamarin's decline. The majority of the forest was once dominated by cocoa plants through a method known as cabruca. This