‘The most brightly coloured of all living mammals, an intense shimmering golden yellow’, is Osman Hill's description of the golden lion marmoset Leontideus rosalia, one of three closely related species restricted to Brazil (the others are chrysopygus and chrysomelas). Once they were widely distributed in the coastal forests; today they are reduced to small remnants, two of them at least with a very precarious future. John Perry, Chairman of the Survival Service Commission’s Zoo Group and Secretary of WAPT (Wild Animal Propagation Trust) in the USA, reports here on their status following his recent visit to Brazil.