The twins' birth is big news for the endangered Golden Lion Tamarin species, with just 2,500 remaining in the wild.

Halls Gap Zoo manager Mark Treweek said the zoo was delighted with the births and parents Aurora and Leon were settling into family life well.

"We have had the father, Leon, for quite a while and we got the mother in the last few months for this breeding purpose and for them to have successfully bred in their first 12 months together is great," he said.

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"For such an endangered animal, it is great news.

"The father is very shy because it is the first time he has had babies as well, so he is very protective of them and keeps them very close by."

Mr Treweek said the zoo is involved in many conservation programs and wants people to observe the South American species as naturally as possible.

"Halls Gap Zoo is in involved in a lot of these conservative programs, whether it is a holding facility or whether it is in a breeding capacity, like the with these Golden Lion Tamarins," he said.

"We got the female in, and then we released them into a new enclosure together at the same time.

"We watched them closely for the first 48 hours to make sure everything went smoothly and then after that we just looked after them like the rest of our primates.

"We try and let the animals be as natural as we possibly can, so we don't teach them to jump on our shoulder and eat out of our hand and we try to leave them and let them act with their natural behaviours as much as they can."

Mr Treweek said the twins are now on display at the zoo, but they are yet to be named because they will need to wait to identify the gender of the twins.

This species of Tamarin is found in a small lowland portion of Brazil's Atlantic Coastal Forest with only two per cent of their original habitat remaining.

In the early 1970s, their wild numbers dropped as low as 200, which led to the development of a comprehensive Golden Lion Tamarin Conservation Program.

There are now 2,500 Golden Lion Tamarins in the wild with about one-third of that population originating from Golden Lion Tamarins raised in human care.

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