The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted efforts by conservationists to save some of the world’s endangered species and threatened habitats.

The restrictions placed by governments worldwide to curb the spread of the disease have also had an impact on the fight to save animals and plants from extinction.

Biologist Carlos Ruiz says some governments have closed parks and protected areas, both to the public and researchers, which then slows down any work to protect the species.

Ruiz has spent a quarter-century working to save golden lion tamarins, the charismatic long-maned monkeys native to Brazil’s Atlantic Forest.

Recently, one of his team members was exposed to the virus and the entire team had to be placed under quarantine.

“We are worried about missing the window of opportunity to save the species,” said Ruiz, the president of the nonprofit Golden Lion Tamarin Association. “We hope that we ... can still do our work before a second wave of yellow fever hits.”

Various governments globally have also redirected resources to the fight against the pandemic that has now killed more than 395,000 people globally, according to the U.S.-based Johns Hopkins University.

“Scientists and conservationists have faced interruptions from big global disasters before, like an earthquake or a coup in one country,” said Duke University ecologist Stuart Pimm, founder of the nonprofit Saving Species. “But I can’t think of another time when almost every country on the planet has faced the impacts of the same big disaster at once.”