More than half the world’s primates, including apes, lemurs and monkeys, are facing extinction, international experts warned on Tuesday.
The population crunch is the result of large-scale habitat destruction – particularly the burning and clearing of tropical forests – as well as the hunting of primates for food and the illegal wildlife trade.
Species long known to be at risk, including the Sumatran orangutan, have been joined on the most endangered list for the first time by the Philippine tarsier and the Lavasoa dwarf lemur from Madagascar, scientists meeting in Singapore said.
“This research highlights the extent of the danger facing many of the world’s primates,” Christoph Schwitzer, a leading primatologist and director of conservation at Bristol Zoological Society in Britain, said in a statement.
“We hope it will focus people’s attention on these lesser-known primate species, some of which most people will probably have never heard of.”
This includes the Lavasoa dwarf lemur – a species only discovered two years ago – and the Roloway monkey from Ghana and the Ivory Coast, which experts say “are on the very verge of extinction”.
There are 703 species and sub-species of primates in the world. Madagascar and Vietnam are home to large numbers of highly threatened primate species, the statement said.
In Africa, the red colobus monkey was under particular threat, as were some of South America’s howler monkeys and spider monkeys, it added. “All of these species are relatively large and conspicuous, making them prime targets for bushmeat hunting,” the statement said.
Russell Mittermeier, chair of the species survival commission of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, said he hoped the report would encourage governments to commit to “desperately needed biodiversity conservation measures”.
Below is a list of the world’s top 25 most endangered primates for 2014-2016 and their estimated numbers remaining in the wild, compiled by the IUCN, Bristol Zoological Society, International Primatological Society and Conservation International and updated every two years: (The Guardian)
1. Lavasoa dwarf lemur - unknown
2. Lac Alaotra bamboo lemur - about 2,500-5,000
3. Red ruffed lemur - unknown
4. Northern sportive lemur - around 50
5. Perrier’s sifaka - 1,700-2,600
6. Rondo dwarf galago - unknown but remaining habitat is just 40 square miles
7. Roloway monkey - unknown but thought to be on the very verge of extinction
8. Preuss’s red colobus monkey - unknown
9. Tana River red colobus monkey - 1,000 and declining
10. Eastern lowland gorilla - 2,000-10,000
11. Philippine tarsier - unknown
12. Javan slow loris - unknown
13. Pig-tailed langur - 3,300
14. Cat Ba langur (golden-headed langur) - 60
15. Delacour’s langur - 234-275
16. Tonkin snub-nosed monkey - less than 250
17. Kashmir grey langur - unknown
18. Western purple-faced langur - unknown
19. Hainan gibbon - 25
20. Sumatran orangutan - 6,600
21. Ka’apor capuchin - unknown
22. San Martin titi monkey - unknown
23. Northern brown howler monkey - less than 250 mature animals
24. Colombian brown spider monkey - unknown
25. Ecuadorian brown-headed spider monkey - unknown
PHOTO: The Roloway monkey, from Ghana and the Ivory Coast, is thought to be on the verge of extinction.
CREDIT: AFP/Getty Images.