Endangered primates to be highlighted in China talks
Almost a third of all apes, monkeys and other primates are in danger of becoming extinct because of rampant destruction of their tropical habitat, the commercial sale of bush meat and the trade in illegal wildlife, a report released today said.
Twenty-five of the most endangered primates are singled out in the report, which is being presented at the International Primatological Society in Hainan, China.
Among those most at risk are the Miss Waldron’s red colobus of Ivory Coast and Ghana, the Golden-headed langur of Vietnam and China’s Hainan gibbon, whose numbers have dwindled to 17.
The Horton Plains slender loris of Sri Lanka has been sighted just four times since 1937.
“You could fit all the surviving members of the 25 species in a single football stadium; that’s how few of them remain on Earth today,” said Conservation International President Russell Mittermeier, who also chairs the World Conservation Union’s Primate Specialist Group, which prepared the report with the International Primatological Society.
He said the situation is worst in Asia.
Overall, 114 of the world’s 394 primate species are classified as threatened with extinction by the World Conservation Union, or IUCN.
