Half of All Primates Endangered

Sumatran Orangutan

Photo: Michael Steden / Istock

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It was only a few months ago that Conservation International saddened us all by reporting that nearly one in three species of primates are threatened with extinction.

Now, it turns out, that prediction may have been too rosy.

The first comprehensive review in five years of the world's 635 primate species found that nearly half of them are endangered, according to internationally accepted criteria.

"We've raised concerns for years about primates being in peril, but now we have solid data to show the situation is far more severe than we imagined," said Russell A. Mittermeier, president of Conservation International (CI) and the longtime chairman of the IUCN Species Survival Commission's Primate Specialist Group. "Tropical forest destruction has always been the main cause, but now it appears that hunting is just as serious a threat in some areas, even where the habitat is still quite intact. In many places, primates are quite literally being eaten to extinction."

Primates — apes, monkeys, baboons and other species closer than most to humans on the evolutionary tree — are endangered everywhere, primarily by forest destruction and slaughter for food. Nowhere are they more endangered than in Asia, where 70% of primates are classified on the IUCN Red List as vulnerable, endangered or critically endangered. Nine in 10 species in Vietnam and Cambodia are threatened.

"What is happening in Southeast Asia is terrifying," said Jean-Christophe Vié, Deputy Head of the IUCN Species Program. "To have a group of animals under such a high level of threat is, quite frankly, unlike anything we have recorded among any other group of species to date."

Even as new species of primates have been discovered — 53 new species in the last eight years — experts warn that small species with little public recognition are likely to go extinct while attention is focused on well-known larger species like great apes and gorillas. Eleven of Africa's 13 red colobus monkey species, for instance, are endangered; two may have already gone extinct, so rarely have they been seen in recent years.

There are some notable success stories, when it comes to the conservation of primates. Large forests in the Congo and Madagascar have been protected through innovative agreements, and two Brazilian species — the black lilon tamarin and golden lion tamarin — have recovered after decades of intensive captive breeding and conservation efforts.

Brace yourself for more bad wildlife news: The primate study is only one piece of a landmark assessment of the health of the world's mammals, set to be released by the IUCN in October.

The 25 Most Endangered Primates

1. Greater bamboo lemur (Prolemur simus), Madagascar
2. White-collared lemur (Eulemur albocollaris), Madagascar
3. Sahamalaza Peninsula sportive lemur (Lepilemur sahamalazensis), Madagascar
4. Silky sifaka (Propithecus candidus), Madagascar
5. Cross River gorilla (Gorilla gorilla diehli), Nigeria, Cameroon
6. Roloway monkey (Cercopithecus diana roloway), Ivory Coast, Ghana
7. Rondo dwarf galago (Galagoides rondoensis), Tanzania
8. Tana River red colobus (Procolobus rufomitratus), Kenya
9. Miss Waldron's red colobus (Procolobus badius), Ivory Coast, Ghana
10. Kipunji (Rungwecebus kipunji), Tanzania
11. Pennant's red colobus (Procolobus pennantii pennantii), Equatorial Guinea (Island of Bioko)
12. Variegated spider monkey (Ateles hybridus), Colombia, Venezuela
13. Brown-headed spider monkey (Ateles fusciceps), Colombia, Ecuador
14. Peruvian yellow-tailed woolly monkey (Oreonax flavicauda), Peru
15. Western Hoolock gibbon (Hoolock hoolock), Bangladesh, India, Myanmar
16. Horton Plains slender loris (Loris tardigradus nycticeboides), Sri Lanka
17. Western purple-faced langur (Semnopithecus vetulus nestor), Sri Lanka
18. Pig-tailed langur (Simias concolor), Indonesia (Mentawai Islands)
19. Siau Island tarsier (Tarsius sp.), Indonesia
20. Delacour's langur (Trachypithecus delacouri), Vietnam
21. Golden-headed langur (Trachypithecus poliocephalus poliocephalus), Vietnam
22. Grey-shanked douc (Pygathrix cinerea), Vietnam
23. Tonkin snub-nosed monkey (Rhinopithecus avunculus), Vietnam
24. Hainan black-crested gibbon (Nomascus hainanus), China (Hainan Island)
25. Sumatran orangutan (Pongo abelii), Indonesia (Sumatra)

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