http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/2306517.stm
Monday, 7 October,
2002, 17:01 GMT 18:01 UK
Third of primates 'risk extinction'
By Alex Kirby
BBC News Online environment correspondent
One-third of the world's primate species now face a serious
risk of extinction, according to a report by an international
group of conservationists.
They say the number
of threatened species has risen sharply
in the last three years.
Primates living in
two south-east Asian countries are said
to be especially endangered. But several species are judged
a little safer than they used to be.
The report is entitled
Primates In Peril:
The World's Top 25 Most Endangered Primates.
It is published by Conservation International (CI)
and the primate specialist group of IUCN, the
World Conservation Union.
Vietnamese
crisis
The authors say the
numbers of primate species and
sub-species classified as either endangered or critically
endangered have risen nearly 63%, from 120 to 1995, since
the publication of an earlier report at the beginning of 2000.
Primates include apes,
monkeys, lemurs and some lesser-known species.
Scientists say they
are our closest living relatives. Nearly
45% of the world's most endangered primates live in Asia.
The president of CI,
Russ Mittermeier, said: "Of particular
concern is the situation in Vietnam and China. With several
primates now numbering only in the dozens or low hundreds of
individuals, Vietnam is at risk of undergoing a major primate
extinction spasm within the next few years if rapid action
is not taken.
"Twenty per cent
of the top 25 primates are located in Vietnam,
with another 16% from China and 12% from Indonesia."
He told BBC News Online:
"Human pressures are more intense
in these places; hunting in particular, both for meat and
medicinal purposes, is hammering these animals."
Bigger picture
Of the 25 species listed,
23 are found in the world's
"biodiversity hotspots".
These are regions identified
by CI which are home to more
than 60% of all terrestrial plants and animals, although
together they cover only 1.4% of the Earth's land surface.
Six hotspots are judged
the highest priorities for the
survival of the most endangered primates.
They are Indo-Burma,
Madagascar, Sundaland (the islands of
Sumatra, Java and Borneo), the Guinean forests of West Africa,
the Atlantic forests of Brazil, and the western Ghats/Sri Lanka.
Bill Constant of CI,
co-author of the report, said the list
of the top 25 was just the tip of the iceberg. He said:
"For each primate on it, any one of several other equally
endangered species might have been chosen instead."
Praise for
Brazil
The main cause of the
primates' decline, the report says,
is habitat loss caused by the clearing of tropical forests.
It calls hunting "an
insidious and major threat, especially
in Africa and Asia. Once done mainly for subsistence purposes,
it has now taken on a major commercial dimension."
But the capture of
animals for the pet trade and medical
research "have become lesser concerns".
The report says primates
are important for ecosystem health,
because they disperse fruit seeds and the remains of other
food they eat.
"It's important
to mention that it is not all doom and gloom,"
Russ Mittermeier told BBC News Online.
"There's some
good stuff going on, especially in Brazil and
Madagascar - and some of the species that were on the list
last time have been taken off because they are doing better
and some that are still on the list are in fact getting a
lot of attention.
"The technologies
and the manpower are there to do it;
what we need is an order of magnitude increase in resources
so we can do it in many more places."
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The top 25
most endangered primates:
Greater bamboo lemur (Madagascar);
Perrier's sifaka (Madagascar);
Silky sifaka (Madagascar);
Black-faced lion tamarin (Brazil);
Buff-headed capuchin (Brazil) Northern muriqui (Brazil);
Miss Waldron's red colobus (Ghana and Ivory Coast);
Roloway guenon (Ghana and Ivory Coast);
Tana River mangabey and Tana River red colobus (Kenya);
Sanje mangabey (Tanzania);
Natuna banded leaf monkey (Indonesia);
Pig-tailed snub-nosed monkey or "simakobu" (Indonesia);
Sumatran orang-utan (Indonesia);
Delacour's langur (Vietnam);
Golden-headed langur (Vietnam);
White-headed langur (Vietnam);
Grey-shanked douc (Vietnam);
Tonkin snub-nosed monkey (Vietnam);
Yunnan snub-nosed monkey (China);
Guizhou snub-nosed monkey (China);
Eastern black-crested gibbon (China and Vietnam);
Mountain gorilla (DR Congo, Rwanda and Uganda);
Cross River gorilla (Nigeria and Cameroon)
