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One-Third Of Primates At Risk Of Extinction

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The Associated Press

Published: October 26, 2007

BANGKOK, Thailand - Almost a third of all apes, monkeys and other primates are in danger of extinction because of rampant habitat destruction, the commercial sale of their meat and the trade in illegal wildlife, a report released Thursday said.

Of the world's 394 primate species, 114 are classified as threatened with extinction by the World Conservation Union.

The report by Conservation International and the International Primatological Society in Hainan, China, focuses on the plight of the 25 most endangered primates, including China's Hainan gibbon, of which 17 remain.

'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 Russell A. Mittermeier, president of Conservation International.

'The situation is worse in Asia, where tropical forest destruction and the hunting and trading of monkeys puts many species at terrible risk,' said Mittermeier, who is also chairman of the World Conservation Union's Primate Specialist Group, which prepared the report with the International Primatological Society.

The list includes primates such as the Sumatran orangutan of Indonesia and the Cross River gorilla of Cameroon and Nigeria, as well as lesser known species, such as the greater bamboo lemur from Madagascar.

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