|
Half of mankind's closest relatives are in danger of being wiped out, according to the first comprehensive review in five years of the world's 634 kinds of primates.
The global primate review was undertaken by the International Union For the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN), as part of its IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, which began collating data in 1963.
The latest IUCN Red List concerning primates was issued at the 22nd International Primatological Society Congress in Edinburgh, Scotland. It found that 48 percent of the world's primates face extinction, with the main threat being habitat destruction, through the burning and clearing of tropical forests. The IUCN Report also identified the hunting of primates for food and an illegal wildlife trade as other major threats to the survival of primates.
The survey, which involved hundreds of experts worldwide, showed that out of 634 recognised species and subspecies, 11 percent were Critically Endangered, 22 percent were Endangered, while a further 15 percent were listed as Vulnerable.
The IUCN Red List also said that over 70 percent of primates in Asia are classified as Vulnerable, Endangered or Critically Endangered, which means they could disappear forever in the near future.
Russell Mittermeier, the chair of IUCN's Primate Specialist Group and president of Conservation International, said they have raised concerns for years about primates being in peril, but now they have solid data to show the situation is far more severe than they imagined.
He said in many places, primates are quite literally being eaten to extinction.
"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," he said.
The deputy head of the IUCN Species Programme, Jean-Christophe Vie, said the results were "quite spectacular" and described what was happening in South East Asia as "terrifying".
"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,"
He said that we are just wiping out primates.
"The problem with these species is that they have long lives, so it takes time to reverse the decline. It is quite depressing."
The review funded by Conservation International, the Margot Marsh Biodiversity Foundation, Disney's Animal Kingdom and the IUCN is part of an unprecedented examination of the state of the world's mammals to be released at the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Barcelona in October.
(c) NewsRoom 2008
|
|
