The World’s 25 Most Endangered Primates

ScienceDaily reported today, in an article entitled “Primates: Extinction Threat Growing For Mankind’s Closest Living Relatives”, about a report titled “Primates in Peril: The World’s 25 Most Endangered Primates 2006-2008,” compiled by 60 experts from 21 countries, prepared by the Primate Specialist Group of IUCN’s Species Survival Commission (SSC) and the International Primatological Society (IPS), in collaboration with Conservation International (CI).

Russell Mittermeier, president of Conservation International, said: “You could fit all the surviving members of these 25 species in a single football stadium. That’s how few of them remain on Earth today.”

The report warns that failure to respond to the mounting threats now exacerbated by climate change will bring the first primate extinctions in more than a century. Overall, 114 of the world’s 394 primate species are classified as threatened with extinction on the IUCN Red List.

The World’s 25 Most Endangered Primates, and the countries where they are found:
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)

DOWNLOAD THE REPORT:
Primates in Peril: The World’s 25 Most Endangered Primates 2006–2008 [pdf]

HEADLINES
[29.10.07] Science Daily
[29.10.07] National Geographic
[26.10.07] Times Online
[26.10.07] Associated Press
[26.10.07] BBC News