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FACING EXTINCTION: The illegal hunting and killing of mountain gorillas in the Democratic Republic of Congo illustrate the dangers facing primates worldwide. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
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OSLO - ALMOST half the world's monkeys and apes are facing a worsening threat of extinction because of deforestation and man's hunt for meat, a global review said yesterday.
An evaluation of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species has found that 48 per cent of the 634 known species and sub-species of primates - humankind's closest relatives, such as chimpanzees, orang utans, gibbons and lemurs - are at risk of extinction.
Of these, Asia had the greatest proportion of threatened primates, with 71 per cent at risk of extinction, against 37 per cent in Africa.
The study, which drew on the work of hundreds of scientists and is the most comprehensive analysis in more than a decade, also found that the conservation outlook for primates has dramatically worsened - a previous report five years ago had just 39 per cent of primates at risk.
The study said the main threat to primates is habitat loss, primarily through the burning and clearing of tropical forests.
'We have solid data to show that the situation is far more severe than we imagined,' said Dr Russell Mittermeier, president of Conservation International and head of IUCN's primate specialist group.
The picture in South-east Asia is particularly bleak. Populations of gibbons, leaf monkeys and langurs have dropped dramatically due to rapid habitat loss and hunting to satisfy the Chinese medicine and pet trade.
The five nations with the highest percentage of threatened primates were all found to be within Asia.
Dr Mittermeier said that deforestation was also aggravating hunting. Roads cut to help loggers and burning of forests to create farmland were opening previously inaccessible regions to poachers and hunters.
'Many of the Asian primates, like langurs, are 5kg to 10kg, so they are a good target. Generally, you find that what is big and easy to get disappears very quickly,' Dr Jean-Christophe Vie, deputy head of the IUCN Species Programme, told BBC News.
Other threats include hunting of primates for their meat. Some species were 'literally being eaten into extinction', Dr Mittermeier warned.
'Gorilla meat, chimpanzee meat and meat of other apes fetch a higher price than beef, chicken or fish' in some African countries, he told Reuters.
'If you took all the individuals of the top 25 most endangered species and assigned each of them a seat...they probably would not fill a football stadium.'
Despite the gloomy outlook, the Red List recorded a number of conservation successes. The black lion tamarin and the golden lion tamarin in Brazil have been downlisted to endangered from critically endangered after conservation efforts.
Scientists have also come close to downlisting the mountain gorilla to endangered, following an increase in population in their forest habitat that spans the borders of Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, reported the The Guardian newspaper.
But political turmoil in the region and an incident in which eight animals were killed last year led to the decision to delay the planned reclassification.
REUTERS
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