Humans at heart of primate extinction

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http://www.thestar.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=129 & fArticleId=2474737

 

SOUTH AFRICA

 

Humans at heart of primate extinction

 

New report says situation is 'down to the wire'

April 8, 2005

 

By Clare Nullis

 

Human activities such as hunting and logging have driven nearly one

quarter of the world's primate species - man's closest living

relations in the animal kingdom - to the brink of extinction,

according to a new report.

 

Great apes such as the Sumatran orangutan of Indonesia and the

Eastern gorilla of central Africa are at risk of disappearing,

according to the report to be released today by the World

Conservation Union, the International Primatological Society and

Conservation International.

 

It says Madagascar and Vietnam each have four primate species on

the list of the 25 most endangered; Brazil and Indonesia have

three, followed by Sri Lanka and Tanzania with two each, and one

each from Colombia, China, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Equatorial

Guinea, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Uganda, and Congo.

 

" The situation for these primates is down to the wire in terms of

extinction, " says Russell A Mittermeier, president of Conservation

International. " If you took all the individuals on the list and

gave them a seat in a soccer stadium, they probably wouldn't fill

it. "

 

The report, entitled Primates in Peril: The World's 25 Most

Endangered Primates, says that one in four of the 625 primate

species and subspecies are at risk of extinction. The report,

compiled by more than 50 experts from 16 countries, cites

deforestation, commercial bushmeat hunting and illegal animal trade

- including for use in traditional medicines - as the biggest

threats.

 

The golden-headed langur of Vietnam and China's Hainan gibbon

number only in the dozens and Perrier's Sifaka of Madagascar and

the Tana River red colobus of Kenya are now restricted to tiny

patches of tropical forest, leaving them vulnerable to rapid

eradication, the report warns.

 

This is especially true of Madagascar, one of the planet's

biodiversity hotspots that has lost most of its original forest

cover, the report says.

 

" More than half its lemurs, none found anywhere else in the world,

are threatened with extinction. "

 

" Without immediate steps to protect these unique creatures and

their habitat, we will lose more of our planet's natural heritage

forever, " Mittermeier says.

 

The list includes 10 species from Asia, seven from Africa, four

from Madagascar and four from South America. All the animals live

in areas declared biodiversity hotspots that cover just 2,3% of the

planet but are home to more than half of all terrestrial plant and

animal iversity.

 

The report says the first extinction among African primates is

expected to occur among the red colobus species, some of which have

not been sighted for decades.

 

Mittermeier says that several species have been taken off the most

endangered list following successful conservation programmes in

Brazil and Madagascar, where authorities have recognised that

lemurs are vital to the country's fledgling tourism industry. -

Sapa-AP.

 

 

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