A report on the current plight of the planet's monkeys and great apes prepared for three Conservation Charities by 60 "leading primatologists" has revealed(http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2007/oct/26/endangered) that many species are in a critically endangered condition (in deed, some may already be extinct). Amongst the animals judged as being amongst the "25 species most at risk" (the media love tables!) are the Cross river gorilla (Gorilla gorilla diehli) of Nigeria and Cameroon; the Sumatran sub-species of Orang-utan (Pongo abelli); the Golden-headed langur (Trachypithecus poliocephalus poliocephalus) of Vietnam and the Hainan black-crested gibbon (Nomascus hainanus) of China's Hainan Island. The reasons for their current risk status (all due to the actions of the dominant ape, humans) are well-documented and include the establishment of 'green' biofuel plantations of oil palms ( particularly impacting on the orang-utan- see a previous blog), logging and hunting (apes and monkeys are taken as bush meat in many parts of the world and their bodies may be used in traditional medicines). Most primate species depend on forest habitats that being progressively reduced and fragmented by human activities and they generally have a relatively slow reproductive rate, making their abilities to withstand hunting pressures and disease outbreaks marginal. Infra-human primates also have the misfortune to be largely concentrated in areas of the globe (mainly Southern hemisphere) where human populations often operate at subsistence levels and can be prone to political instability. It does seem strange but soon we may have no other primate species on the planet to remind ourselves of our ancestry.
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