Nearly 50% of the world’s primates face extinction report says
According to a newly released report by the IUCN Primate Specialist Group says that “almost 50 percent of the world’s primates are in danger of extinction.” The report points out that habitat destruction and hunting are the two main threats.
“We’ve raised concerns for years about primates being in peril, but now we have solid data to show the situation is far more severe than we imagined,” said Russell A. Mittermeier, president of Conservation International (CI) and the longtime chairman of the IUCN Species Survival Commission’s Primate Specialist Group. “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. In many places, primates are quite literally being eaten to extinction.”
