A new report reveals the primate species in urgent need of help.
More than half of the world’s 633 primate species and subspecies are threatened with extinction, according to the IUCN Red List.
Now leading experts at the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity have revealed the 25 most endangered primates of all, the species at the greatest risk of extinction and in need of urgent conservation measures.
Dr. Christopher Schwitzer, one of the editors of the Primates in Peril report, said, “The world’s primates are under increasing threat from human activities.” These include the destruction of forests, illegal wildlife trade and hunting for food.
Despite the report’s gloomy prognosis, several species featured on previous editions of the list, including Madagascar’s greater bamboo lemur, have begun to recover.
THE MOST ENDANGERED PRIMATES ON EARTH 2012–2014
AFRICA
Roloway monkey found in Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana © Conservation International/illustration by Stephen Nash
- Rondo dwarf galago (Tanzania)
- Roloway monkey (Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana)
- Bioko red colobus (Equatorial Guinea and Bioko Island)
- Tana River red colobus (Kenya)
- Grauer's gorilla (DRC)
MADAGASCAR
The indri was added to the world's 25 most endangered primates in 2012 © Conservation International/illustration by Stephen Nash
- Madame Berthe's mouse lemur
- Sclater's black lemur
- Red ruffled lemur
- Northern sportive lemur
- Silky sifaka
- Indri
Asia
Golden-headed langur found in Vietnam © Conservation International/illustration by Stephen Nash
- Pygmy tarsier (Indonesia and Sulawesi)
- Javan slow loris (Indonesia and Java)
- Pig-tailed langur (Indonesia and Mentawai Island)
- Delacour's langur (Vietnam)
- Golden-headed or Cat Ba langur (Vietnam)
- Western purple-faced langur (Sri Lanka)
- Grey-shanked douc monkey (Vietnam)
- Tonkin snub-nosed monkey (Vietnam)
- Cao-Vit or Eastern black-crested gibbon (China, Vietnam)
Neotropics
The northern brown howler monkey was added to the world's 25 most endangered primates list in 2012 © Conservation International/illustration by Stephen Nash
- Variegated spider monkey (Colombia, Venezuela)
- Ecuadorian brown-headed spider monkey (Ecuador)
- Ka'apor capuchin monkey (Brazil)
- San Martín titi monkey (Peru)
- Northern brown howler monkey (Brazil)
The world’s 25 most endangered primates list 2012–2014 has been compiled by the Primate Specialist Group of IUCN’s Species Survival Commission (SSC) and the International Primatological Society (IPS), in collaboration with Conservation International (CI) and the Bristol Conservation and Science Foundation (BCSF).
