New Delhi - Monkeys, apes and other primates, mankind's closest relatives, are fast disappearing from the face of the earth, with some being "literally eaten into extinction," says a study released Tuesday. A comprehensive review of the world's 634 known primates found that almost 50 per cent are in danger of becoming extinct, according to the report issued at the International Primatological Society Congress in Edinburgh, Scotland.
In Asia, 70 per cent of primates are classified on the IUCN Red List as vulnerable, endangered or critically endangered, which means they could soon disappear forever, a release issued by the congress said. In Vietnam and Cambodia, 90 per cent of primate species are considered at risk of extinction.
The main threats to these species are destruction of their habitats and the hunting of them as food and illegal wildlife trade, the release said.
"We have 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," Russel A Mittermeier, president of Washington-based Conservation International, was quoted as saying.
"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 intact. In many places, primates are quite literally being eaten into extinction," he said.
Populations of gibbons, leaf monkeys, langurs and other species are disappearing in South-East Asia due to habitat loss, hunting for food and to provide supplies for traditional Chinese medicine and pets.
"What is happening in South-East Asia is terrifying," Jean-Cristophe Vie, deputy head of the IUCN Species Programme, said. "To have a group of animals under such high level of threat is, quite frankly, unlike anything we have recorded among any other group of species to date."
The study listed 11 of 13 kinds of the red colobus monkeys of Africa as critically endangered or endangered and said two - Bouvier's red colobus and Miss Waldron's red colobus - may already be extinct. No living Miss Waldron's red colobus has been seen since 1978.
The first comprehensive review of primates in about five years was funded by Conservation International, Margot Marsh Biodiversity Foundation, Disney's Animal Kingdom and IUCN.
It is part of an examination of the state of the world's mammals scheduled to be released at the IUCN's World Conservation Congress in Barcelona in October.
The IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) is a global environment network, headquartered in Geneva, and has as members more than 1,000 government and non-profit organizations.
