ANTANANARIVO, Madagascar, April 7 (UPI) -- An international coalition of advocacy groups warns many species of Africa's and Asia's primates, humans' closest relatives, could disappear.
The report warning of the demise of the world's apes, monkeys and lemurs was released Thursday by the Primate Specialist Group of IUCN, the World Conservation Union's Species Survival Commission and the International Primatological Society, in collaboration with Conservation International.
The report says 25 percent of the 625 primate species and subspecies are at risk of extinction. Data was gathered by more than 50 experts from 16 countries and cites deforestation, commercial bushmeat hunting, and the illegal animal trade as the primary threats.
It also warns failure to respond will bring the first primate extinctions in more than a century.
For example, the golden-headed langur of Vietnam and China's Hainan gibbon number only in the dozens. The Horton Plains slender loris of Sri Lanka has been sighted just four times since 1937.
