If hunting for earth's primates and burning down of forests do not slow down or stop, we might be saying goodbye to more than 50 per cent of our apes, lemurs, and monkeys soon.
More than half of the primates are facing extinction in 2016. This is bad as it was just 48 per cent in 2013.
Scientists warn that when humans burn the forests at a larger scale, they are destroying the home of these animals. In turn, the primates are having difficulty surviving.
When humans kill primates for "bush meat" without proper hunting regulation from the authorities, hunters tend to kill in excess. Some hunt to keep them as trophies; others just wanted to kill the primates because the animals are eating the farmers' produce.
If not killed, the animals are taken from their natural habitats to be household pets.
According to a recent report, for 2014-2016 the world's 25 most endangered primates are: Lavasoa dwarf lemur, Lac Alaotra bamboo lemur, red ruffed lemur, Northern sportive lemur, Perrier's sefaka, Rondo dwarf galago, roloway monkey, Preuss's red colobus monkey, eastern lowland gorilla, Philippine tarsier, Javan slow loris, golden headed langur, Dalecour's langur, Tonkin snub-nosed monkey, Kashmir grey langur, Hainan gibbon, Sumatran orangutan, ka'apur capuchin, San Martin titi monkey, Northern brown howler monkey, Colombian brown spider monkey, and Ecuadorian brown-headed spider monkey.
The report is collated through the efforts of Bristol Zoological Society, Conservation International, International Primatological Society, and International Union for Conservation of Nature.
Conservationists hope that the alarming news would push governments to raise awareness of the situation to their locals and set out conservation measures. With some primates like Northern sportive lemur and Hainan gibbon whose population each are below 100, action is needed much sooner.
The primates have been very useful in the forests. They are the ones responsible in scattering seeds all throughout the vast expanse through their excrements.
