Our ‘relatives’ are dying
The Year of the Monkey ends with bad news for our primate cousins: over half of them may soon be extinct.
OUR closest relatives – apes, monkeys, lemurs and other primates – are in danger and scientists say it’s our fault.
About 60% of the more than 500 primate species are “now threatened with extinction” according to a study published in the journal Science Advances.
The result was “a bigger wake-up call” than previously thought, said researcher Paul Garber of the University of Illinois.
Primates, which include apes, monkeys and humans, have forward-facing eyes and grasping ability that set them apart from other mammals. Scientists study them to learn about human behaviour and evolution.
There are a huge variety of primates, ranging from the tiny Mouse lemur of Madagascar (which weighs just 31g) to the gorilla, the largest primate species, that is a whopping 250kg.
Loss of forests
Of all the threats, the biggest is the expansion of agriculture said Garber, as plantations, logging and livestock farming are wiping out millions of hectares of forest.
A critically endangered ape, the Sumatran orangutan, lost 60% of its habitat between 1985 and 2007. There are only about 14,000 left in the world.
In China, the expansion of rubber plantations has led to the near extinction of the Hainan gibbon, of which only about 30 animals survive. Twenty-two out of the 26 primate species in China are endangered. More rubber plantations in India have hit the Bengal slow loris, the western hoolock gibbon and Phayre’s leaf monkey.
The researchers said primates are culturally important to many people, play a significant role in forest systems (such as by dispersing seeds), and offer insights into human evolution, biology, behaviour and the threat of emerging disease.
Habitat loss as the result of logging, plantations, road building and mining, along with hunting and illegal trade in animals, is often tied to high rates of poverty of communities living nearby, Garber said.
Addressing poverty
“Addressing local poverty and easing population growth is a necessary component of primate conservation,” he said. “Building economies based on the preservation of forests and their primate inhabitants, and broadening educational opportunities for women would begin to address some of the greatest threats to these animals.”
About 94% of the lemur spe-
cies in the world are endangered, especially in Madagascar, which is one of the hardest-hit places for primate population loss.
While there’s hope that some species can be protected, many will disappear in the coming decades, said co-author Eduardo Fernandez-Duque of Yale University.
Mining has also hurt primates, either directly, or by opening up access to forests. On Dinagat island in the Philippines, extraction of gold, nickel and copper endangers the Philippine tarsier. In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), hunters working around the tin, gold and diamond mine industry are the greatest threat to the region’s Grauer’s gorilla which has dropped from a population of 17,000 in 1995 to just about 3,800 now.
The illegal trade in bushmeat – killing apes and monkeys for their flesh – is also decimating the animals, as is changing climates and diseases spread from humans to apes. In Nigeria and Cameroon, checks on 89 market sites found 150,000 primate carcasses from 16 species traded annually as bushmeat.
Urgent action needed
The various plantation and mining industries inside tropical forests are expected to be connected with over 25mil km of roads by 2050, further fragment- ing the primates’ habitats.
Then there is wildlife smuggling., which threatens primates such as langurs in Asia, orangutans in South-East Asia, gorillas and chimpanzees in Africa and the Javan slow loris.
Some species are more resilient and can adapt to the loss of traditional habitats, but survival in patches of forest and urban areas is unlikely to be sustainable, the researchers write. One of the more unusual threats facing lemurs and chimps who come into contact with humans is infection with diarrhoea-causing bugs.
Just four countries – Brazil, Indonesia, Madagascar and the DRC – have two-thirds of all primate species, making these countries priorty targets for measures to halt the global primate extinction trend, the researchers report.
Despite being signature species for conservation, only a “revolution” will stop apes and monkeys going extinct, the authors write.
“We need to look at (population losses) almost as signals. They’re the ‘canary in the coal mine’ telling us something about our future,” Garber said. “This truly is the 11th hour for many of these creatures.”
“Governments, non-governmental organisations, corporations and citizens have to come together to change business as usual,” he said. “Now is the moment.” – Agencies