Threats to primates

The Order Primates is an extraordinarily diverse and intelligent group of mammals found throughout Central and South America, Asia, and Africa that comprises 504 species of our closest living relatives: the lemurs, lorises and galagos, monkeys and apes of the world. Tragically, approximately 60 percent of primates are now threatened with extinction, and more than 75 percent have populations that are in precipitous decline as a consequence of escalating anthropogenic disturbance.  Industrial agriculture, large-scale cattle ranching, logging, petroleum drilling, mining, dams and road-building are destroying primate habitat, while commercial hunting (known as the bushmeat trade), illegal pet trade and disease are impacting primate populations directly.  

Habitat destruction: Forest converted to pastures. The Atlantic forest of coastal Brazil is among the most threatened habitats in the world. Photo courtesy of Rhett A. Butler, Founder of the non-profit tropical conservation forum: Mongabay
Habitat destruction: fire in primate habitat: Tesso Nilo National Park, Sumatra. Photo courtesy of William F. Laurance, Professor, James Cook University
An Eastern hoolock gibbon (Hoolock leuconedys) - an endangered ape species found in Asia. Photo courtesy of Fan Pen Fei, Professor, Sun Yat-Sen University
A victim of the bushmeat trade: hunted redtail monkey (Cercopithecus ascanius), Kisangani, Democratic Republic of Congo. Photo courtesy of Josephine Head, Max Plank Institute
Lambert with a bushmeat vendor at the border of Cote d’ivoire and Liberia. She noted: "I was doing a survey. What was coming over the Cavally River (that separates the two countries) was mostly smoked primates and duiker. Soldiers in Liberia were brandishing their weapons at me because they saw what I was up to." Photo courtesy of Joanna Lambert.
A victim of the pet trade: long-tailed macaque (Macaca fascicularis), chained up as a pet in Java, Indonesia. Photo courtesy of Andrew Walmsley, Little Fireface Project