ICUN Red List Update: 50% of Primates are now endangered
[Alarmist alert!]
About a month ago we posted a story on frogs quoting a video segment from Planet Earth that I use in my seminars in which we are told “I think we’re facing the loss of half the world’s frogs.”
Had some pushback on that one from people who are struggling with the balance between people and nature. In this equation, frogs are kind of like insects – it might be nice to keep them around, but what’s really the big deal if we lose them? This week’s report on endangered primates – our closest natural cousins and the cutest things in the jungle – is more bad news and its hard to think of any excuse for not being upset about this:
Of the world’s 634 primate species, 48 percent are threatened with extinction, according to the report, issued by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. The Switzerland-based group calls itself the world’s oldest global environmental organization.
“This report makes for very alarming reading,” said Christoph Schwitzer, an adviser to the group, in a statement. “Support and action to help save these species is vital if we are to avoid losing these wonderful animals forever.”
A handful of primate species count populations in the dozens. For example, there are just 60 to 70 Asian monkeys known as golden headed langurs, found only on an island in Vietnam’s Gulf of Tonkin.
There are fewer than 100 remaining northern sportive lemurs, which live in Madagascar, and around 110 eastern black crested gibbons, found in northeastern Vietnam. [CNN]
Not recommended for bedtime reading, but important none-the-less is the IUCN’s Red List of all endangered species.
Related posts:
Tags: God's Creation, linked in, nature
