Coordinators: Dean Anderson and Nancy Ruggeri, Department of Zoology, University of Wisconsin-Madison _________________________________________________________________ A recent report released by Conservation International (CI) and the Primate Specialist Group of IUCN was finalized at the recent IPS meetings in Beijing. It is a revision of their previously released "The World's Top 25 most Endangered Primates", which indicates that one out of every three primate species is currently threatened with extinction. The following is an excerpt from the introduction of the report, and will be followed by weekly installations featuring each of the 25 primate species in peril. This is being done in connection with CI, and Sean Flannery at the WRPRC Library. The World's Top 25 Most Endangered Primates- 2002 "In January 2000, Conservation International released a report entitled The World's Top 25 Most Endangered Primates, a list of threatened prosimians, monkeys and apes whose survival beyond the present century will depend heavily on actions taken now by our own species. The impetus for the original report was two competing realities, one being the lack of any documented primate extinctions during the 20th century-a remarkable record in light of recorded losses among other groups of animals during the same period- and the other being the results of an assessment that identified approximately 120 of the world's estimated 638 types of primate as being in serious danger of extinction within the next few decades. The top 25 that we named in 2000 were merely the tip of the iceberg. "Two years later, we have decided to release a new report based upon updated information, especially with regard to Asian primates. Since the original report, the Species Survival Commission (SSC) of IUCN- The World Conservation Union launched a program of ongoing conservation status assessments for the world's threatened plant and animal species. As many experts had feared, the number of species threatened with extinction continues to rise despite our best efforts to ensure their survival. This new report considers preliminary results from primate workshops and assessments that have recently been conducted in India, Indonesia, Madagascar and Vietnam, and that recommend listing as many as 195 primate species and subspecies as endangered or critically endangered. "According to the IUCN, a primate is 1. Endangered (EN) if the extent of its occurrence is estimated to be less than 1,930 mi (5,000 km2), if its population is estimated to number less than 2,500 individuals, and/or if quantitative analysis shows the probability of extinction in the wild to be at least 20% within 20 years or five generations. 2. Critically Endangered (CR) if the extent of its occurrence is estimated to be less than 38.6 mi (100 km), if its population is estimated to be less than 250 individuals, and/or if quantitative analysis shows the probability of extinction in the wild to be at least 50% within 10 years or three generations. These two categories represent what we refer to as the most endangered species, at significantly greater risk of extinction than those evaluated by IUCN and categorized as vulnerable, near threatened or not at risk. New assessments suggest that, from approximately 20% only a few years ago, we should now consider more than 30% - close to one in every three-of all primates to be seriously threatened with extinction. The increase from 120 to almost 200 largely reflects new information available from Asian countries. Therefore, it is not surprising that Asia now accounts for almost 45% -only slightly less than half-of the world's most endangered primates, or not many less than the three other major regions where primates occur-the Neotropics, Africa and Madagascar- combined." The full report is available at: Full report _________________________________________________________________ Topics in Primate Conservation is supported by a grant RR00167, Regional Primate Centers Program, National Center for Research Resources, The National Institutes of Health. _________________________________________________________________ Posted Date: 10-16-02
URL: http://www.primate.wisc.edu/pin/cons/inperil.html
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April 8, 2003
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