New Report Says Primate Species at Risk

[Rose Siding]

CAPE TOWN, South Africa -- Human activities such as hunting and logging have driven nearly one quarter of the world's primate species -- man's closest living relatives -- to the brink of extinction, according to a new report.

Without concerted action, great apes such as the Sumatran orangutan of Indonesia and the Eastern gorilla of central Africa are at risk of disappearing, according to the report to be released Thursday by the World Conservation Union, the International Primatological Society and Conservation International.

It said Madagascar and Vietnam each have four primates on the list of 25 most endangered. Brazil and Indonesia have three. Sri Lanka and Tanzania have with two each. Colombia, China, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Equatorial Guinea, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Uganda, and Congo have one each.

"The situation for these primates is down to the wire in terms of extinction," said Russell A. Mittermeier, president of Conservation International. "If you took all the individuals on the list and gave them a seat in a soccer stadium, they probably wouldn't fill it," he said in a telephone interview from Madagascar, where primate specialists are meeting.

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-endangered-primates,0,868616.story?coll=sns-ap-nationworld-headlines

[Trillo]

1. This is really sad.

Too many humans.

[Pinboy]

2. Are they including the White House? n/t

[chlamor]

3. Do we sufficiently feel the loss?

Wrapped up in our cheap toys of empire and our techno-euphoria illusions of grandeur I ask you again-Do we sufficiently feel the loss?

[chlamor]

4. kick