Experts highlight threat to lesser-known apes and monkeys from large-scale habitat destruction and illegal wildlife trade More than half the world’s primates, including apes, lemurs and monkeys, are facing extinction, international experts warned on Tuesday. The population crunch is the result of large-scale habitat destruction – particularly the burning and clearing of tropical forests – as well as the hunting of primates for food and the illegal wildlife trade. Species long known to be at risk, including the Sumatran orangutan, have been joined on the most endangered list for the first time by the Philippine tarsier and the Lavasoa dwarf lemur from Madagascar, scientists meeting in Singapore said. This research highlights the extent of the danger facing many of the world’s primates,” Christoph Schwitzer, a leading primatologist and director of conservation at Bristol Zoological Society in Britain, said in a statement. “We hope it will focus people’s attention on these lesser-known primate species, some of which most people will probably have never heard of.” This includes the Lavasoa dwarf lemur – a species only discovered two years ago – and the Roloway monkey from Ghana and the Ivory Coast, which experts say “are on the very verge of extinction”. There are 703 species and sub-species of primates in the world. Madagascar and Vietnam are home to large numbers of highly threatened primate species, the statement said. In Africa, the red colobus monkey was under particular threat, as were some of South America’s howler monkeys and spider monkeys, it added. “All of these species are relatively large and conspicuous, making them prime targets for bushmeat hunting,” the statement said. Russell Mittermeier, chair of the species survival commission of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, said he hoped the report would encourage governments to commit to “desperately needed biodiversity conservation measures”. Below is a list of the world’s top 25 most endangered primates for 2014-2016 and their estimated numbers remaining in the wild, compiled by the IUCN, Bristol Zoological Society, International Primatological Society and Conservation International and updated every two years: Lavasoa dwarf lemur - unknown Lac Alaotra bamboo lemur - about 2,500-5,000 Red ruffed lemur - unknown Northern sportive lemur - around 50 Perrier’s sifaka - 1,700-2,600 Rondo dwarf galago - unknown but remaining habitat is just 40 square miles Roloway monkey - unknown but thought to be on the very verge of extinction Preuss’s red colobus monkey - unknown Tana River red colobus monkey - 1,000 and declining Eastern lowland gorilla - 2,000-10,000 Philippine tarsier - unknown Javan slow loris - unknown Pig-tailed langur - 3,300 Cat Ba langur (golden-headed langur) - 60 Delacour’s langur - 234-275 Tonkin snub-nosed monkey - less than 250 Kashmir grey langur - unknown Western purple-faced langur - unknown Hainan gibbon - 25 Sumatran orangutan - 6,600 Ka’apor capuchin - unknown San Martin titi monkey - unknown Northern brown howler monkey - less than 250 mature animals Colombian brown spider monkey - unknown Ecuadorian brown-headed spider monkey - unknown