The murder of gorillas in Congo which so shocked the world's conscience is only the tip of the iceberg of the threats facing vanishing primates. This evening, Conservation International is releasing a report documenting the world's 25 most endangered apes, monkeys, lemurs and other primates, which are under unprecedented threat from destruction of tropical forests, illegal wildlife trade and commercial bushmeat hunting.

Today, 29 percent of all species in danger of going extinct, and we may soon witness the first primate extinctions in more than a century. (Overall, 114 of the world’s 394 primate species are classified as threatened with extinction.) One species, Miss Waldron’s red colobus of Ivory Coast and Ghana, already is feared extinct, while the golden-headed langur of Vietnam and China’s Hainan gibbon number only in the dozens. The Horton Plains slender loris of Sri Lanka has been sighted just four times since 1937.

Some images of the possibly doomed:

Hainan Gibbon. ©CI/Stephen Nash.

 

Cat Ba Island Golden Headed Langur. Photo: Russell A. Mittermeier/CI.

 

Horton Plains slender loris. ©CI/Stephen Nash.

 

Miss Waldron's red colobus. ©CI/Stephen Nash.