Primates 'at risk of extinction'

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A global review found that around half of the world's primate species are threatened with extinction because they are being eaten or their habitats are being destroyed.

Those most acutely at risk within that group may have less than a decade left if no action is taken, authority Russell Mittermeier warned.

Speaking at a conference in Edinburgh, he said: "About one in every three are either in the critically endangered or endangered category, which means they could disappear in the next five to 10 years if we don't take the measures necessary to protect them."

Of those at the top end of the danger zone, he said: "If we don't engage with these animals in the next two to three years then there's a real risk of them disappearing."

The latest Red List of Threatened Species shows that out of the world's 634 recognised primates, 11% are critically endangered, 22% are endangered and 15% are listed as being vulnerable.

In Asia, researchers found that about 70% of primates face extinction.

The figures were revealed at the International Primatological Society Congress in Edinburgh, where 1,200 conservationists are gathered.

Dr Mittermeier, chairman of the International Union for Conservation of Nature's (IUCN) primate specialist group and president of Conservation International, said humanity had a "moral obligation" to conserve its closest living relatives. "We have a close connection to them. We learnt about them as children, we see them in zoos, we see them in films, we see them in the wild if we go out to look at them.

"They are just wonderful animals and I think we have a moral obligation to conserve them. More than that, they also can be the basis of the economies for many of these tropical countries."