Primate Extinctions

(AP) — Nearly half of the world's 634 types of primates are in danger of becoming extinct because of human activity, according to a scientific review released Tuesday. Scientists meeting at the International Primatological Society Congress in Edinburgh, Scotland, a six-day conference that opened Sunday, hope the report — which counts species and subspecies of primates across the world — will help spur global action to defend primates from deforestation and hunting. In the most comprehensive review of the world's apes, monkeys, and lemurs in 12 years, primatologists warned that species from the giant mountain gorillas of central Africa to the tiny mouse lemurs of Madagascar are on the "Red List" for threatened species maintained by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

In Asia, more than 70% of primates are classified as vulnerable, endangered or critically endangered — meaning they could disappear soon. In Africa, 11 of the 13 kinds of Red Colobus monkey assessed were listed as critically endangered or endangered. Some types of the small rust-colored monkey have not been seen in 25 or 30 years.