Mankind's closest living relatives -the world's apes, monkeys, lemurs and other primates - are under unprecedented threat of extinction, the World Conservation Union (IUCN) said on Friday.

 

In a new report, the Swiss-based organization said that nearly one-third of the world's 394 primate species are now in danger of going extinct, mainly due to destruction of tropical forests, illegal wildlife trade and commercial hunting.

 

The report provided a list of the world's 25 most endangered primates. It noted that one of the 25 primate species, red colobus of Ivory Coast and Ghana, is already feared extinct, while the golden-headed langur of Vietnam and China's Hainan gibbon number only in the dozens.

 

"You could fit all the surviving members of these 25 species in a single football stadium; that's how few of them remain on Earth today," said Russell Mittermeier, chairman of the IUCN's Primate Specialist Group.

 

"The situation is worst in Asia, where tropical forest destruction and the hunting and trading of monkeys puts many species at terrible risk. Even newly discovered species are severely threatened from loss of habitat and could soon disappear," he said.

 

As "flagship species" and mankind's closest living relatives, primates are important to the health of their surrounding ecosystems, according to the IUCN.

 

Through the dispersal of seeds and other interactions with their environments, primates help support a wide range of plant and animal life that makes up the Earth's forests.

 

"By protecting the world's remaining tropical forests, we save primates and other endangered species while preventing more carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere to warm the climate," Russell Mittermeier noted.

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(Xinhua News Agency October 27, 2007)