Thanks to habitat destruction, poaching and being made into bushmeat, medicines and pets, primates are now facing their first possible extinctions in more than a century, according to a recent report by the US-based environmental group Conservation International. The report's findings show that twenty nine percent of all monkeys, apes and gorilla species are now facing the danger of extinction.
Conservation International's list of the twenty-five most endangered primates includes the Greater bamboo and white-collared lemurs in Madagascar, along with the Sumatran orangutan and a recently discovered Indonesian tarsier. Only a few dozen of the most vulnerable species of listed gibbons and langurs remain, while Miss Waldron's red colobus monkey of West Africa may already be wiped out of existence.
"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, president of Conservational International's Primate Specialist Group.
"In Central and West Africa primate meat ... is a luxury item for the elite. Here it's even more for medicinal purposes, with most of the more valuable species going to markets in southeastern China."
Mittermeier remarked that the loss of tropical forests and other primate habitats is a major concern in their long-term survival; yet, if reforestation projects were to be included in U.N. programs to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, it could prove to be a "magnificent opportunity" to save both primates and sequester carbon.
He noted that local conservation action could prove just as effective: with only an estimated twenty of southwest China’s Hainan gibbon remaining, regional efforts to bolster their chances of survival could be seen as an example to be emulated elsewhere.
"What they have done, which I find really amazing, is they have local villagers following these groups on a daily basis," Mittermeier said. "We are looking now at applying that in Vietnam, in Madagascar and a few other places."
译文:
25种最濒危的灵长类动物的存活个体还不足填满一个足球场
根据美国的一个环保团体“国际保护组织”最近的一份报告，由于栖息地被破坏、盗猎、被弄为丛林兽肉、药物和宠物；一个多世纪以来，灵长类动物正第一次面临灭绝的可能。报告的调查结果显示，猴子、猿和大猩猩所有种类的29%正面临绝种危险。
国际保护组织的名单上的25种最濒危的灵长类动物，包括马达加斯加的大竹狐猴和白领狐猴、苏门答腊猩猩和一种新近发现的印尼跗猴。名单上最脆弱的种类长臂猿和叶猴只剩几十只了。法登小姐的西非红色疣猴可能已经被彻底抹掉了。
“你可以将这25个物种的所有幸存个体放进一个足球场—它们今天在地球上的数量就是这么少啊！”国际保护组织灵长类专家组的主席罗素米特梅尔说。
“在非洲的中部和西部，灵长类动物的肉是精英们的一种奢侈品。在这里，它更多是用作医药；而在中国的东南部，大部份更为珍贵的种类被送到市场销售。”
米特梅尔表示，热带森林和其它灵长类动物的栖息地的减少对它们的长期生存是一个重要的影响因素；然而，如果再造林项目被列入联合国减少温室气体排放量的计划中，将是拯救灵长类和固氮并举的一个“辉煌的机会”。
他指出，地方的保护行动证明同样有效：中国西南地区的海南长臂猿大约只有20只个体存留，通过该地区自己的努力，增加了它们的生存机会；这是一个其它地方可以效仿的例子。
“我觉得他们所做的事真是了不起。他们让当地村民每天跟踪这些群体，”米特梅尔说，“我们期待着越南、马达加斯加和其他几个地方也应用这一方法。”