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Sunday, July 6, 2008

25 Most Endangered Primates Named

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Sumatran Orangutan (Indonesia)

This great ape has been reduced to 7,000 animals living in 13 fragments of land on the island of Sumatra, according to a new report.

Large-scale logging continues to convert this orangutan's native forests to agriculture and palm oil plantations, says the October 26, 2007, report by the Primate Specialist Group of the World Conservation Union's Species Survival Commission and the International Primatological Society, in collaboration with Conservation International.

The report names the world's 25 most endangered primates and says that a third of all primates are in danger of extinction (read full story). Key culprits are "destruction of tropical forests, illegal wildlife trade and commercial bushmeat hunting."

Primates include monkeys, apes, and lemurs and are humanity's closest relatives.

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