One of the most detailed studies carried out to date on the status of nonhuman primate populations emphasizes that more than 60% of the 504 known species of these animals are seriously threatened . In fact, 75% experience a significant decline, a situation that is likely to get worse in the coming decades.
According to the international team of scientists who have carried out the research, the main cause of this phenomenon is, without any doubt, human pressure. The construction of dams, roads, mining, prospecting for oil and gas, and the clearing of vast wooded areas into cropland and pasture for livestock have greatly reduced the habitat of these mammals. The Sumatran orangutan, for example, has lost 60% of it in just three decades. 80% of the gibbons of Hainan, endemic to the Chinese island of the same name, disappeared in less than 50 years for the same causes. Today barely 20 individuals survive in the wild.
The work, published in the journal Science Advances , also indicates that climate change, the transmission of human diseases, hunting, the illegal sale of these animals as pets and the commercialization of different parts of their body for all kinds of purposes it has further aggravated the situation.
To reach these conclusions, the researchers, coordinated by Alejandro Estrada, from the Institute of Biology of the National Autonomous University of Mexico, and Paul A. Garber, from the Department of Anthropology of the University of Illinois, have combined the data collected in the List Red of Endangered Species prepared by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, those collected in the scientific literature available on this matter and the information prepared by the UN on it.
Estrada, Garber and their collaborators point out that the territories occupied by primates, in Asia, Africa, Madagascar and South America, coincide with that of many human populations characterized by a high level of poverty, growth and inequality. For this reason, they propose to implement different strategies to meet the needs of these people, control the birth rate, improve their education and redesign the local economy, so that it follows a sustainable model and includes the preservation of forested areas where threatened animals live. .
Image: Kabir Bakie via Wikimedia / CC
