Primates are among the most persecuted of tropical species — relentlessly hunted for their meat and fur, bodies broken for dubious medicines, shot for stealing crops in fields which were once their home. All the forests of the world cannot sate the sum of human hunger: they are cut and burned, day and night, and the remnants of their grandeur will not long survive without our intervention.

Thus no primate is entirely free from danger; but the few highlighted in this report are those whose very existence is in doubt. Each one named here is almost lost — each an entire race of beings, now reduced to a tattered remnant: two or three dozen in the worst of cases, a mere few hundred for the rest.

From the Atlantic Forest of Brazil to the monsoon slopes of Madagascar, from the mountains of southwest China to the islands of Mentawai, these primates are caught between fading hope and hard oblivion. And if through our failure of action they should cease to exist, we will have lost our nearest companions — and a part of ourselves — from what wilderness remains in the world.

These galleries link to individual profiles of the Top 25 primates; you may also download the full report on Primates in Peril: 2008-2010 as a PDF (14.4 MB).

Rondo Dwarf Galago Galagoides rondoensis	Javan Slow Loris Nycticebus javanicus	Greater Bamboo Lemur Prolemur simus	Cotton-top Tamarin Saguinus oedipus
Roloway Guenon Cercocebus diana roloway	Siau Island Tarsier Tarsius tumpara	Gray-headed Lemur Eulemur cinereiceps	Brown Spider Monkey Ateles hybridus
Tana River Red Colobus Procolobus rufomitratus	Simakobu Simias concolor	Sclater's Lemur Eulemur flavifrons	Yellow-tailed Woolly M. Oreonax flavicauda
Niger Delta Red Colobus Monkey Procolobus epieni	Delacour's Langur Trachypithecus delacouri	Northern Sportive Lemur Lepilemur septentrionalis
Kipunji Rungwecebus kipunji	Cat Ba Langur Trachypithecus p. poliocephalus	Silky Sifaka Propithecus candidus
Cross River Gorilla Gorilla gorilla diehli	Western Purple-faced Langur Semnopithecus vetulus nestor
	Grey-Shanked Douc Pygathrix cinerea
	Tonkin Snub-nosed Monkey Rhinopithecus avunculus
	Eastern Black Crested Gibbon Nomascus nasutus
	W. Hoolock Gibbon Hoolock hoolock
	Sumatran Orangutan Pongo abelii