IUCN Red List 2008:
A New Assessment of Endangered Primates

In an unprecedented effort, over a hundred field primatologists have pooled their knowledge to create the world's most comprehensive survey of threatened primates — and the results are a dire mosaic of crisis and hope.

Their assessment is one part of a new global analysis of mammal species, which will be incorporated into the 2008 edition of the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species in October of this year. The results for the primate component are being released early to coincide with the 22nd Congress of the International Primatological Society, in order to highlight the severe dangers now facing the world's primate fauna.

The new analysis reveals that:

Over 70% of Asian primates are threatened with extinction, and at least two dozen taxa are Critically Endangered.

Virtually all gibbons are threatened with extinction — and one of the rarest subspecies, the Yunnan white-handed gibbon, may already be extinct.

All great apes — all gorillas, all chimpanzees, all orangutans, all bonobos — are either Endangered or Critically Endangered.

Across all primate taxa, a full 48% are threatened — nearly half of all primates, in harm's way and likely to go extinct in our own lifetime.

For more detailed information about the analysis and its results, please explore the following resources:

Eaten to Extinction: Press Release on Threatened Primates
A summary of the results of the new analysis, with commentary from PSG Chairman Dr. Russell Mittermeier.

Regional Summaries of Primate Threat Status
A detailed accounting of threatened primates, organized by geographic region and taxonomic family.

Threatened Primates By Habitat Country
A listing of the countries in which primates are found, ranked by the degree of threat of their primate fauna.