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Impending extinction crisis of the world’s primates: Why primates matter

Estrada, Alejandro; Garber, Paul A.; Rylands, Anthony B.; Roos, Christian; Fernandez-Duque, Eduardo; Di Fiore, Anthony; Nekaris, K. Anne-Isola; Nijman, Vincent; Heymann, Eckhard W.; Lambert, Joanna E.; Rovero, Francesco; Barelli, Claudia; Setchell, Joanna M.; Gillespie, Thomas R.; Mittermeier, Russell A.; Arregoitia, Luis Verde; de Guinea, Miguel; Gouveia, Sidney; Dobrovolski, Ricardo; Shanee, Sam; Shanee, Noga; Boyle, Sarah A.; Fuentes, Agustin; MacKinnon, Katherine C.; Amato, Katherine R.; Meyer, Andreas L.S.; Wich, Serge; Sussman, Robert W.; Pan, Ruliang; Kone, Inza; Li, Baoguo

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Authors

Alejandro Estrada

Paul A. Garber

Anthony B. Rylands

Christian Roos

Eduardo Fernandez-Duque

Anthony Di Fiore

K. Anne-Isola Nekaris

Vincent Nijman

Eckhard W. Heymann

Joanna E. Lambert

Francesco Rovero

Claudia Barelli

Thomas R. Gillespie

Russell A. Mittermeier

Luis Verde Arregoitia

Miguel de Guinea

Sidney Gouveia

Ricardo Dobrovolski

Sam Shanee

Noga Shanee

Sarah A. Boyle

Agustin Fuentes

Katherine C. MacKinnon

Katherine R. Amato

Andreas L.S. Meyer

Serge Wich

Robert W. Sussman

Ruliang Pan

Inza Kone

Baoguo Li



Abstract

Nonhuman primates, our closest biological relatives, play important roles in the livelihoods, cultures, and religions of many societies and offer unique insights into human evolution, biology, behavior, and the threat of emerging diseases. They are an essential component of tropical biodiversity, contributing to forest regeneration and ecosystem health. Current information shows the existence of 504 species in 79 genera distributed in the Neotropics, mainland Africa, Madagascar, and Asia. Alarmingly, ~60% of primate species are now threatened with extinction and ~75% have declining populations. This situation is the result of escalating anthropogenic pressures on primates and their habitats—mainly global and local market demands, leading to extensive habitat loss through the expansion of industrial agriculture, large-scale cattle ranching, logging, oil and gas drilling, mining, dam building, and the construction of new road networks in primate range regions. Other important drivers are increased bushmeat hunting and the illegal trade of primates as pets and primate body parts, along with emerging threats, such as climate change and anthroponotic diseases. Often, these pressures act in synergy, exacerbating primate population declines. Given that primate range regions overlap extensively with a large, and rapidly growing, human population characterized by high levels of poverty, global attention is needed immediately to reverse the looming risk of primate extinctions and to attend to local human needs in sustainable ways. Raising global scientific and public awareness of the plight of the world’s primates and the costs of their loss to ecosystem health and human society is imperative.

Citation

Estrada, A., Garber, P. A., Rylands, A. B., Roos, C., Fernandez-Duque, E., Di Fiore, A., …Li, B. (2017). Impending extinction crisis of the world’s primates: Why primates matter. Science Advances, 3(1), Article e1600946. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.1600946

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Nov 22, 2016
Online Publication Date Jan 18, 2017
Publication Date Jan 18, 2017
Deposit Date Feb 2, 2017
Publicly Available Date Mar 28, 2024
Journal Science Advances
Publisher American Association for the Advancement of Science
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 3
Issue 1
Article Number e1600946
DOI https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.1600946
Publisher URL http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/3/1/e1600946

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Publisher Licence URL
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/

Copyright Statement
Copyright © 2017, The Authors This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial license, which permits use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, so long as the resultant use is not for commercial advantage and provided the original work is properly cited.





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