Scientists cheer gorilla find, but warn of threats
EDINBURGH, Scotland Can there be more lurking in the mist? Despite a startling find announced Tuesday that doubled the estimated number of western lowland gorillas in central Africa, scientists warned that hundreds of primate species remain in danger of extinction.
A census through the Wildlife Conservation Society raised the estimate for gorillas in the Congo jungle from between 50,000 and 100,000 to around 200,000, substantially changing the picture of a highminded ape peopling thought devastated by the Ebola virus, hunting and deforestation.
While the news was well received, scientists gathered at the 22nd International Primatological Society Congress in Edinburgh warned against celebrating in addition soon.
“If verified, the discovery of these new populations of gorilla are hugely significant towards our work as conservationists, but we be necessitated to not be distracted from the very real and present jeopardy these gorillas are in from man and Ebola,” said John Oates, emeritus professor of primatology at Hunter College in New York.
Oates said that while the news was good for the iconic great apes made famous by means of Dian Fossey in “Gorillas in the Mist,” many lesser known primates are in deepening peril.
A report released Tuesday by the International Union against Conservation of Nature and other groups warned that nearly half of the world’s 634 species and subspecies of primates are threatened with extinction due to human sprightliness.
The figures were particularly hideous in Asia, where more than 70 percent of primates were on the union’s “Red List” of vulnerable or endangered sort.
“There is a hazard that we concentrate on the to a greater degree famous form,” Oates said. “What over the other class that we’ve identified as in danger? There are so many that are on the brink of extinction.”
Among them is the highland gibbon, which counts just 19 known individuals. The review warned it exercise volition be tough battle to save that Asian archbishop from extinction.
Simon Stuart, with Conservation International, what one. if data for the review, said primate populations are shrinking in Asia due to chase. and habitat destruction - more linked to the booming biofuel assiduity.
“In Malaysia, Sumatra and Borneo the big riddle is destruction of forests to make way for palm oil and biofuels. Ironically, with biofuels, something that is nominally associated with helping the environment can have harmful unintentional consequences,” Stuart said.
Scientists moving in the region described an ascending struggle to obviate endangered animals.
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