The World’s Top 25 Most Endangered Primates – 2004

Mittermeier R.A., Valladares-Pádua C.V., Rylands A.B.

In January 2000, Conservation International and the IUCN/SSC Primate Specialist Group released a report, prepared by William R. Konstant and Russell A. Mittermeier on behalf of Conservation International and the IUCN/SSC Primate Specialist Group, entitled “The World’s Top 25 Most Endangered Primates”: a list of threatened prosimians, monkeys and apes whose survival beyond the present century will depend heavily on actions taken now by our own species. At the time, approximately 120 of the world’s estimated 620 primates were registered as being in serious danger of extinction. The “Top 25” named in 2000 were merely the tip of the iceberg. The idea behind the production of this list was not merely to record the absolutely most endangered species, but to draw attention to those which are extremely (most) endangered and currently lacking national and international attention for their conservation - those most in need of research and protective measures. The list as such was a call to take notice, and based to a large extent on hunch and ignorance. The key aim was to avoid being taken by surprise regarding the unrecognized plight of any particular species or subspecies. Two years later, the list was discussed and revised at an open meeting during the IX Congress of the International Primatological Society, Beijing, in August 2002. The heated debate was symptomatic of the success and importance of this list – drawing attention to poorly known but, by all accounts, critically endangered primates, encouraging, with international recognition of their plight, investment in assessing their status, in research, and in implementing conservation measures. The second, 2002, list dramatically emphasized the serious threats to South-east Asian, and particularly Vietnamese, species and subspecies.

The following are currently on the list of the World’s Top 25 Most Endangered Primates.

Hapalemur simus	Greater bamboo lemur	Madagascar
Propithecus perrieri	Perrier’s sifaka	Madagascar
Propithecus candidus	Silky sifaka	Madagascar
Leontopithecus caissara	Black-faced lion tamarin	Brazil
Cebus xanthosternos	Buff-headed capuchin	Brazil
Brachyteles hypoxanthus	Northern muriqui	Brazil
Procolobus badius waldroni	Miss Waldron’s red colobus	Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire
Cercopithecus diana roloway	Roloway guenon	Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire
Cercocebus atys lunulatus	White-naped mangabey	Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire
Cercocebus galeritus galeritus	Tana River mangabey	Kenya
Procolobus rufomitratus	Tana River red colobus	Kenya
Cercocebus galeritus sanjei	Sanje mangabey	Tanzania
Presbytis natunae	Natuna banded leaf monkey	Indonesia
Simias concolor	Pig-tailed snub-nosed monkey	Indonesia
Trachypithecus delacouri	Delacour’s Langur	Vietnam
Trachypithecus poliocephalus	Golden-headed langur	Vietnam
Trachypithecus leucocephalus	White-headed Langur	China
Pygathrix nemaeus cinerea	Gray-shanked douc	Vietnam
Rhinopithecus avunculus	Tonkin Snub-nosed monkey	Vietnam
Rhinopithecus bieti	Yunnan Snub-nosed monkey	China
Rhinopithecus brelichi	Guizhou Snub-nosed monkey	China
Nomascus nasutus	Eastern black crested gibbon	China and Vietnam
Gorilla beringei beringei	Mountain gorilla	Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Uganda
Gorilla gorilla diehli	Cross River gorilla	Nigeria and Cameroon
Pongo abelii	Sumatran orangutan	Indonesia

The Congresses of the International Primatological Society provide a unique venue to discuss this list, bringing together as they do expertise from around the world regarding the conservation status of beleaguered primate populations. The IUCN Primate Specialist Group and the Conservation Committee of the International Primatological Society invite all come to a meeting that will be held in the Main Hall of the Dipartimento di Biologia Animale e dell'Uomo - v. Accademia Albertina, 13 on Thursday 26^th evening for a discussion and revision of the World’s Top 25 Endangered Species 2004-2006 – a tool which has proven to be highly efficient in bringing global focus on species judged to be critically endangered and yet currently lacking the attention they need from conservation community.

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