Bushmeat trade threatens primates .
According to a report in the October issue of the journal of Conservation Biology, the bushmeat trade is responsible for the fist primate extinction in 100 years. Researchers, led by John Oates of Hunter College in the USA, spent the last six years looking for evidence of the once abundant Miss Waldron's red colobus monkey in Ghana and the Ivory coast. Whilst there was no sign at all of the monkey they did find spent shotgun shells, traps and snares. This extinction may be the first of many as Becky Harris of Born Free's Primate Campaign reports below. The bushmeat issue is the biggest threat facing the survival of chimpanzees and gorillas in Africa today and it is estimated by some scientists that chimpanzees may only have between 5-10 years before they become extinct in the wild.