In the Ivory Coast and Ghana in West Africa, farming has all but eliminated the obscure monkey's swampy habitat. Or the golden-headed langur on Vietnam's Cat Ba Island. This rare leaf-eater has been a favorite target of hunters who sell its bones, tissues and organs as traditional medicines. We're doing surveys to find them. Close to 20 percent stand a reasonable chance of disappearing in the next 20 years unless we take decisive action.
Primates are the highest order of mammals.
Besides humans, they include apes, monkeys and prosimians, a suborder that includes more primitive lemurs and tarsiers. Primates have been in worsening trouble for decades as the world's human population crashed the 6 billion barrier. Many of the world's foremost field researchers, including pioneering chimpanzee expert Jane Goodall, switched their focus from science to salvation as their cherished research subjects began disappearing. Researchers blame recent losses primarily on political unrest and commercial exploitation of the creatures' habitats. They say none of the four countries consistently enforces timber, mining or wildlife protection measures, even in national parks.