Almost one in three species of primates is facing extinction, a survey by scientists shows. Bushmeat hunting, illegal trade in animals and habitat loss are the biggest threats and have left 29 per cent of primate species in danger of being wiped out.

Gorillas, lemurs and orangutans were named yesterday as being among the world’s 25 most endangered primate species. They are facing an “unprecedented threat” and researchers are critical of governments for failing to protect them.

The research to assess numbers was carried out by the Primate Specialist Group of the World Conservation Union’s (IUCN) Species Survival Commission (SSC) and the International Primatological Society (IPS), in collaboration with Conservation International.

The report, Primates in Peril: the World’s 25 Most Endangered Primates – 2006–2008, has been compiled by 60 experts from 21 countries.

Russell Mittermeier, president of Conservation International, said: “You could fit all the surviving members of these 25 species in a single football stadium. That’s how few of them remain on Earth today.

“The situation is worst in Asia, where tropical forest destruction and the hunting and trading of monkeys puts many species at terrible risk. Even newly discovered species are severely threatened from loss of habitat and could soon disappear.”

Overall, 114 of the world’s 394 primate species appeared on the IUCN Red List, which highlights the animals and plants around the world that are threatened with extinction.

Apes, monkeys, lemurs and other primates are the closest relatives to humans and are regarded as flagship species in their ecosystems. They help, through the dispersal of seeds and other interactions with the environment, to support the survival of plant and animal life in forests.

Among the 25 most endangered primates was Miss Waldron’s red colobus of Ivory Coast and Ghana, which is feared by some conservationists to be extinct already.

Only a few dozen of the golden-headed langur of Vietnam and the Hainan gibbon in China are known to be alive while the Horton Plains slender loris has been sighted in Sri Lanka just four times since 1937.

- The Prince of Wales last night called for the protection of rainforests by finding ways to make their preservation financially worthwhile for developing countries. He is founding the Prince’s Rainforests Project, which will include attempts to make conservation of the world’s rainforests commercially viable.

At a WWF-UK gala dinner last night, he said up to 25 per cent of global carbon emissions are caused by deforestation.

The WWF says the Amazon rainforest, the largest tropical forest in the world, and home to 10 per cent of the planet’s species, is being destroyed at the equivalent of 3,600 football pitches a day and without action 40 per cent will be lost by 2050.

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