Reuters: Monkeys, apes teeter on brink of extinction

[tex-wyo-dem]

Monkeys, apes teeter on brink of extinction

By Emma Graham-Harrison
37 minutes ago

BEIJING (Reuters) - Mankind's closest relatives are teetering on the brink of their first extinctions in more than a century, hunted by humans for food and medicine and squeezed from forest homes, a report on endangered primates said on Friday.

<snip>

But just a few thousand dollars could be enough to push up numbers of the most vulnerable animals, said Mittermeier, who hopes publicity from the report will bolster the flow of funds to conservation groups and income from ecotourism.

Primates survived the 20th century without losing a single known species -- in fact new ones are rapidly being found -- and should be relatively easy to protect, he added.

"With what we spend in one day in Iraq we could fund primate conservation for the next decade for every endangered and critically endangered and vulnerable species out there," he said.

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http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071026/ts_nm/primates_extinction_dc

[tom_paine]

1. Good, it's about time those flea-bitten bastards exited stage right.

I mean, seriously, what WILL replace the mammalian genome after it suffers a massive reduction in it's ecological niches, just like the dinosaurs did during THEIR Great Die-Off?

Is it the insects' turn? I very much doubt we mammals would enjoy living in their societies or even conceive of what the societies would look like.

So as we wave a fond adieu to the various monkey and ape species of the world, we do it in the knowledge that we tool-using monkeys will very very VERY likely be joining them in the geological wink of an eye.

Happy trails, trailblazers of extinction! :hi:

[pscot]

2. Primates? Wait a minute. Aren't we primates?

For a brief overview of the human condition, go here; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a15KgyXBX24

[tex-wyo-dem]

3. Quite literally, thier fate is our fate...

If we can assure their survival, we can assure our own, and vise versa.

lots of "canaries in a coal mine" these days.