by Mike Gaworecki for Mongabay
Earlier this month, a new orangutan species discovered in Sumatra, Indonesia officially became the eighth great ape species known to exist on Earth — and, thanks to habitat destruction caused by the expansion of human development, it instantly became one of the most endangered great apes on the planet, too.
There are believed to be fewer than 800 Batang Toru orangutans (Pongo tapanuliensis), as the new species is called (it’s also sometimes referred to as the Tapanuli orangutan), all living in a degraded primary forest on Sumatra increasingly surrounded and bisected by roads. But the species is hardly alone amongst its primate relatives in being threatened by human activities.
According to the biennial Primates In Peril report, the latest installment of which was released today at the Primate Society of Great Britain’s 50th anniversary conference in London, 62 percent of the more than 700 known species and subspecies of apes, lemurs, monkeys, and other primates are currently facing serious threats to their survival. Forty-two percent of them are listed as Endangered or Critically Endangered.
This excerpt from a news article appeared in and is courtesy of Mongabay and can be read in its entirety here.
