49CHAPTER 2: wE ARE PRImATEs: THE PRImATE BACkgRound

BOX 2.4 Primates in Crisis

Many primatologists start their field studies firmly embedded in an anthropological frame-work, with the ideal of contributing to the methods, theories, and discoveries of the disci-pline. Once in the field, however, it is not unusual for researchers to shift some of their focus toward additional objectives, including rehabili-tation and conservation.

The Primate Specialist Group of the International Union for Conservation of Nature Species Survival Commission (IUCN/SSC PSG) is one of the key organizations keeping track of new primate groups discovered and primates in crisis, and frequently updating and publish-ing lists of endangered species. They report, for example, that all the great apes—orangutans, gorillas, chimpanzees, and bonobos—are endan-gered, some critically. They regularly identify the 25 most endangered primates. The 2018 list included a variety of lemurs from Madagascar, several species from the Americas, and more than a dozen species of monkeys and apes from Africa and Asia.

Stolen Apes—The Illicit Trade in Chimpanzees, Gorillas, Bonobos, and Orangutans is a publication of the United Nations (Stiles, Redmond, Cress, Nellemann, & Formo 2013:8) that documents the nature and severity of the primates in crisis due to trade. The document reads, in part,

Great apes are trafficked in various ways. In

many cases wild capture is opportunistic: farm-

ers capture infant apes after having killed the

mother during a crop-raid, or bushmeat hunters

shoot or trap adults for food, and then collect

babies to sell. However, organized illicit deal-

ers increasingly target great apes as part of a

far more sophisticated and systematic trade.

They use trans-national criminal networks

to supply a range of markets, including the

tourist entertainment industry, disreputa-

ble zoos, and wealthy individuals who want

exotic pets as status symbols. Great apes are

used to attract tourists to entertainment facil-

ities such as amusement parks and circuses.

They are even used in tourist photo sessions

on Mediterranean beaches and clumsy boxing

matches in Asian safari parks.

Bushmeat is a term often used in the context of primates as food. It is not unusual to see primates for sale as food in some markets in Africa. It isn't the local level of bushmeat hunting that is the big problem however; rather it is the slaughtering of primates for the international trade in bushmeat, serving those in other regions where primate meat is considered a delicacy. Because of the close biological relationship between apes and humans, there is some risk that eating apes may result in acquiring some of the pathogens causing diseases carried by the apes. Eating of apes has consequently been blamed, often incorrectly, for epidemics including the 2014 outbreak of Ebola in Africa (bats were a far more likely host). As noted in the UN document, however, it is those who butcher the apes who are at highest risk, since they are the ones to come in contact with the blood and organs of the apes.

One of the most egregious causes of orangutans being endangered is the transformation of their natural forest habitats of Southeast Asia to plan-tations for the production of palm oil, which in turn ends up in thousands of products includ-ing packaged foods, detergents, and cosmetics. With the reduction of the natural forest habi-tats, orangutans have difficulty surviving. Many starve to death, while others are killed to prevent them from eating parts of the newly planted palm trees.

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