My monkey’s business

by Jo-ann Hodgson in At home on 05.08.08

One of the best presents I’ve ever received was my very own, real life monkey.

Well, okay, it was the sponsorship of a monkey in a zoo; I couldn’t actually take the little beauty home and feed it bananas while it sat on my shoulder.

But nonetheless, knowing that I was helping to look after a primate with a mohican and an uncanny resemblance to David Bowie in Labyrinth made me very happy. As did the fact that when visitors asked about the framed photo on my wall, I could say nonchalantly “oh yeah, that’s my monkey.”

Little David is a cottontop tamarin, a squirrel-sized, felty-faced creature with a wave of striking white head hair leading onto his silky back.

So I was pleased to hear that his cousins, Brazil’s golden lion and black lion tamarins, have recently been downgraded from critically endangered to endangered species.

Both species had almost become extinct in the wild. But zoos around the world joined together to begin a captive breeding system.

Although many of the captive-bred tamarins have fallen victim to predators such as eagles and snakes once reintroduced into the wild, their numbers are now beginning to grow. Hoorah!

Yet the picture isn’t looking as positive for Little David’s extended family. Results of a global review of the world’s primates, announced this week, found that 48% of species now face extinction.

Over 70% of primates in Asia are listed as endangered, with hunting, and burning and clearing of forests, responsible for much of the population decline. Unfortunately for primates, the fact that they are active during the day, live in groups and make one hell of a noise makes them easy targets for hunters. Monkeys also live long lives so it takes populations some time to reverse the decline.

Among the species under threat is a recently-discovered African monkey, of which only just over 1,000 are thought to exist. The new species - Rungwecebus Kipunji - is the first to be discovered in Africa since 1923, but it could disappear within the next 20 to 50 years due to poachers and illegal loggers in Tanzania’s Southern Highlands.

Little David has it easy, with only over-enthusiastic children to deal with; it’s a great shame the same can’t be said for the rest of his furry family.

IMAGE by Flicker user Suneko