BEIJING, June 25 (Xinhua) -- Primate populations may be increasingly threatened by extreme climatic events including cyclones and droughts, according to an international study.
Primates are important elements of tropical ecosystems. However, about 60 percent of the world's primate species are threatened by extinction due to deforestation, habitat loss and human activity. Climate change also poses a threat to the survival of primates.
Researchers from the Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Southern University of Science and Technology and international researchers from Mexico and the U.K. assessed the vulnerability of the world's 607 primate species to two types of extreme climatic events including cyclone and drought, which are expected to increase in the future.
Results showed that 16 percent of the primates are vulnerable to cyclones, particularly those in Madagascar. About 22 percent of the primates are vulnerable to droughts, and they are mainly distributed in the Malaysia Peninsula, North Borneo, Sumatra and tropical moist forests of West Africa.
These findings will help with prioritization of primate conservation efforts. They indicate a need for collecting data on vulnerable species in order to determine conservation plans, according to the research team.
The research was published in the journal Nature Climate Change.
