LAUSR

The September  tally of the IUCN Species Survival Commission Primate Specialist Group lists  species,  subspecies and  genera of primates. Ninety-five primates—%of the primate taxa known today—were first described just in this millennium. Themajority,  of them, are lemurs, along with seven primates fromAfrica,  fromAsia, and  from the Neotropics. That so many new species can be discovered in this developed age is astonishing. As has been repeatedly documented, hunting—mostly illegal—and the devastation of habitats, unabated through the s and s and into the st century, have resulted in widespread population declines. The  IUCN Red List assessment for primates included  species and subspecies:  (%) were ranked as threatened. Forty-three (%) of  lemurs, however, were categorized as Data Deficient. A follow-up workshop for the lemurs in  addressed the data gaps, and the result was a new total of  threatened primates, % of  then assessed. Following Red-Listing workshops from  onward, including a second for lemurs in , the latest update of the Red List (-, July ) now has  primates assessed, with  (%) categorized as threatened. The  lemur Red List assessment listed  species and subspecies as threatened:  Critically Endangered (% of the  assessed) and  as Endangered (%). The  reassessment determined that  lemurs were threatened, with  Critically Endangered (% of the  assessed) and  Endangered (.%). The number categorized as Vulnerable increased from  in  to  in . Currently only two lemurs are categorized as Least Concern! With nearly all lemurs threatened, we are seeing their gradual progression from Vulnerable to Critically Endangered. The change in numbers for the African primates from the  to the  Red Lists also reflects increasing endangerment. Sixtythree (%) African primates were categorized as threatened in , and  (%) in . New assessments of  Neotropical primates and  Asian primates have yet to be posted on the Red List website. Sixty-two per cent of all primates are threatened. . . and counting! So what is being done about this? The Red List assessment process provides a framework for what we need to understand—information on demographics, populations, habitat requirements and loss, extent of occurrence, area of occupancy, threats, and conservation measures in place. Once compiled for a species, the question is: what approaches are needed for its conservation? The obvious strategy is to deal with the threats, be they pernicious processes (hunting, illegal wildlife trade, emerging infectious diseases and epidemics, forest loss, degradation and fragmentation, and negative interactions with people) or catastrophic events (resource extraction such as logging and mining, and infrastructure development, including roads and dams, which spark the colonization of once remote forests). The other strategy is remedial, with mitigatory measures dealing with the safety and growth of the remaining populations, or population, as the case may be. The key tools are protected areas and community conservation areas. Others target conservation management: population surveys and monitoring (now benefitting from satellite imagery, camera traps, drones and genetic studies), law enforcement, disease prevention, reforestation, enrichment of degraded forests, wildlife corridors and bridges, land-use planning, captive breeding, population genetics, rewilding, translocation and the control of invasive species. The Primate Specialist Group focuses on its mission of zero extinctions for the primate order. This has included a wide range of activities, from Red-Listing, conservation action plans, the establishment of best practices, funding for numerous conservation projects, and the maintenance of communications networks, especially through its five journals. The first action plan was a global strategy (Mittermeier, ), which was followed by regional plans for Asia, Africa, Madagascar and Mesoamerica, and many species-specific plans, including, since , for the great apes. The eight articles in this issue of Oryx present an array of research initiatives encompassing  primates, all threatened. They focus on field surveys, but with objectives and methods suited to the particularities of the status, distribution and habitats of each species. Using the traditional survey technique of line transects with distance sampling, Yanuar et al. () estimated densities of the north-west Bornean orangutan Pongo pongo pygmaeus, counting nests in the peat swamps between two protected areas. They documented a decline in numbers and ascertained that densities were lower than in the nearby protected areas. Twenty-three of the  gibbon species and subspecies are now ranked as Endangered or Critically Endangered. Syxaiyakhamthor et al. () surveyed the northern whitecheeked gibbon Nomascus leucogenys in the Nam Et-Phou ANTHONY B. RYLANDS* (Corresponding author) and RUSSELL A. MITTERMEIER* IUCN Species Survival Commission Primate Specialist Group E-mail [email protected]