In the second week of September 2000, several sources reported on a survey by primatologists in Africa that has confirmed the extinction of Procolobus badius waldroni, or Miss Waldron's red colobus monkey.

This is the first primate taxon known to have gone extinct since the 1700s, and its loss will be the first of many to come unless true conservation becomes an on-the-ground reality in the world's tropical rainforests. As a specialist in the high-canopy zone, Miss Waldon's red colobus suffered from intense deforestation across an already limited range in Ghana and the Ivory Coast. Relentless poaching pressure for the bushmeat trade apparently eliminated the last survivors of what, at the time of its discovery in 1933, was a thriving and vigorous species.

This extinction had been predicted for many years, and its confirmation lends a biting credence to other estimates for primate losses. Between 10-30% of all primate taxa may vanish within the next few decades, including the golden lion tamarins of Brazil, the mountain gorillas of the Virungas, the Tonkin monkeys of Vietnam and half a dozen critically endangered lemur species in Madagascar. And for every primate species that is lost, dozens of other lifeforms — less conspicuous, but just as vital to the weave of life — may also be destroyed.

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