A new report reveals the primate species in urgent need of help.
An international team of primate researchers has published a list of the 25 most endangered primate species in Asia, Africa, Madagascar and South America. Measured over the years of 2023 to 2025, the list emphasises how urgently global conservation measures are needed to save irreplaceable biodiversity.
“The situation is dramatic,” says Christian Roos, geneticist at the German Primate Center, which supported the publication of the report. “If we don’t act now, we will lose some of these species forever. But there is hope – if science, politics and society take action together.”
Habitat destruction, hunting, climate change and the illegal wildlife trade are currently the biggest threats to these species.
The most endangered ape species on the list is the Tapanuli orangutan on Sumatra, with only around 800 individuals remaining – having only been discovered in 2017.
Lemurs in Madagascar are also under threat, including the smallest primate in the world: Madame Berthe’s mouse lemur. Weighing just 30g, the Microcebus berthae was discovered in 1993 but has experienced dramatic decline over the past three years.
The Primates in Peril list features six species from Africa, four from Madagascar, nine from Asia, and six from the Neotropics, an area encompassing Central and South America.
The most endangered primates on earth: 2023-2025
Most endangered primates in Africa
- Rondo dwarf galago (Tanzania)
- Golden-bellied mangabey (Democratic Republic of the Congo)
- Southern Patas monkey (Tanzania)
- Red-bellied monkey (Benin, Nigeria and Togo)
- Niger delta red colobus (Nigeria)
- Cross river gorilla (Cameroon and Nigeria)
Most endangered primates in Madagascar
- Madame Berthe's mouse lemur (Madagascar)
- Sahafary sportive lemur (Madagascar)
- Coquerel's giant mouse lemur (Madagascar)
- Red ruffed lemur (Madagascar) - find out more about black and white ruffed lemurs here
Most endangered primates in Asia
- Northern pygmy slow loris (China, Lao PDR and Vietnam) - we named the slow loris as one of the weirdest primates in the world
- Sangihe Island tarsier (Indonesia)
- Cat Ba langur (Vietnam)
- Pig-tailed snub-nosed langur (Indonesia and Mentawai Island)
- Myanmar snub-nosed monkey (China and Myanmar)
- Raffles' banded langur (Malaysia and Singapore)
- Bornean banded langur (Brunei, Indonesia and Malaysia)
- Cao-vit gibbon (China and Vietnam)
- Tapanuli orangutan (Indonesia)
Most endangered primates in the Neotropics
- Olalla Brothers' titi (Bolivia)
- Caatinga or blond titi monkey (Brazil)
- Pied tamarin (Brazil)
- Central American squirrel monkey (Costa Rica and Panama)
- Peruvian yellow-tailed woolly monkey (Peru)
- Variegated spider monkey (Colombia, Venezuela)
The world’s 25 most endangered primates list 2023-2025 has been compiled by the Primate Specialist Group of IUCN’s Species Survival Commission (SSC) and the International Primatological Society (IPS), in collaboration with Re:wild.
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- Meet the critically endangered Indri: The striking lemur with a haunting call
- Ring-tailed lemur guide: where they live, what they eat, and why they're endangered
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