African Leaf-Eating Primates ‘Likely to Be Wiped Out’ by Climate Change
Posted on December 22nd, 2009Science Daily: 
Monkey species will become ‘increasingly at risk of extinction’ because of global warming, according to new research, published this week. It reveals that populations of monkeys and apes in Africa that depend largely on a diet of leaves may be wiped out by a rise in annual temperatures of two degrees Celsius. The study by researchers from Bournemouth University, Roehampton University and the University of Oxford suggests that the species most at risk are the already endangered gorillas and colobine monkeys.
The paper, published online by Animal Behaviour, pinpoints which species are most threatened by climate change in a series of new global maps. They show current and predicted distribution patterns of primates, comparing the populations according to their diet and the amount of enforced rest they are predicted to need.
They warn that Old World monkey populations in Africa will be hardest hit even by a very modest two degrees Celsius increase in global mean temperature, especially those whose diets are mainly leaf-based such as the beautiful colobine monkeys. In contrast, New World monkeys in South America will be virtually unaffected by a rise of two degrees in mean temperatures. However, even the South American species will begin to suffer if temperatures rise as much as four degrees Celsius (the currently predicted most extreme value) because suitable habitats will then become increasingly fragmented and small fragmented populations are more liable to chance risks of extinction.