Nonhuman primate species are essential for a healthy environment and balanced ecosystems, which humans also need to survive, the study said.
"This truly is the 11th hour for many of these creatures," study co-leader Paul Garber, an anthropology professor at the University of Illinois, told USA Today.
Garber also said many primate species will disappear quickly, over the next 25 years, unless the world takes action.
“Raising global scientific and public awareness of the plight of the world’s primates and the costs of their loss to ecosystem health and human society is imperative,” the study warned.
The threats to primates’ existence also include industrial agriculture, cattle ranching, logging, mining, oil and gas drilling, hunting, illegal trade in primate parts, and as pets.
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