The World's Largest Living Primate Now Listed As 'Critically Endangered'

The largest living primate in the world is the eastern gorilla, and it is now declared as "critically endangered" on the updated Red List of Endangered Species. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) stated that the main cause of its extinction is the illegal hunting of the meat and body parts of the biggest primate.

They are now numbered to less than 5,000 living in Central Africa and its population declined by about 70 percent in two decades. Inger Andersen, the IUCN's Director General said that to see the Eastern gorilla, which is one of the human's closest cousins---slide towards extinction is truly distressing. "We live in a time of tremendous change and each IUCN Red List update makes us realize just how quickly the global extinction crisis is escalating. " He added that conservation action does work and they have increasing evidence of it and it is their responsibility to improve their efforts to turn the tide and protect the future of the planet.

It is miserable to see that four out of the six great age species, which are the western gorilla, eastern gorilla, Sumatran orangutan and Bornean orangutan are all listed as critically endangered. These creatures face an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild in the future. The chimpanzee and bonobo are also facing a very high risk of extinction in the wild in the future, according to Science Alert.

The eastern Gorilla (Gorilla beringei) belongs to the species of the genus Gorilla and considered the largest living primate. They are subdivided into two namely the Grauer's gorilla known as the eastern lowland gorilla and the mountain gorilla.

The eastern gorilla has a large head, long arms and broad chest with the flat nose and large nostrils. Its face, feet, hands and breast are bald and its fur is black. The adult males have a silvery "saddle" on their back. The male gorillas are much bigger than females. The typical full-grown adult male eastern gorilla weighs 140-205.5 kg and has 1,7 m (5.6 ft.) height. The typical female weighs 90 to 100 kg and stands 1,5m (4.9 ft.) tall.