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Explaining the primate extinction crisis: predictors of extinction risk and active threats.

Publication ,  Journal Article
Creighton, MJA; Nunn, CL
Published in: Proceedings. Biological sciences
September 2023

Explaining why some species are disproportionately impacted by the extinction crisis is of critical importance for conservation biology as a science and for proactively protecting species that are likely to become threatened in the future. Using the most current data on threat status, population trends, and threat types for 446 primate species, we advance previous research on the determinants of extinction risk by including a wider array of phenotypic traits as predictors, filling gaps in these trait data using multiple imputation, and investigating the mechanisms that connect organismal traits to extinction risk. Our Bayesian phylogenetically controlled analyses reveal that insular species exhibit higher threat status, while those that are more omnivorous and live in larger groups have lower threat status. The same traits are not linked to risk when repeating our analyses with older IUCN data, which may suggest that the traits influencing species risk are changing as anthropogenic effects continue to transform natural landscapes. We also show that non-insular, larger-bodied, and arboreal species are more susceptible to key threats responsible for primate population declines. Collectively, these results provide new insights to the determinants of primate extinction and identify the mechanisms (i.e. threats) that link traits to extinction risk.

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Published In

Proceedings. Biological sciences

DOI

EISSN

1471-2954

ISSN

0962-8452

Publication Date

September 2023

Volume

290

Issue

2006

Start / End Page

20231441

Related Subject Headings

  • Primates
  • Phenotype
  • Bayes Theorem
  • Anthropogenic Effects
  • Animals
  • 41 Environmental sciences
  • 31 Biological sciences
  • 30 Agricultural, veterinary and food sciences
  • 11 Medical and Health Sciences
  • 07 Agricultural and Veterinary Sciences
 

Citation

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Creighton, M. J. A., & Nunn, C. L. (2023). Explaining the primate extinction crisis: predictors of extinction risk and active threats. Proceedings. Biological Sciences, 290(2006), 20231441. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2023.1441
Creighton, Maria J. A., and Charles L. Nunn. “Explaining the primate extinction crisis: predictors of extinction risk and active threats.Proceedings. Biological Sciences 290, no. 2006 (September 2023): 20231441. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2023.1441.
Creighton MJA, Nunn CL. Explaining the primate extinction crisis: predictors of extinction risk and active threats. Proceedings Biological sciences. 2023 Sep;290(2006):20231441.
Creighton, Maria J. A., and Charles L. Nunn. “Explaining the primate extinction crisis: predictors of extinction risk and active threats.Proceedings. Biological Sciences, vol. 290, no. 2006, Sept. 2023, p. 20231441. Epmc, doi:10.1098/rspb.2023.1441.
Creighton MJA, Nunn CL. Explaining the primate extinction crisis: predictors of extinction risk and active threats. Proceedings Biological sciences. 2023 Sep;290(2006):20231441.
Journal cover image

Published In

Proceedings. Biological sciences

DOI

EISSN

1471-2954

ISSN

0962-8452

Publication Date

September 2023

Volume

290

Issue

2006

Start / End Page

20231441

Related Subject Headings

  • Primates
  • Phenotype
  • Bayes Theorem
  • Anthropogenic Effects
  • Animals
  • 41 Environmental sciences
  • 31 Biological sciences
  • 30 Agricultural, veterinary and food sciences
  • 11 Medical and Health Sciences
  • 07 Agricultural and Veterinary Sciences