As the coronavirus pandemic rages across the globe, much of the focus centers on the growing human death toll, which has climbed above one million. But experts caution that a handful of our closest living relatives in the animal kingdom are also in jeopardy from SARS-CoV-2, the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19. 


A recent analysis of more than 400 vertebrate species, including birds, fish, amphibians, reptiles, and mammals, predicts that critically endangered primate species such as the northern white-cheeked gibbon, the Sumatran orangutan, and the western lowland gorilla—as well as the endangered chimpanzee and bonobo—are particularly vulnerable to infection due to their genetic similarities to humans.

Study leader Harris Lewin set out to identify