Prism Webcast News

Extinction News about Our Closest Relatives

Monday, August 4, 2008
Posted in Environment | Tagged Environment

Startling news about monkeys, lemurs, apes and other primates will be announced Tuesday, August 5, in Edinburgh, Scotland.  Over the years, we’ve told you stories of primates in peril - gorillas slaughtered in Africa, monkeys consumed by the illegal wildlife trade and lemurs left to perish as Madagascar’s forests are destroyed.

Now, CI and the IUCN will unveil the sobering results of a new primate assessment at the 22nd Congress of the International Primatological Society, including information on population estimates, threats, and Red List status changes - the vital signs of our closest relatives.

You can follow the news as it breaks next week with daily features and interactive resources at Conservation.org, including:

• Everything you ever needed to know about gorillas, lemurs, tamarins and other primates.
• A live chat with IUCN mammalogist Mike Hoffmann on Tuesday, August 5 at 1 p.m. EDT. Pre-submit your questions for Mike now.
• A look at threats to the cotton-top tamarin and variegated spider monkeys of Colombia and what is being done to protect them.
• An exploration of the bushmeat markets and illegal wildlife trade in Equatorial Guinea.
• In-depth consideration of the primate crisis in Southeast Asia.
• An interactive primate tree and matching game.

Can you imagine a world without primates? Visit Conservation.org every day next week to discover the state of the world’s primates and what you can do to save them.