Conservation International announced today that they will be hosting a live chat session with Mike Hoffman, a mammalogist at the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

The live chat will discuss issues of primates in peril. Here are some details from Conservation International…

“Startling news about monkeys, lemurs, apes and other primate cousins will be announced next 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 5th at 1 p.m. Eastern.

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.” ~ Conservation International

You can even submit questions for Mike Hoffman online starting now.

Please don’t miss this opportunity to learn more about our closest relatives and what we can do to save them!

Here are the details of the Live Chat:

Title: Primates: Saving the Species
Time: Tuesday August 5, 2008 at 1:00 pm Eastern Standard Time (EST)
Where: Online at Conservation International’s Website
More Info: To learn more about Conservation International, the upcoming live chat, or to pre-submit a question to Mike Hoffman, click here.