This
little primate rates highly on the cuteness scale, with their small people-like
fingers and big eyes reminiscent of Gizmo from Gremlins. Their eyes are fixed
and so to look around they need to move their head about but they have excellent
night vision. They move very slowly and their name comes from the Dutch word
'lores' meaning sluggish.
Despite their adorable appearance these little fella's are toxic. When threatend
they place there arms up over there heads.This isn't to protect them from a
barrage of blows from above but rather to position themselves to poison their
attacker. Cute
does not equal defenseless. They
have glands on their inner arms which if under attack they rub on their teeth
in order to inflict an excruciating painful bite. Whilst not toxic enough to
kill it is toxic enough to cause immense pain to its recipient. A mother Slow
Loris will also rub this toxin over their young if they need to leave them unattended
so as to deter would-be Slow Loris snackers. The smell of this toxin has been
compared to the smell of sweaty socks.
The
Slow Loris is poached from the wild for several different reasons. The first
is the pet trade. They are very popular in Japan. They are sold with their teeth
removed which render their defense mechanism useless as they require their teeth
to puncture the skin to deliver the toxin. Further, they usually suffer horrendous
hand injuries as they have an extremely tight grip due to a network of specialized
blood vessels in their hands. They grip tightly to the inside of the small cage
they are transported in and don't let go when
someone
attempts to take them back out. When they are removed from their enclosure it
almost always results in torn skin which bleeds extensively due to the aforementioned
veins. It has also been reported that the Loris does not take captivity well
and will actually lick its own toxin when placed under stress.
The second reason they are hunted is traditional medicine. In Cambodia it is
believed that Loris Wine reduces the pain of childbirth. Loris wine is made
from the bodies of three individual Loris's steeped in rice wine. Barbecued
Loris is consumed to treat various stomach conditions. The Slow Loris is relatively
easy to catch due to its large eyes being highly reflective at night. All that
is required to locate one is a flashlight - add to this that they do not move
very quickly and you can see how they are relatively easy to hunt. The IUCN
has them rated as being of Least Concern in the Low Risk category of the Red
List of Endangered Species however there is current discussion about re-rating
them into Near Threatened.
