Saving the slow loris

The slow loris in Indonesia is under serious threat of extinction as a result of habitat loss and the illegal trade for pets and for traditional medicine. The Javan slow loris is included in the category of ‘endangered’ species on the IUCN Red List and named as one of the 25 most endangered primates in the world.

Highly endangered cute animal Loris

Slow Loris Pet

What is a Slow Loris and do I really want a Slow Loris Pet?

So you’ve heard or seen someone who has a Slow Loris Pet, and now you also want one as a pet!? Join the club! Thousands of people have seen how cute these creatures are, and are mesmerized by their wide eyes and seemingly gentle disposition. However, there’s a dark side to these slow moving primates which will have you thinking twice about getting a Slow Loris pet!

The Slow Loris is a primate, specifically one that is part of the genus Nycticebus. The genus is made up of 3 species:

- sunda slow loris

- Bengal slow loris

- pygmy slow loris

All of the species are native to India, Borneo, Vietnam, Bangladesh and parts of China. The heaviest slow loris is around 2 kilograms, or 4.4 lb.. They can be anywhere in length between eight to sixteen inches.

As you can tell from the picture, the slow loris has very distinctive facial features including a round face with huge, bulging eyes. Occasionally, they will have a dark stripe in the middle of their back, which runs down to their tail.

These little guys are nocturnal, and like a lot of similar looking creatures, spend most of their time hanging out in trees. In fact, they are often seen sleeping in trees during the day, and because of specialized bloody vessels and internal makeup, they are able to hang on to branches for extremely long amounts of time without getting tired or cramped!

So that’s all well and good, but what about the burning question: “Can I have a Slow Loris Pet?”

No Really, Can I have a Slow Loris Pet ?

In short, No.

In most parts of 1st world nations, it is either illegal, or a paperwork nightmare to get a slow loris pet. If that doesn’t discourage you enough, just wait, it gets better!

One of the main reasons that you wouldn’t have a slow loris pet for long is because of their diet. They tend to only eat rare fruits found in and around their normal environments. So if you live in the US, UK, Canada, Australia etc, you’re going to be out of luck. Unless you like constant grocery trips to Bangladesh, Cambodia, Indonesia, Thailand to feed your slow loris pet!

Yes, I see one eating a banana up there all cute like, but they can only eat so many bananas before they’ll start having health problems.

Which leads up to another good point: If your slow loris pet gets sick, you can’t take it to a vet unless you are a zoo with a proper license.

Unless the vet is operating out of a van in an alley, the vet will seize your slow loris pet and you can be hit with up to $5000 in fines depending on the laws in your country. If you don’t take it to a vet, you will have a very dead slow loris pet.

Now for the really good bit(e)s

The slow loris has very sharp back canine teeth, which incidentally it uses to inject a foul smelling toxin that it excretes from it’s elbows… more on that later.

Because your slow loris pet uses these teeth to bite things, like people, the folks who sell these creatures usually remove the teeth before they sell the slow loris, using pliers and no anaestheticNow, back to the elbows of your slow loris pet! Your super cute slow loris pet actually secretes a horrible smelling toxic ooze from it’s elbows, it licks the ooze and then delivers it with a bite to who or whatever is bothering it, i.e. you. 

This is, of course, horrible treatment and an extremely cruel method used by the seller. Not only that, but having those teeth removed means that your poor slow loris pet can’t eat it’s food properly! The slow loris usually uses those teeth to rip apart meat that it would find in the wild, like little lizards, reptiles and other live animals.

Having the canine teeth removed however doesn’t totally stop them from biting, in fact they still have a lot of razor sharp tiny teeth which will just as easily deliver the poison through your skin. Those tiny teeth are specially curved, almost like a snakes fangs, ready to jab you with slow loris poison elbow ooze!

If you are bitten by your slow loris, be warned that the toxin may cause severe to fatal anaphylactic shock!

But wait! There’s more!

You’d think that having a pet which injected you with stinky poison would be enough, but not for the slow loris. This pet has a voracious need to mark it’s territory, all the time. For as long as it is alive (which usually isn’t long in captivity).

Just like a dog with a bladder problem, the slow loris will urinate all over your house, yard, car, whatever. It doesn’t care. It is a pee marking machine.

The slow loris and it’s urine marking is unfortunately not something that can be trained ‘out’ of it either. It is instinctive and is just what they do.

3 New Slow Loris Species Discovered in Borneo; Rare Venomous Primates Threatened by Illegal Pet Trade

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Protecting the adorable but endangered slow loris—the world’s only venomous primate—from the illegal pet trade suddenly got a little harder. According to a paper pending publication in theAmerican Journal of Primatology, what was once recognized as one slow loris species and two subspecies is actually four different species.

Lead author Rachel Munds, an anthropology doctoral student at the University of Missouri, Columbia, (MU), says the loris’s nocturnal nature and relatively similar appearance hid these species from science until the animals were examined more closely. “Historically, many species went unrecognized as they were falsely lumped together as one species,” she said in apress release issued by Wiley, the journal’s publisher. “While the number of recognized primate species has doubled in the past 25 years, some nocturnal species remain hidden to science.”

In a separate press release from MU, Munds said, “Four separate species are harder to protect than one, since each species needs to maintain its population numbers and have sufficient forest habitat. Unfortunately, in addition to habitat loss to deforestation, there is a booming black market demand for the animals. They are sold as pets, used as props for tourist photos or dismembered for use in traditional Asian medicines.”

The research team, which also included Oxford Brookes University anthropologist Anna Nekaris and Susan Ford from Southern Illinois University, looked at the slow loris’s facial fur patterns, or facemasks, to make the new species declarations. “This finding will assist in conservation efforts for these enigmatic primates, although survey work in Borneo suggests the new species are either very difficult to locate or that their numbers may be quite small,” Munds said.

Although their bite can be toxic, slow lorises are rather timid and easy to capture from the wild. As I wrote earlier this year, slow lorises are available in Indonesian markets for as little as $20, where they are stuffed into tiny cages after sellers rip out their front teeth and venomous elbow patches with pliers, nail clippers or wire cutters. Many of the animals die shortly after being sold, as the removal of their teeth can hamper their ability to eat and owners try to play with them during the day, disturbing their normal sleep patterns.

“The pet trade is a serious threat for slow lorises in Indonesia, and recognition of these new species raises issues regarding where to release confiscated Bornean slow lorises, as recognition by non-experts can be difficult,” Nekaris said in the press release.

The entire slow loris genus (Nycticebus) is protected under Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), which bans international trade in the animals, although it still frequently occurs.

The new species identified by the study is N. kayan, which gets its name from the Kayan River that runs through its habitat in the central-east highland of Borneo. The authors describe the species as having a dark, highly contrasting facemask; a distinctive round or pointed patch; and longer, fluffier body hair than the Bornean slow loris (N. menagensis).

The scientists also say two previously recognized subspecies, N. m. bancanus andN.m. borneanus, should now be listed as species. The newly reclassified N. bancanuscan be found in southwest Borneo and has a “distinct crimson red dorsal pelage.” N. borneanus lives in the central-south part of the island and has a dark, contrasting facemask.

Previous research had suggested that Bornean slow lorises should not be considered separate species because their cranial morphology is similar. The new paper argues that “many small primates exhibit shared cranial features and therefore this may not be important when recognizing species.”

Previously in Extinction Countdown:

• Should YouTube Ban Videos of the Adorable but Endangered Slow Loris?
• The Loris: Another Primate at Risk from Traditional Asian Medicine

Are slow lorises really venomous?

Slow loris by Frans Lanting. Photo from The Guardian.

I must say, the idea of venomous primates never crossed my mind. While venomous species do exist in mammals, it is much more common in insects, reptiles and fishes. In primates, slow lorises (genus Nycticebus) are though to be venomous in Thai folklore (Wilde, 1972) but are they really?

Nycticebus

As of 2010, the genus Nycticebus consists of four species: Pygmy slow loris (Nycticebus pygmaeus), Javan slow loris (Nycticebus javanicus), Sunda slow loris (Nycticebus coucang) and Bengal slow loris (Nycticebus bengalensis). The Javan slow loris was previously recognized as a subspecies but has since been elevated to species status. These prosimians are found in different parts of Southeast Asia. Nycticebus range, in red. Illustration from Primate Info Net.

Slow lorises are arboreal primates that move quadrupedally between branches. They are nocturnal and omnivorous, feeding on plant matter and insects. Slow lorises sleep during the day, curled up like a ball in hidden parts of trees above ground. Their predators include pythons (Python reticulatus), hawk-eagles (Spizaetus cirrhatus) and orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus). Slow lorises have a relatively low metabolism compared to similar-sized mammals (Gron, 2009). Sunda slow loris (Nycticebus coucang). Photo fromPrimate Info Net.

Colors and markings in Nycticebus species and subspecies. Illustration from Loris Conservation.

Venomous vs. Poisonous

Although the words “venomous” and “poisonous” are used interchangeably in everyday speech, they are actually fundamentally different. By definition, venom has to be injected into the body, introduced by a bite or a sting. Poison, on the other hand, is ingested or inhaled  into the body by the victim. Thus, venomous and poisonous animals are altogether different.

The blue dart frog (Dendrobates azureus) is a poisonous animal while the Indian cobra (Naja naja) is a venomous animal.

Brachial gland of slow lorises

The flexor surface or the ventral side of the elbow has a slightly raised but barely visible swelling termed the brachial gland (Hagey et al., 2006; Krane et al., 2003). Observations from captive slow lorises show that when the animal is disturbed during handling, they secrete about 10 microliters (μL) of clear, strong-smelling fluid in the form of an apocrine sweat (exudate) from their brachial gland . Usually, male and female slow lorises assume a defensive stance when disturbed. They bend their heads downwards between uplifted forelegs, rubbing the brachial gland exudate onto their head and neck. Slow lorises frequently lick their own brachial gland regions and also wipe their brachial gland against their head. The brachial gland is active in lorises as young as 6 weeks old (Hagey et al., 2006). Illustration shows the brachial gland (dark patch) on the ventral side of a slow loris. Drawing by Helga Schulze (Krane et al., 2003).

Brachial gland exudate and Fel d 1

The brachial gland produces exudate with an allergen that is similar to the Fel d 1 cat allergen (Hagey et al., 2006; Krane et al., 2003). This brachial gland exudate shares a high degree of similarity in sequence, as well as unusual disulfide-bridged heterodimeric structure similar with Fel d 1. Fel d 1 is an allergen found mostly in saliva and the sebaceous glands (glands found inside the skin) of domestic cats, Felis catus. Humans with a cat allergy are allergic to five known allergen produced by domestic cats, Fel d 1 being one of them. However, the biological function of Fel d 1 is still currently unknown (Grönlund et al., 2010).

So are slow lorises venomous or poisonous?

To answer this, let’s revisit the definitions of venomous and poisonous. A venomous animal injects toxins into its victim’s body by bite or sting. A poisonous animal, on the other hand, produces toxins that are poisonous once inhaled or ingested. Medical literature shows that human – slow loris injuries come from slow loris bites and not from ingesting their toxins. So are slow lorises venomous? Well, not quite.

Slow lorises have needle-like teeth called dental combs or tooth combs on their lower jaw. Paired with the constant licking of the brachial gland, it is not surprising that one would assume the dental comb plays a part in injecting brachial gland exudate into unsuspecting victims (Hagey et al., 2006). However, this is not the case.

Used for grooming, dental combs might look menacing to some but their function is less sinister than one might conjure up. A bite from a slow loris is painful due to their sharp pointed teeth. Illustration of slow loris teeth from Loris Conservation. The dental comb is on the lower jaw, shape like a spade.

Wilde (1972) reports that the victim of a slow loris bite immediately succumbs to anaphylactic shock (extreme allergic reaction) followed by hematuria. In spite of that, the victim fully recovered. There is no clinical evidence of toxic substances in slow loris saliva to support the notion that they are venomous (Wilde, 1972).

Another incident involves a 34 year-old woman who is 19 weeks pregnant. She was bitten by a pygmy slow loris at the zoo she works in. The patient only complained about an acute pain at the location where she was bitten. She did not go into anaphylactic shock (Kalimullah et al., 2008).

Slow loris bite. Photo by Helena Fitch-Snyder from Loris Conservation.

Reports of slow loris bites are rare in literature. However, based on these published reports, it seems that slow loris bites are not venomous (Kalimullah et al., 2008; Wilde, 1972). Due to the high degree of similarity between the brachial gland exudate of slow lorises and the Fel d 1 allergen in domestic cats, the anaphylactic shock expressed by victims is probably just a reaction to the exudate’s allergen.

What is the function of the brachial gland exudate?

Hagey et al. (2007) posit that the brachial gland exudate is used as olfactory signalling to broadcast individual home range and territories. Most nocturnal primates rely on olfaction — slow loris included. Since brachial gland exudates are not an immediate response to stress or pursuit, their function might be to deter predators, warn other slow lorises of danger or even both (Hagey et al., 2006).

I’m looking forward to more studies on these prosimians and the properties of their brachial gland exudates. More research, as well as slow loris bite records, are needed to elucidate the effects of brachial gland exudates on humans.