Pygmy slow lorises are nocturnal, wide-eyed primates that spend most of their time in trees. Native to Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, and China, their pygmy name is apt. They top out at about 10 inches in length and two pounds in weight, though most weigh about half that. The “loris” part of their name is also […]
Tag: pygmy slow loris
Discovery of threatened species drives bid to protect Vietnam forest
HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam — Recently disclosed results from an extensive survey have revealed the presence of several highly endangered species in a forest that is not currently under any legal protection in Vietnam’s central highlands. Fauna & Flora International (FFI) and GreenViet, a biodiversity conservation NGO based in Da Nang, undertook months of […]
POLL: Should the international trade in slow lorises be stopped?
In 2014, the Telegraph ranked slow lorises as one of the “top 10 internet superstar pets”. Unfortunately, the rising online popularity of slow lorises (Nycticebus spp.) as exotic pets is fueling the illicit trade in these animals. Japan, for example, is emerging as a major black market for illegally obtained slow lorises, researchers found in […]
How YouTube has put the world’s only poisonous primates at risk
It all started with a video: in 2009 a Russian man uploaded a video of himself tickling his exotic pet (a pygmy slow loris) from Vietnam onto the hugely popular site YouTube. Since then the video has been viewed over half a million times. But a new study in the open source journal in PLoS […]