The Slow Loris

Is it a bear, a monkey or a sloth?

It seems the answer is a monkey. It is a rather slow monkey compared to most. Their heads are round more like a bear, they don’t have the long snout of a typical monkey. Their nose is narrow and they have the cutest big round eyes. The arms and legs of the Slow Loris are very close to being the same length enabling them to move through the upper parts of the rainforest easily. They grip tree branches with their toes and fingers as they move about. Their mid section is long which enables them to turn easily to move from branch to branch. They carry their babies around with them or park them on branches when they are searching for food.

The Life of the Slow Loris

The Slow Loris typically looks for food at night. While stalking a prey, they can grip a tree branch with their back feet tightly and lunge off of the branch after the prey. Then they capture it with their hands. The Slow Loris is a omnivore. It eats bugs and arthropods. It will also eat tiny birds and reptiles. Also in its diet are eggs, fruits, gums nectar and flora. Their diet consist of 29% insects and other small animals and 71% fruit and gums. The Slow Loris is a slow moving monkey and can be easily captured. To protect it from other animals and humans, the Slow Loris has a toxic substance on it’s coat that when mixed with saliva produces a nasty reaction. When the toxin was placed on cotton swabs, other animals would back off and not approach the swab.

Why are they endangered?

The Slow Loris is an adorable animal that looks very much like a teddy bear with big eyes. They are captured while young from their mothers, often too young and sold as pets. Because of their vicious bite, the babies front teeth are pulled out prior to being sold as pet. Along with the typical threat to the Slow Loris of their forest being cut down is the danger of humans capturing them. The Sow Loris you may purchase from the internet or other sources may have experienced being ripped from its mothers arms and then suffering its teeth being pulled. Many of the babies develop an infection and die. They are cute and adorable. Videos such as this one make people think about owning one. Many areas it is illegal to own a Slow Loris as a pet. If people wouldn’t buy them, the demand would drop and the animals could remain in the wild with their parents instead of living in captivity.