A Slow Loris is Adorable, but Not for a Pet
The slow loris is a primate, native to the rainforests of Southeast Asia, Indonesia, north- eastern India, southern China and Thailand. They are nocturnal and arboreal, spending most of their time in the tops of trees and bamboo thickets of the tropical and subtropical rainforest. They have an extremely powerful grip, and have the ability to cling to branches for long periods of time. They sleep during the day in hollow trees or on branches.
Slow lorises are carnivores, and their diet mainly consists of insects, lizards and bird eggs, and they also eat leaves and fruit. They have a very low metabolism.
The gestation period of the slow loris is 190 days, quite long for such a small animal. They give birth to just one, or occasionally two, offspring at a time, and have two litters per year. They reach sexual maturity between 10 months and two years. Therefore, the species does not reproduce very rapidly.
As a means of defense against predators, slow lorises have a gland on the inside of their elbows that produces a toxin. They take the toxin into their mouths and deliver it by biting. Mother lorises mix the toxin with their saliva and lick it onto the fur of their babies to protect them.
Slow lorises have been protected by law since 1973 in Indonesia, and in Cambodia, they have been banned from international trafficking by a 2007 ruling of the UN Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). Yet in spite of these protective laws, slow lorises are still being captured and sold illegally.
The consequences of taking slow lorises from their natural habitat to sell them are often disastrous. According to a BBC news report, the venders pull out their teeth with pliers, and keep them in wire cages that tear their hands and feet. Between 30% and 90% of the animals die in transit.
The best place for the slow loris is in its own natural habitat, where it has access to an appropriate diet and is able to reproduce. For those who want a cute cuddly pet, there are countless thousands of dogs and cats in shelters that are literally dying for want of a loving home. Please consider adopting one of these domestic animals, and let the wild animals remain wild.
Sources:
http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0509-loris.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6731631.stm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slow_loris
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/06/photogalleries/animal-pictures/
Published by Terrie Schultz
Terrie Schultz worked for many years in the biomedical field doing research and development in the areas of cancer, HIV and hepatitis. She has also taught middle school physical science, earth science, read... View profile
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9 Comments
Post a Commenti think lorises should be in england and should have a medicine to make them stay alive fo longer while there on thnere flight from japan to london thank you fo letting me air my views.......
this is a shitty article.. if you wanna write a persuasive article, please provide evidence supporting your argument... and btw, carnivores that eat foliage are called omnivores
No Nathaniel, they cannot be domesticated like cats and dogs. It takes many generations of breeding an animal in a domesticated environment to domesticate and animal as a cat and dog is. The dog has been a domestic species for thousands of years, a slow loris is still wild no matter how well you tame it.
I still want one so suck it
Cant they be domesticated? Of Course we domesticated cats and dogs so why not this? we also domesticated wolfs and foxes in a domestication lab or whatever...notice that pretty much all domestic animals are not endangered probably because they are domesticated...so why not domesticate slow loris' so they will now be endangered and we can breed them. im sure a chihuahua would have been endangered if it was not for domestication and breeding which i can say is good...
Weird looking critter but cute.
It's unfortunate that the illegal animal trade still continues. To me it's hard to imagine buying an exotic wild animal from across the world as a pet. I agree with you on buying a cat or a dog from a shelter instead. It's a shame how many dogs and cats are put to sleep each day while people are buying other more exotic wild animals.
Good article and a shame they put the ads right on top of your text. Really cute picture!!
The really sad part of the illeagal animal trade is that they are still finding buyers....