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| EXPLORE | ANIMALS
BORN TO BE WILD
By Jani Actman
After videos of slow lorises (below)
being tickled and fed rice balls in captivity
swept the Internet, the wideeyed
animals shot to viral fame. The
YouTube videos generated thousands
of comments about the primate’s adorable
looks, but they also highlighted
a grievous threat facing slow lorises:
demand for them as pets.
All species of slow lorises are supposed
to be protected by local laws in
southern Asia and by the Convention
on International Trade in Endangered
Species (CITES), a treaty that aims to
prevent trade that could threaten wild
species’ survival. Still, countless slow
lorises are captured each year from their
rain forest habitat and sold online, across
borders, or to local wildlife markets.
Customers find them irresistible, but
these primates don’t fare well as pets. Before
they’re sold, most undergo a painful
process to remove their sharp teeth—and
circumstances don’t improve from there.
In a 2016 study, researchers from Oxford
Brookes University examined a hundred
online videos of pet lorises and concluded
that all the animals were distressed,
sick, or exposed to unnatural conditions.
“They’re quite sensitive,” says Christine
Rattel of International Animal Rescue,
which runs a slow loris rescue program
in Indonesia. “They are nocturnal, small
animals that don’t like to be handled.”
It’s uncertain how many slow lorises
remain in the wild, but conservationists
say populations have declined because
the pet trade continues to run rampant.
Habitat loss also has taken a toll, as has
poaching for traditional Asian medicine,
which ascribes therapeutic properties to
the animals’ body parts. An ongoing pet
trade “would really push lorises to the
brink of extinction,” Rattel says.
They’re hardly the only wildlife facing
this threat. Cheetahs, lions, and
other famed species end up in basements
and backyards, as do lesser
known creatures such as the ball python
and long-tailed macaque.
“The pet trade is probably one of the
most devastating parts of the wildlife
trade,” says wildlife-trafficking expert
Chris Shepherd. But it’s “getting the least
amount of attention.”
RESCUING THE
SLOW LORIS
This female Nycticebus
bengalensis was photographed
in 2014 at the
Endangered Primate
Rescue Center, located
in a national park in
northern Vietnam.
The center rescues and
rehabilitates injured and
illegally traded animals.
When possible, it releases
slow lorises into
the forested park, some
with trackable collars
so their reentry can
be monitored. Center
director Sonya Prosser
says this slow loris was
released in 2015, and
“as far as we know,
she is still out there.”