The endangered lovely Slow Loris (Yong Ikaithibi or Loudraubi)
- Part 2 -

N Munal Meitei *

The endangered lovely Slow Loris

Behavior and ecology

Little is known about the social structure of Slow lorises, but they generally spend most of the night foraging alone. Individuals sleep during the day, usually alone but occasionally with other Slow lorises. Home ranges of adults may significantly overlap, and those of males are generally larger than those of females.

In the absence of direct studies of the genus, primatologist Simon Bearder speculated that slow loris social behavior is similar to that of the Potto, another slow-moving nocturnal primate. Such a social system is distinguished by a lack of matriarchy and by factors that allow the slow loris to remain inconspicuous and minimize energy expenditure.

Vocal exchanges and alarm calls are limited; scent marking with urine is the dominant form of communication. Adult males are highly territorial and are aggressive towards other males. Vocalizations include an affiliative (friendly) call krik, and a louder call resembling a crow's caw. When disturbed, Slow lorises can also produce a low buzzing hiss or growl.

To make contact with other individuals, they emit a single high-pitched rising tone, and females use a high whistle when in estrus. Breeding may be continuous throughout the year. In captive slow lorises, mating primarily occurs between June and mid-September, with the estrus cycle lasting 29 to 45 days and estrus lasting one to five days.

Likewise, gestation lasts 185 to 197 days, and the young weigh between 30 and 60 grams at birth. Females reach sexual maturity at 18 to 24 months, while males are capable of reproducing at 17 months. However, the fathers become hostile towards their male offspring after 12 to 14 months and will chase them out. In captivity, they can live about 20 years.

Diet

Slow lorises are omnivores, eating insects, other arthropods, small birds and reptiles, eggs, fruits, gums, nectar and other vegetation. A detailed study of Sunda slow loris population in 2002 and 2003 showed different dietary proportions, consisting of 43.3% gum, 31.7% nectar, 22.5% fruit, and just 2.5% arthropods and other animal prey. The most common dietary item was nectar from flowers of the Bertram palm (Eugeissona tristis). Slow lorises can use both hands to eat while hanging upside down from a branch. They spend about 20% of their nightly activities feeding.

In culture

Beliefs about Slow lorises in the late 19th and early 20th centuries was from the people of the interior Borneo who believed that Slow lorises were the gatekeepers for the heavens and that each person had a personal Slow loris waiting for them in the afterlife. More often, however, Slow lorises are used in traditional medicine or to ward off evil.

Many strange powers are attributed to this animal by the natives of the countries it inhabits; there is hardly an event in life to man, woman or child, or even domestic animals, that may not be influenced for better or worse by the Slow Loris, alive or dead, or by any separate part of it, and apparently one cannot usually tell at the time, that one is under supernatural power.

Thus a Malay may commit a crime he did not premeditate, and then find that an enemy had buried a particular part of a Loris under his threshold, which had, unknown to him, compelled him to act to his own disadvantage, a Slow loris's life is not a happy one, for it is continually seeing ghosts; that is why it hides its face in its hands.

In the Mondulkiri Province of Cambodia, hunters believe that lorises can heal their own broken bones immediately after falling from a branch and thus they can climb back up the tree again. They also believe that Slow lorises have supernatural powers because they require more than one hit with a stick to die.

In the province of North Sumatra, the slow loris is thought to bring good luck if it is buried under a house. In the same province, Slow loris body parts were used to place curses on enemies. In Java, it was thought that putting a piece of its bone in a water jug would make a husband more docile and submissive, just like a Slow loris sleeping in the daytime.

More recently, researchers have documented the belief that the consumption of loris meat was an aphrodisiac that improves "male power". The gall bladder of the Bengal slow loris has historically been used to make ink for tattoos by the village elders in Pursat and Koh Kong Provinces of Cambodia. Loris wine is a traditional Cambodian medicine supposed to alleviate the pain of childbirth, made from a mixture of loris bodies and rice wine.

Wildlife trade

Until the 1960s, the hunting of Slow lorises was sustainable, but due to growing demand, decreased supply, and the subsequent increased value of the marketed wildlife, Slow lorises have been overexploited and are in verse of extinction. With the use of modern technology, such as battery-powered search lights, Slow lorises have become easy victims to hunt because of their eye shine.

Traditional medicine made from loris parts is thought to cure many diseases, and the demand for this medicine from wealthy urban areas has replaced the subsistence hunting traditionally performed in poor rural areas. A survey by primatologist Anna Nekaris and colleagues during 2010 showed that these belief systems were so strong that the majority of respondents expressed reluctance to consider alternatives to loris-based medicines.

Conclusion

Wildlife trade is the third largest International crime against humanity just after the Drug, Weaponry. But when we go through, the maximum where about of the end consumption, it proves to be medicinal purposes. Now we have a well developed Medical Science. Though, the animal parts may have some of the medicinal values, why should we go for it and kill these invaluable animals which are the parts and parcels of the Planet Earth for our own personal happiness.

Today, the 2nd October is birth day of Mahatma Gandhi, the father of Nation. Gandhiji always thought of Ahimsha means non-violence. The Non-violence that Bapuji once dreamt of would also might be included the ahimsha to the animals. The God made all the creatures to live together and the Planet is for them also. Let's save the Wild life and the lovely Slow loris.

Concluded ....