The endangered lovely Slow Loris (Yong Ikaithibi or Loudraubi)
- Part 1 -

N Munal Meitei *

The endangered lovely Slow Loris

The first week of October is celebrated as the Wild Life Week every year. The 4th of October is also celebrated as World Animal Day since 1931. I was thinking to write an animal article during this week and for that, I just opt to write the lovely Slow Loris. Recently during the first week of August, a Slow loris was released at Yaingangpokpi Lokchao Wild Life Sanctuary after it was kept for a long recovery at Peoples for Animal Centre, Thoubal. Thanks to the concerns for the greatest task.

I also personally could see the animal at their centre and was much impressed to see the tiny lovely animal and it mirriored me to study about this animal. Slow Loris are native primates to our state Manipur and other South-east Asian countries. In Manipuri, they are called Yong Ikaithibi or sometimes Loudraubi. They are the adorable, furry little creatures with the big round eyes who almost purr in delight as they are tickled into a stupor. They are also an endangered species whose stardom is fuelling a trade built on cruelty and abuse.

The Slow loris is a nocturnal animal and is effectively being blinded by the daylight. These animals unable to fend for themselves if they survive and can't be returned to the wild once caught. Dr Nekaris is now calling on to take down the loris clips, which conservationists believe promote an illegal trade. Mr Shepherd said: "Lorises are still traded openly all over the world and the YouTube clips only increase the demand. Tackling this trade should be an urgent priority for wildlife-enforcement agencies. The penalty should be greater than simply confiscation of the animal."

Physical characteristic Taxonomic Classification:

Kingdom - Animalia,
Phylum - Chordata,
Class - Mammilla,
Order – Primates,
Family - Lorisidae,
Sub-family- Lorisinae,
Genus- Nycticebus.

Slow lorises are a group of five species of strepsirrhine primates which make up the genus Nycticebus which is a Greek word meaning "Night monkey". Although many previous classifications recognized fewer species, five are now considered valid: the Sunda slow loris (N. coucang), Bengal slow loris (N. bengalensis), Pygmy slow loris (N. pygmaeus), Javan slow loris (N. javanicus), and Bornean slow loris (N. menagensis).

Species differentiation are based largely on differences in morphology, such as size, fur color, and head markings. Slow lorises have a round head, narrow snout, large eyes, and a variety of distinctive coloration patterns that are species-dependent. Their arms and legs are nearly equal in length, and their trunk is long, allowing them to twist.

The hands and feet of slow lorises have several adaptations that give them a pincer-like grip and enable them to grasp branches for long periods of time. Slow lorises range in weight from the Pygmy Slow loris at 265 grams to as much as 2,100 grams for the Bengal slow loris. Slow lorises have stout bodies, and their tails are only stubs and hidden beneath the dense fur. Their combined head and body lengths vary by species, but range from 18 to 38 cm between all species.

The trunk is longer than in other prosimians because they have 15–16 thoracic vertebrae, compared to 12–14 in other prosimians. This gives them greater mobility when twisting and extending towards nearby branches. Slow lorises have a toxic bite, a rare trait among mammals. The toxin is produced by licking a gland on their arm, and the secretion mixes with its saliva to activate it.

Their toxic bite is a deterrent to predators, and the toxin is also applied to the fur during grooming as a form of protection for their infants. They move slowly and deliberately, making little or no noise, and when threatened, they freeze and become docile. Their only documented predators—apart from humans—include Snakes, Hawk-eagles and Orangutans, although Cats, Civets and Sun bears are suspected. Little is known about their social structure, but they are known to communicate by scent marking. Males are highly territorial. Slow loris reproduces slowly, and the infants are initially parked on branches or carried by either parent while on forage.

Conservation status Slow lorises are popular in the exotic pet trade, which threatens the wild populations. The two greatest threats to Slow lorises are deforestation and the wildlife trade. Slow lorises have lost a significant amount of habitat, with habitat fragmentation isolating small populations and obstructing biological dispersal. All five species are listed as Appendix 1 under CITIES and they are either "Vulnerable" or "Endangered" on the IUCN Red List. It is a Scheduled-1 animal under Wildlife Protection Acts-1972.

Although their habitat is rapidly disappearing and becoming fragmented, making it nearly impossible for Slow lorises to disperse between forest fragments, unsustainable demand from the exotic pet trade and traditional medicine has been the greatest cause for their decline. Deep-rooted beliefs about the supernatural powers of Slow lorises, such as their purported ability to ward off evil spirits or cure wounds, have popularized their use in traditional medicine.

Despite local laws prohibiting trade in Slow lorises and slow loris products, as well as protection from international commercial trade under Appendix I, Slow lorises are openly sold in animal markets in Southeast Asia and smuggled to other countries, such as Japan. They have also been popularized as pets in viral videos on YouTube.

Slow lorises have their teeth cut or pulled out for the pet trade, and often die from infection, blood loss, poor handling, or poor nutrition. Connectivity between protected areas is important for slow lorises because they are not adapted to dispersing across the ground over large distances. Lorises first appear in the Asian fossil record in the Miocene, with records in Thailand around 18 million years ago (mya) and in Pakistan 16 mya. Most are small, but an unnamed form dating to 15–16 mya is comparable in size to the largest living slow lorises. Molecular clock analysis suggests that Slow lorises may have started evolving into distinct species about 10 mya.

Taxonomy and Discovery The earliest known mention of a Slow loris in the scientific literature is from 1770, when Dutchman Arnout Vosmaer (1720–1799) described a specimen of N. bengalensis. The word "loris" was first used in 1765 by Buffon as a close equivalent to a Dutch name, loeris. This etymology was later supported by the physician William Baird in the 1820s, who noted that the Dutch word loeris signified "a clown".

Like other strepsirrhine primates, the nose and lip of Slow loris are covered by a moist skin called the rhinarium "wet nose", which is a sense organ. Their eyes are large and possess a reflective layer, called the tapetum lucidum to help them to see better at night. It is possible that this layer blurs the images they see, as the reflected light may interfere with the incoming light and hence less vision in daytime.

Slow lorises have monochromatic vision, meaning they see in shades of only one color. They lack the opsin gene that would allow them to detect short wavelength light, which includes the colors blue and green. Slow lorises have a powerful grasp with both their hands and feet due to several specializations. They can tightly grasp branches with little effort because of a special muscular arrangement in their hands and feet, where the thumb diverges at nearly 180° from the rest of the fingers, while the hallux (big toe) ranges between being perpendicular and pointing slightly backwards.

The toes have a large flexor muscle that originates on the lower end of the thigh bone, which helps to impart a strong grasping ability to the hind limbs. The second digit of the hand is short compared to the other digits, while on the foot, the fourth toe is the longest. The sturdy thumb helps to act like a clamp when digits three, four, and five grasp the opposite side of a tree branch. This gives their hands and feet a pincer-like appearance.

The strong grip can be held for hours without losing sensation due to the presence of a rete mirabile, network of capillaries, a trait shared among all lorises. Slow lorises have an unusually low basal metabolic rate, about 40% of the typical value for placental mammals of their size, comparable to that of sloths.

To be continued ...