It's cute. It's cuddly. And it's the world's only poisonous primate. Dr Anna Nekaris on the slow loris. And how you can help save it
Dr Anna Nekaris has dedicated her life to studying the slow loris, a real-life gremlin that is extremely cute but with a venom that can kill. Now it's also a YouTube superstar with millions of hits, fueling an illicit trade in the animals as pets.
In the The Jungle Gremlins of Java, a BBC2 programme, aired on 25 January, Dr Anna Nekaris travels to the jungles of Java to solve the riddle of its toxic bite. Here, she talks to Peter Moore about lorises and the dangers they are facing.
How long have you been studying lorises? What drew you to them?
I have been studying slow and slender lorises and even pottos since 1994 so I guess that's about 17 years. I always loved animals and the environment. Somehow I wanted to choose a species that would convince people that the environment was worth saving, and humans empathise with primates. But primates like chimpanzees are not only so well known, they are SO much like us. The loris is that link between humans and all the other wonderful wildlife – somehow human but also somehow mysterious and so little known and magical. And on top of that the evolutionary answer to just about everything.
What are some of the myths surrounding lorises?
Well, they have such big beautiful eyes but they never cry. Drawing a tear from the eye of a loris is like drawing blood from a stone.
They are the only animals so quiet, they can climb to the top of a tall tree and kill a roosting peafowl... and eat its brain.
They are so strong, they can fall from any height and not break a single bone.
When you see one on a journey, they will bring you bad luck. To bring bad luck to your neighbour you can bury one under their house!
What did you hope to achieve in Jungle Gremlins of Java?
I hoped that people could learn more about this magnificent animal. That they are not just cute and cuddly – that the viral YouTube videos that made them desirable as pets are actually cruel. That those animals come from a deadly trade. That the wild loris is one of nature's most amazing animals... a venomous primate – how wonderful is that? And in order for them to stay in the wild, the pet trade – the lorises' greatest threat – has to be stopped... sometimes seeing it in film is the most powerful medium to stop this.
Lorises are the world's only primates that are poisonous. How do they 'deliver' their poison and why?
The raise their arms above their heads, tai-chi style, exposing their brachial (arm) glands that secrete a stinky oil to their mouth. They then can combine, quick as a flash, their saliva with the oil, producing the venom, and be poised to deliver a painful bite.
You had real problems finding lorises in their natural habitat on this trip. Why?
The national parks in Java are all in the high mountains. This is not ideal loris habitat – they love flat lowland forest, of which virtually nothing remains in Java. Where it does remain, the loris is continually poached for the pet trade. An inability to leap and an innocent trust of humans makes them easy to catch too. So where they are found, they are almost always caught as pets. They almost hardly stand a chance. I can tell you I am one of the best loris spotters on the planet too... if I could not see them they really weren't there.
Did you learn anything about lorises that surprised you on this trip?
I really could not believe we found them in the cabbage patches. I had heard reports that they were there, but I have been in plenty of agroforests and NEVER seen them support a wild loris population like that before. On several occasions I saw a loris pop its head out of a tea plant just one foot from the ground – it was ridiculous! They seemed so vulnerable and we saw many predators there too – civets and possibly even a leopard (well, some sort of very large and scary cat). It was truly breathtaking even after my wide experience with lorises.
You visited the notorious animal markets in Jakarta. What was that like?
Even after seeing these markets many times, it is very heartbreaking. It is hard to imagine how anyone can have the heart to put any living beings in those conditions; be they a fish, a bird or a baby monkey. To walk away and know that you are leaving individuals of a critically endangered species to die, that you could have saved, is a cruelly difficult decision.
What can be done to save the lorises?
We must educate the authorities to arrest and punish the animal traders. We must educate people that keeping wild animals as pets is not an option. We must consider our habits when watching YouTube before we press 'like' on videos that encourage the exotic pet trade. We need to learn more about these beautiful animals in the wild so we can work out how to save them in the dwindling habitats that remain. We must do all this as soon as possible as little time is left. Luckily I am, at least, completely passionate about lorises, totally addicted to them and willing to spend every breath I have working to save them.
Dr Anna Nekaris is a primatologist and leading expert on the slow loris. She is founder of the Little Fireface Project, an organisation dedicated to educating the world about lorises and ensuring their survival. Jungle Gremlins of Java will appear on BB2 at 8pm on 25 January 2012.
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