Scientific name: Nycticebus
Conservation status: Vunerable
Life expectancy: up to 20 years in the wild
Gestation period: 184- 200 days
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Lifestyle and Location:
- The slow lorises are primates from south-east asia with a venomous bite.
- They are well-adapted for living in the trees with extra vertebrae in their back so they can bend their body to extreme angles with lots of strength.
- They use scent marking to communicate and to show their territory and keep others out.
- Their diet consists of tree gum but mainly small mammals. They are nocturnal and hunt in the night using their big eyes and great vision to see because there is less competition at night.
Appearance:
Slow lorises are described as having a round head, narrow nostrils, large eyes and have fur that is a different colour depending on their species (usually brown and white). Each species has a different size and weight, ranging from the pygmy loris at only 19-22cm and the sundra slow loris which is 27-38 cm and all species ranges from the weights of 265-1605 g.
Joss‘s Facts
- The slow loris is the only venomous primate. It’s venom stops wounds from healing.
- They have 2 tongues, the second for grooming but also uses them both for flowers, one scrapes the pollen while the other licks up the nectar
- When they feel threatened they release brachial oil from a gland near their elbows and mix it with their saliva to make it toxic.