Nycticebus pygmaeuspygmy slow loris

Ge­o­graphic Range

Pygmy slow lorises, Nyc­tice­bus pyg­maeus, are found in Viet­nam, Laos, east­ern Cam­bo­dia, and neigh­bor­ing re­gions of south­ern China (south­east Yun­nan province). It is un­clear whether pop­u­la­tions in China are na­tive or in­tro­duced. (Stre­icher, et al., 2008)

Habi­tat

Pygmy slow lorises re­side in rain­forests and de­graded habi­tats as well as bam­boo thick­ets in Viet­nam and ever­green for­est in Laos. They have been ob­served at al­ti­tudes as great as 1500 m.

Lo­cals in the Mon­dulkiri province of Cam­bo­dia sug­gest that pygmy slow lorises pre­fer thick, com­plex forested areas with bam­boo to dry dipte­ro­carp for­est, and ob­ser­va­tions con­firm their pref­er­ence of mixed de­cid­u­ous to semi-ever­green forests. In­di­vid­u­als of this species are usu­ally seen at heights of 3 to 12 m in the canopy. (Rata­jszczak, 1998; Starr, et al., 2011)

  • Range elevation
    1500 (high) m
    4921.26 (high) ft

Phys­i­cal De­scrip­tion

Zo­ol­o­gist J.L. Har­ri­son de­scribes pygmy slow lorises as "rather like a child's teddy-bear." They have thick light brown to deep red­dish brown fur with a white or gray un­der­side. In­di­vid­u­als have a unique pat­tern of lighter and darker col­ored mark­ings on their face, which com­monly in­clude cir­cles around the eyes and dor­sal stripes start­ing at their crown and con­tin­u­ing down their back. Dur­ing the win­ter, these mark­ings be­come more promi­nent, and they ac­quire sil­ver tips or "frost­ing." This sea­sonal col­oration is thought to cam­ou­flage and pro­tect the an­i­mals, as, dur­ing the win­ter, they must sit in ex­posed areas such as dense scrub or in the upper branches of trees that lack fo­liage.

Like other strep­sirhine pri­mates and mem­bers of the fam­ily Lorisidae, pygmy slow lorises have: for­ward-fac­ing eyes with stereo­scopic vi­sion; a rhi­nar­ium, the moist naked sur­face around the nos­trils; a tape­tum lu­cidum, the re­flec­tive layer in the eye that im­proves night vi­sion; a split upper lip; nails on all dig­its ex­cept for a groom­ing claw on the sec­ond digit of their feet; a den­tal for­mula of 2.​1.​3.​3/​2.​1.​3.​3 with the lower in­cisors and ca­nines form­ing a tooth­comb; no tail; and re­duced sec­ond dig­its on their hands.

Pygmy slow lorises and Ben­gal slow lorises evolved from a com­mon an­ces­tor and are si­m­il­iar in ap­pear­ance. The smaller body size in pygmy slow lorises is thought to be the re­sult of char­ac­ter dis­place­ment, the ac­cen­tu­a­tion of dif­fer­ences be­tween sim­i­lar species that share the same ge­o­graphic dis­tri­b­u­tion.

Pygmy slow lorises mea­sure 15 to 25 cm in length and weigh from 120 to over 500 g (av­er­age 400 g). Males are gen­er­ally larger than fe­males. Mem­bers of this species can re­tard their growth if en­vi­ron­men­tal con­di­tions are not fa­vor­able. If their diet is re­stricted, they lose their ju­ve­nile fur and at­tain adult den­ti­tion be­fore at­tain­ing adult size.

Pygmy slow lorises pro­duce a toxin from mod­i­fied sweat glands lo­cated near their el­bows. They have been ob­served lick­ing the­ses glands when alarmed. Their bite can be dan­ger­ous to hu­mans; the only ac­count of a pygmy slow loris bit­ing a human re­sulted in an adult woman en­ter­ing ana­phy­lac­tic shock. (Flea­gle, 1999; Har­ri­son, 1955; Kalimul­lah, et al., 2008; Ravosa, 1998; Stre­icher, 2004)

  • Sexual Dimorphism
  • male larger
  • Range mass
    120 to 500+ g
    4.23 to oz
  • Average mass
    400 g
    14.10 oz
  • Range length
    15 to 25 cm
    5.91 to 9.84 in

Re­pro­duc­tion

Al­though mat­ing has been ob­served in cap­tiv­ity, lit­tle to noth­ing is known about mat­ing of pygmy slow lorises in the wild.

Fe­male pygmy slow lorises enter es­trus be­tween July and Oc­to­ber. Dur­ing this pe­riod, the fe­male vagina and male testes be­come en­larged. Be­hav­ior also dif­fers dur­ing this pe­riod; fe­males are more likely to ap­proach oth­ers and en­gage in lung­ing, while males are more likely to sniff and lick a fe­male's gen­i­tals and mount them.

Pygmy slow lorises are polyg­y­nous. A male's ter­ri­tory typ­i­cally in­cludes sev­eral fe­males with whom he mates. Males and fe­males com­mu­ni­cate with one an­other through whis­tles. Ol­fac­tory cues are also used to find mates. Males spread their scent through uri­na­tion, and males thus pro­duce more urine than fe­males. Males that spread their scent over a large area have a com­pet­i­tive ad­van­tage, be­cause mark­ing ter­ri­tory is an in­di­ca­tion of health, per­sis­tence, and en­ergy. Fe­males pre­fer males with a fa­mil­iar odor to males they have not pre­vi­ously en­coun­tered, which may be re­lated to in­fre­quent con­tact be­tween the sexes. (Fisher, et al., 2003; Fitch-Sny­der, et al., 1999; Stre­icher, 2004)

Pygmy slow lorises re­pro­duce once every 12 to 18 months. Fe­males enter es­trus be­tween July and Oc­to­ber. After about 6 months, fe­males give birth to 1 to 2 off­spring, gen­er­ally dur­ing the win­ter months. Twin­ning is com­mon among this species. Birthing oc­curs in the open, and in­fants are born fully formed with fur and open eyes. Off­spring are nursed for an av­er­age of 4.5 months, though in some cases wean­ing may take as long as 8 months. Fe­males reach sex­ual ma­tu­rity at about 9 months of age, while males reach sex­ual ma­tu­rity at 18 to 20 months of age. ("Loris, Lesser Slow", 2011; "Pygmy Slow Loris", 2011; Ni­j­man and Nekaris, 2010; Rata­jszczak, 1998; Stre­icher, 2004)

  • Breeding interval
    Pygmy slow lorises breed once every 12 to 18 months.
  • Breeding season
    Pygmy slow lorises generally breed from end of July to the beginning of October.
  • Range number of offspring
    1 to 2
  • Average number of offspring
    2
    AnAge
  • Average gestation period
    6 months
  • Average gestation period
    188 days
    AnAge
  • Range weaning age
    4 to 8 months
  • Average weaning age
    4.5 months
  • Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female)
    9 months
  • Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female)
    Sex: female
    273 days
    AnAge
  • Range age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male)
    18 to 20 months

Im­me­di­ately after birth, pygmy slow lorises cling to their mother's un­der­side. Later, moth­ers ex­hibit "park­ing" be­hav­ior, leav­ing their in­fants in a safe lo­ca­tion while they leave to for­age for food. With­out the bur­den of a de­pen­dent, moth­ers can more ef­fi­ciently gather food for them­selves and their off­spring.

In­di­vid­u­als in the San Diego Zoo have a si­m­il­iar par­ent­ing style to that of other species of slow lorises. How­ever, pygmy slow lorises spend more time in close prox­im­ity to their young, tend­ing to hud­dle, sit or stand within 0.3 m of their off­spring more than other species. Moth­ers and in­fants pri­mar­ily es­tab­lish close­ness through pas­sive ven­tral con­tact. Al­though moth­ers do not ap­pear to di­rectly de­fend their young, they tol­er­ate the fol­low­ing be­hav­ior of their young as they get older. As in­fants age, they en­gage more often in adult so­cial be­hav­iors such as groom­ing and play, and less often in hud­dling and ven­tral con­tact. ("Pygmy Slow Loris", 2011; Fitch-Sny­der and Ehrlich, 2003)

  • Parental Investment
  • female parental care
  • pre-hatching/birth
    • provisioning
      • female
    • protecting
      • female
  • pre-weaning/fledging
    • provisioning
      • female
    • protecting
      • female

Lifes­pan/Longevity

In cap­tiv­ity, pygmy slow lorises are ca­pa­ble of re­pro­duc­tion as old as 14 years of age. They have been known to live 20 years in cap­tiv­ity. ("Pygmy Slow Loris", 2011; Rata­jszczak, 1998)

  • Range lifespan
    Status: captivity
    20 (high) years
  • Average lifespan
    Status: captivity
    17.1 years
    AnAge

Be­hav­ior

Pygmy slow lorises are noc­tur­nal, ar­bo­real quadrupeds with grasp­ing hands and feet. They walk along branches hand over foot, stretch­ing from one branch to the next. Their strong grip al­lows them to hang by their feet and gather food with both hands or to stand bipedally then throw their upper body for­ward to pounce on prey. Pygmy slow lorises al­most ex­clu­sively re­main in trees, ex­cept on rare oc­ca­sions in re­sponse to po­ten­tial preda­tors.

Pygmy slow lorises are thought to move al­most con­stantly dur­ing the night hours of warmer months. Mem­bers of this species are com­monly re­ferred to as "slow lorises" due to the speed of their move­ment, but ob­ser­va­tions made at the Duke Lemur Cen­ter in­di­cate that their move­ment is ac­tu­ally faster than other species of slow loris.

Dur­ing cold win­ter months, pygmy slow lorises are ca­pa­ble of en­ter­ing a state of tor­por and liv­ing off their fat re­serves. They re­duce their ac­tiv­ity, lower their meta­bolic rate and body tem­per­a­ture, and do not for­age. This hi­ber­na­tion-like be­hav­ior is ob­served both in the wild and in cap­tiv­ity.

Be­cause pygmy slow lorises have only rarely been stud­ied in the wild, many as­pects of their be­hav­ior are still un­known. While they are gen­er­ally con­sid­ered soli­tary, pygmy slow lorises are oc­ca­sion­ally char­ac­ter­ized as "gre­gar­i­ous" due to their mat­ing be­hav­ior. A species that spends over 50% of its time with con­specifics is clas­si­fied as gre­gar­i­ous. How­ever, cur­rently no sci­en­tific study has con­firmed this po­ten­tially gre­gar­i­ous na­ture. The ter­ri­tory of one male often over­laps with the ter­ri­tory of sev­eral fe­males, lead­ing to polyg­y­nous mat­ing be­hav­ior and more fre­quent so­cial be­hav­ior in males.

Stud­ies of Sunda slow lorises, a closely re­lated species, sug­gest slow lorises main­tain friendly re­la­tion­ships with con­specifics that share their home range, form­ing "spa­tial groups." It is un­clear how they might ben­e­fit from these so­cial group­ings, as slow lorises rely on cryp­sis for pro­tec­tion from preda­tors, do not as­sist oth­ers in find­ing food, and do not en­gage in al­lo­par­ent­ing. ("Nyc­tice­bus pyg­maeus Bon­hote, 1907", 2011; "Pygmy Slow Loris", 2011; Nekaris, et al., 2008; Rata­jszczak, 1998; Wiens and Zitz­mann, 2003)

Home Range

The home range of pygmy slow lorises is as yet un­known.

In Sunda slow lorises, type of habi­tat af­fects the size of a home range, which is highly vari­able. There is broad over­lap be­tween ranges of Sunda slow lorises. (Wiens and Zitz­mann, 2003)

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Per­cep­tion

Pygmy slow lorises uti­lize a va­ri­ety of ver­bal com­mu­ni­ca­tions. When dis­turbed, they growl and hiss. They issue a ris­ing tone dur­ing gen­eral con­tact and may whis­tle to the op­po­site sex dur­ing es­trus. Moth­ers softly chirp to their in­fants, who re­spond with rapid clicks and squeaks when they are in dis­tress.

Males mark their ter­ri­tory with urine, which also af­fects mat­ing be­hav­ior (See Re­pro­duc­tion: Mat­ing Sys­tems). ("Loris, Lesser Slow", 2011; Fisher, et al., 2003)

Food Habits

Re­ports from local peo­ple of Cam­bo­dia sug­gest pygmy slow lorises eat mostly ter­mites, tree parts, fruit, and bam­boo. Though sur­veys con­firm they do eat this va­ri­ety of foods, the ab­solute pref­er­ence for ter­mites over the other foods is not clear. There is also great de­bate over the de­gree of in­sec­tivory in this species. Some sug­gest that in­sects make up ap­prox­i­mately 33% of their diet (Duke Lemur Cen­ter 2011), while oth­ers state that they are fru­giv­o­rous (Flea­gle 1999). Al­though early ac­counts of the species (Har­ri­son 1955) in­di­cate that mem­bers of this species eat in­sects, lizards, eggs, and "any­thing ed­i­ble" in ad­di­tion to fruit, re­cent stud­ies do not cor­rob­o­rate these ob­ser­va­tions.

At the En­dan­gered Pri­mate Res­cue Cen­ter, cap­tive pygmy slow lorises are of­fered fruit, veg­eta­bles, boiled eggs, milk pow­der, and in­sects, and the in­sects are the most read­ily ac­cepted food item. How­ever, this find­ing can­not be used to as­sert they are not fru­giv­o­rous, be­cause the cul­ti­vated fruit of­fered to them may not be what they pre­fer in the wild.

Cap­tive an­i­mals also gouge fresh tree branches, in­di­cat­ing a pref­er­ence for ex­u­dates. They have been ob­served lick­ing Saraca dives, Sapin­dus and Ver­ni­cia mon­tana trees for pe­ri­ods be­tween 1 and 20 min­utes. Pygmy slow loris scratch and break the bark of other species of trees, feed­ing on the gum.

Pygmy slow lorises de­velop fat stores by in­creas­ing their feed­ing and choos­ing more en­ergy-rich foods in the last few weeks of au­tumn. These fat stores are use­ful dur­ing the food scarce win­ter months.

De­spite the high-sugar diet and small body mass of close rel­a­tives Sunda slow lorises, they have a very low me­tab­o­lism. This may be due to a need to detox­ify the toxic sec­ondary com­pounds in their food mat­ter. ("Pygmy Slow Loris", 2011; Flea­gle, 1999; Har­ri­son, 1955; Rata­jszczak, 1998; Starr, et al., 2011; Stre­icher, 2004; Wiens, et al., 2006)

  • Animal Foods
  • eggs
  • insects
  • Plant Foods
  • fruit
  • nectar
  • flowers
  • sap or other plant fluids
  • Other Foods
  • fungus

Pre­da­tion

Lit­tle is known re­gard­ing non-hu­man pre­da­tion of pygmy slow lorises. Al­though pre­da­tion by Suma­tran orang­utans has been re­ported, the habi­tats of Suma­tran orang­utans and pygmy slow lorises do not over­lap. Pre­da­tion by retic­u­lated pythons has also been re­ported. Pygmy slow lorises are cryp­tic, blend­ing in well with their sur­round­ings. This may con­tribute to low non-hu­man pre­da­tion rates.

Hu­mans are the pri­mary preda­tors of pygmy slow lorises. Their preva­lence in Cam­bo­dian and Viet­namese mar­kets tes­ti­fies to the in­tense hunt­ing pres­sure on this species. Camo­bo­dian lo­cals re­port hunt­ing pygmy slow loris as a "non-tar­get species," sug­gest­ing that the rate of hunt­ing is not af­fected by abun­dance and will con­tinue even as these an­i­mals be­come more scarce.

Pygmy slow lorises are easy prey be­cause of their tape­tum lu­cidum, the re­flec­tive layer in the eye that im­proves night vi­sion, which glows when a spot­light is shone in their di­rec­tion and by some ac­counts in­ca­pac­i­tates them. This makes this species an easy tar­get for night hunters. (Starr, et al., 2011; Stre­icher, 2004; Wiens and Zitz­mann, 1999)

  • Anti-predator Adaptations
  • cryptic

Ecosys­tem Roles

Be­cause they may con­sume a con­sid­er­able amount of fruit, pygmy slow lorises may play a role in seed dis­per­sal.

In Pol­ish zoos, oocytes of the par­a­sitic pro­to­zoan Cryp­tosporid­ium, "crypto", have been found in the feces of pygmy slow lorises, in­di­cat­ing in­fec­tion. Crypto is not typ­i­cally stud­ied in non-do­mes­ti­cated non-hu­man pri­mates, and lit­tle in­for­ma­tion is avail­able re­gard­ing its preva­lence.

An out­break of oc­u­lar oxyspiruro­sis in a Moscow zoo was at­trib­uted to a pygmy slow loris from Viet­nam. This con­di­tion is caused by the par­a­sitic ne­ma­tode Oxyspirura.

Pygmy slow lorises also act as hosts to some pro­to­zoan par­a­sites (En­ta­moeba his­toyt­ica, Blan­tid­ium coli, Tox­o­plasma gondii, Gi­a­r­dia, Blas­to­cys­tis ho­minis) and ne­ma­todes (En­ter­o­bius, Oxyrus, Trichuris). (Fayer and Xiao, 2008; Ivanova, et al., 2007; Schulze, 2005)

Com­men­sal/Par­a­sitic Species
  • Cryp­tosporid­ium
  • Oxyspirura
  • En­ta­moeba his­toyt­ica
  • Blan­tid­ium coli
  • Tox­o­plasma gondii
  • Gi­a­r­dia
  • Blas­to­cys­tis ho­minis
  • En­ter­o­bius
  • Oxyrus
  • Trichuris

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Pos­i­tive

Pygmy slow lorises are com­monly used in med­i­cines in Cam­bo­dia. In Phnom Penh, they are found in local mar­kets roasted, dried, and made into pre-mixed med­i­cines with rice-wine, al­co­hol, honey, or char­coal. Doc­tors of tra­di­tional med­i­cine re­ported in ques­tion­naires that these med­i­cines are pri­mar­ily used to treat "women after child­birth, stom­ach prob­lems, wounds, bro­ken bones, and sex­u­ally trans­mit­ted dis­eases" (Starr et al. 2010). In the 1950s from Burma to Bor­neo, the fur of slow lorises was used to dress wounds and cuts be­cause of its blood clot­ting prop­er­ties, and it may still be used as such in some lo­cal­i­ties. Some re­searchers at­tribute the pop­u­lar­ity of loris med­i­cine to the lack of ac­cess to or ed­u­ca­tion about bio­med­ical al­ter­na­tives and high lev­els of poverty.

Due to in­creased pro­tec­tion of this species, mar­ket price is in­creas­ing. Vet­eran hunters able to dis­tin­guish dif­fer­ent species of loris and know species dis­tri­b­u­tions in local forests yield high prof­its. Trade is dri­ven by wealthy city dwellers who are able and will­ing to pay rural hunters for their il­le­gal prod­uct.

Live trade of slow lorises oc­curs in high lev­els in the Mon­dulkiri, Ratanakiri, and Phnom Penh provinces of Cam­bo­dia. As many as 204 lorises were found in a sin­gle store in Phnom Penh. Slow lorises are the most pop­u­lar pets that are listed on CITES Ap­pen­dix I. They are pri­mar­ily traded in Bor­neo, Java, Suma­tra, and the sur­round­ing is­lands. Live trade of slow lorises most com­monly af­fects Sunda slow lorises, Bornean slow lorises, and Javan slow lorises, but traders do not dis­tin­guish among species, and other slow lorises such as pygmy slow lorises are some­times traded as well. This lack of dif­fer­en­ti­a­tion among species leads to hy­bridiza­tion, im­proper care and health prob­lems, as well as rein­tro­duc­tion of con­fis­cated an­i­mals into im­proper habi­tat. (Das­gupta, et al., 2005; Har­ri­son, 1955; Nekaris and Jaffe, 2007; Nekaris, et al., 2010; Starr, et al., 2010)

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Neg­a­tive

Pygmy slow lorises may pro­duce a toxin from mod­i­fied sweat glands lo­cated near their el­bows. They have a toxic bite which is dan­ger­ous to hu­mans. The only ac­count of a pygmy slow loris bit­ing a human re­sulted in the adult woman en­ter­ing ana­phy­lac­tic shock. (Wiens, et al., 2006)

  • Negative Impacts
  • injures humans

Con­ser­va­tion Sta­tus

Pygmy slow lorises are con­sid­ered threat­ened by the IUCN. Pop­u­la­tions de­creased by 30% be­tween 1984 and 2008, and they con­tinue to de­cline.

Pop­u­la­tions of pygmy slow lorises dras­ti­cally de­clined dur­ing the Viet­nam War, as bomb­ing, land clear­ing by Rome plows, and use of Agent Or­ange (2,4,5-T), other de­fo­liants, and na­palm de­stroyed the ma­jor­ity of their na­tive habi­tat in Viet­nam, Laos, and Cam­bo­dia. Bomb­ing is es­ti­mated to have dam­aged 40% of Viet­namese forests, and her­bi­cides af­fected 43% of the cul­ti­vated area. Prior to the Viet­nam War, broad-leafed trop­i­cal forests with stands of bam­boo and man­groves cov­ered ap­prox­i­mately one-half of the land area in these coun­tries.

The use of pygmy slow lorises in tra­di­tional med­i­cine, as well as the re­luc­tance of con­sumers and doc­tors of tra­di­tional med­i­cine to use al­ter­na­tives, threat­ens the fu­ture of this species.

Lorises are fre­quently killed by log­ging and slash and burn agri­cul­ture. If they are not killed in the fire, they face habi­tat de­struc­tion, which may lead to their even­tual dis­ap­pear­ance from the area. The re­sult­ing frag­men­ta­tion of forests fur­ther threat­ens the species.

Pygmy slow lorises were listed in Ap­pen­dix II by the Con­ven­tion on In­ter­na­tional Trade in En­dan­gered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) in Feb­ru­ary 1977. They were pro­moted to Ap­pen­dix I in Sep­tem­ber 2007, which in­di­cates trade of this species has not been prop­erly con­trolled in the last few decades.

Al­though trade is re­stricted and cap­ture and trans­port of pygmy slow lorises is il­le­gal in all coun­tries in their range, their small size makes slow lorises easy to traf­fic in boxes, bas­kets, and sacks from coun­try to coun­try. This process is phys­i­cally stress­ful for the an­i­mals and also threat­ens their health. Res­cue cen­ters have been de­vel­oped for con­fis­cated slow lorises, but mor­tal­ity rates re­main high. These deaths are at­trib­uted to trauma, dis­ease, and atyp­i­cally close prox­im­ity to con­specifics. (Rata­jszczak, 1998; Starr, et al., 2010; Stre­icher, et al., 2008; Stre­icher, 2004; "UNEP-WCMC Species Data­base: CITES-Listed Species", 2011)

Other Com­ments

In Viet­namese folk­lore, pygmy slow lorises are called "khi gio", or "mon­keys that move with the wind." They por­tend bad for­tune and are used for black magic. (Stre­icher, 2004)

Con­trib­u­tors

Mar­garet Gray (au­thor), Yale Uni­ver­sity, Eric Sar­gis (ed­i­tor), Yale Uni­ver­sity, Gail Mc­Cormick (ed­i­tor), An­i­mal Di­ver­sity Web Staff.

Glossary

acoustic

uses sound to communicate

arboreal

Referring to an animal that lives in trees; tree-climbing.

bilateral symmetry

having body symmetry such that the animal can be divided in one plane into two mirror-image halves. Animals with bilateral symmetry have dorsal and ventral sides, as well as anterior and posterior ends. Synapomorphy of the Bilateria.

carnivore

an animal that mainly eats meat

chemical

uses smells or other chemicals to communicate

cryptic

having markings, coloration, shapes, or other features that cause an animal to be camouflaged in its natural environment; being difficult to see or otherwise detect.

drug

a substance used for the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease

endothermic

animals that use metabolically generated heat to regulate body temperature independently of ambient temperature. Endothermy is a synapomorphy of the Mammalia, although it may have arisen in a (now extinct) synapsid ancestor; the fossil record does not distinguish these possibilities. Convergent in birds.

female parental care

parental care is carried out by females

forest

forest biomes are dominated by trees, otherwise forest biomes can vary widely in amount of precipitation and seasonality.

frugivore

an animal that mainly eats fruit

herbivore

An animal that eats mainly plants or parts of plants.

hibernation

the state that some animals enter during winter in which normal physiological processes are significantly reduced, thus lowering the animal's energy requirements. The act or condition of passing winter in a torpid or resting state, typically involving the abandonment of homoiothermy in mammals.

insectivore

An animal that eats mainly insects or spiders.

motile

having the capacity to move from one place to another.

native range

the area in which the animal is naturally found, the region in which it is endemic.

nocturnal

active during the night

omnivore

an animal that mainly eats all kinds of things, including plants and animals

oriental

found in the oriental region of the world. In other words, India and southeast Asia.

World Map

pet trade

the business of buying and selling animals for people to keep in their homes as pets.

poisonous

an animal which has a substance capable of killing, injuring, or impairing other animals through its chemical action (for example, the skin of poison dart frogs).

polygynous

having more than one female as a mate at one time

rainforest

rainforests, both temperate and tropical, are dominated by trees often forming a closed canopy with little light reaching the ground. Epiphytes and climbing plants are also abundant. Precipitation is typically not limiting, but may be somewhat seasonal.

scent marks

communicates by producing scents from special gland(s) and placing them on a surface whether others can smell or taste them

seasonal breeding

breeding is confined to a particular season

sexual

reproduction that includes combining the genetic contribution of two individuals, a male and a female

solitary

lives alone

tactile

uses touch to communicate

territorial

defends an area within the home range, occupied by a single animals or group of animals of the same species and held through overt defense, display, or advertisement

threatened

The term is used in the 1994 IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals to refer collectively to species categorized as Endangered (E), Vulnerable (V), Rare (R), Indeterminate (I), or Insufficiently Known (K) and in the 1996 IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals to refer collectively to species categorized as Critically Endangered (CR), Endangered (EN), or Vulnerable (VU).

tropical

the region of the earth that surrounds the equator, from 23.5 degrees north to 23.5 degrees south.

venomous

an animal which has an organ capable of injecting a poisonous substance into a wound (for example, scorpions, jellyfish, and rattlesnakes).

visual

uses sight to communicate

viviparous

reproduction in which fertilization and development take place within the female body and the developing embryo derives nourishment from the female.

Ref­er­ences

2011. "Loris, Lesser Slow" (On-line). Cleve­land Metroparks Zoo. Ac­cessed April 27, 2011 at http://​www.​clemetzoo.​com/​animals/?​action=details&​animals_​id=1066.

2011. "Nyc­tice­bus pyg­maeus Bon­hote, 1907" (On-line). En­cy­clo­pe­dia of Life. Ac­cessed April 27, 2011 at http://​www.​eol.​org/​pages/​326539.

Duke Lemur Cen­ter. 2011. "Pygmy Slow Loris" (On-line). Duke Lemur Cen­ter: Study­ing and Car­ing for Lemurs. Ac­cessed April 26, 2011 at http://​lemur.​duke.​edu/​category/​nocturnal-lemurs/​pygmy-slow-loris/​.

UNEP-WCMC. 2011. "UNEP-WCMC Species Data­base: CITES-Listed Species" (On-line). Ac­cessed April 26, 2011 at http://​www.​unep-wcmc-apps.​org/​isdb/​CITES/​Taxonomy/​tax-species-result.​cfm/​isdb/​CITES/​Taxonomy/​tax-species-result.​cfm?​Genus=Nycticebus&​Species=pygmaeus&​source=animals&​tabname=legal.

1993. "Viet­nam: War and the En­vi­ron­ment" (On-line). Green Left. Ac­cessed April 27, 2011 at http://​www.​greenleft.​org.​au/​node/​6044.

Das­gupta, S., U. De­ich­mann, C. Meis­ner, D. Wheeler. 2005. Where is the poverty-en­vi­ron­ment nexus? Ev­i­dence form Cam­bo­dia, Lao PDR, and Viet­nam. World De­vel­op­ment, 33: 617-638.

Fayer, R., L. Xiao. 2008. Cryp­tosporid­ium and Cryp­tosporidio­sis, 2nd ed. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.

Fisher, H., R. Swais­good, H. Fitch-Sny­der. 2003. Odor fa­mil­iar­ity and fe­male pref­er­ences for males in a threat­ened pri­mate, the pygmy loris Nyc­tice­bus pyg­maeus: ap­pli­ca­tions for ge­netic man­age­ment of small pop­u­la­tions. Natur­wissenchaften, 90: 509-512.

Fitch-Sny­der, H., A. Ehrlich. 2003. Mother-In­fant In­ter­ac­tions in Slow Lorises (Nyc­tice­bus ben­galen­sis) and Pygmy Lorises (Nyc­ticbus pyg­maeus). Folia Pri­ma­tolo­gia, 74: 259-271.

Fitch-Sny­der, H., M. Jurke, S. Jurke, N. Tor­na­tore. 1999. Be­hav­ioral and phys­i­o­log­i­cal cor­re­lates of a breed­ing colony of pygmy lorises Nyc­tice­bus pyg­maeus. Amer­i­can Jour­nal of Pri­ma­tol­ogy, 49: 52.

Flea­gle, J. 1999. Pri­mate Adap­ta­tion and Evo­lu­tion. San Diego, CA: Aca­d­e­mic Press.

Har­ri­son, J. 1955. The Apes and Mon­keys of Malaya (in­clud­ing the Slow Loris). Sin­ga­pore: Malayan Mu­seum Pam­phlets, Gov­ern­ment Print­ing Of­fice.

Ivanova, E., S. Spiri­donov, O. Bain. 2007. Oc­u­lar oxyspiruro­sis of pri­mates in zoos: in­ter­me­di­ate prob­a­ble ori­gin of ht in­fec­tion in the Moscow zoo. Par­a­site, 14(4): 287-298.

Kalimul­lah, E., S. Schmidt, M. Schmidt, J. Lu. 2008. Be­ware the Pygmy Slow Loris? in Ab­stracts of the 2008 North Amer­i­can Con­gress of Tox­i­col­ogy An­nual Meet­ing. Clin­i­cal Tox­i­col­ogy, 46: 591-645.

MacK­in­non, J., K. MacK­in­non. 1987. Con­ser­va­tion sta­tus of pri­mates of the Indo-Chi­nese sub-re­gion. Pri­mate Con­ser­va­tion, 8: 187-195.

Nekaris, K., S. Jaffe. 2007. Un­ex­pected di­ver­sity of slow lorises (Nyc­tice­bus spp.) within the Javan pet trade: im­pli­ca­tions for slow loris tax­on­omy. Con­tri­bu­tions to Zo­ol­ogy, 76(3): 187-196.

Nekaris, K., C. Shep­herd, C. Starr, V. Ni­j­man. 2010. Ex­plor­ing Cul­tural Dri­vers for Wildlife Trade via Ethno­pri­ma­to­log­i­cal Ap­proach: A Case Study of Slen­der and Slow Lorises (Loris and Nyc­tice­bus) in South and South­east Asia. Amer­i­can Jour­nal of Pri­ma­tol­ogy, 72: 877-886.

Nekaris, K., G. Black­ham, V. Ni­j­man. 2008. Con­ser­va­tion im­pli­ca­tions of low en­counter rates of five noc­tur­nal species (Nyc­tice­bus spp.) in Asia. Bio­di­ver­sity Con­ser­va­tion, 17: 733-747.

Ni­j­man, V., K. Nekaris. 2010. Checker­board Pat­terns, In­ter­spe­cific Com­pe­ti­tion, and Ex­tinc­tion: Lessons from Dis­tri­b­u­tion Pat­ters of Tar­siers (Tar­sius) and Slow Lorises (Nyc­tice­bus) in In­su­lar South­east Asia. In­ter­na­tional Jour­nal of Pri­ma­tol­ogy, 31: 1147-1160.

Rata­jszczak, R. 1998. Tax­on­omy, Dis­tri­b­u­tion and Sta­tus of the Lesser Slow Loris Nyc­tice­bus pyg­maeus and Their Im­pli­ca­tions for Cap­tive Man­age­ment. Folia Pri­ma­to­log­ica, 69(1): 171-174.

Ravosa, M. 1998. Cra­nial Al­lom­e­try and Ge­o­graphic Vari­a­tion in Slow Lorises. Amer­i­can Jour­nal of Pri­ma­tol­ogy, 45: 225-243.

Schulze, H. 2005. "Health data­base for lorises (Loris, Nyc­tice­bus) and pot­tos (Arc­to­ce­bus, Per­o­d­icti­cus), prosimian pri­mates" (On-line). Loris Con­ser­va­tion. Ac­cessed May 03, 2011 at http://​www.​loris-conservation.​org/​database/​disease/​index.​htm.

Starr, C., K. Nekaris, U. Stre­icher, L. Leung. 2010. Tra­di­tional use of slow lorises Nyc­tice­bus ben­galen­sis and N. pyg­maeus in Cam­bo­dia: an im­ped­i­ment to their con­ser­va­tion. En­dan­gered Species Re­search, 12: 17-23.

Starr, C., K. Nekaris, U. Stre­icher, L. Leung. 2011. Field sur­veys of the Vul­ner­a­ble pygmy slow loris Nyc­tice­bus pyg­maeus using local knowl­edge in Mon­dulkiri Province, Cam­bo­dia. Fauna & Flora In­ter­na­tional, Oryx, 45(1): 135-142.

Stre­icher, U., V. Ngoc Thanh, T. Nadler, R. Tim­mins, A. Nekaris. 2008. "Nyc­tice­bus pyg­maeus" (On-line). In: IUCN 2010. IUCN Red List of Threat­ened Species. Ver­sion 2010.4. Ac­cessed April 26, 2011 at http://​www.​iucnredlist.​org/​apps/​redlist/​details/​14941/​0.

Stre­icher, U. 2004. As­pects of Ecol­ogy and Con­ser­va­tion of the Pygmy Loris Nyc­tice­bus pyg­maeus in Viet­nam. Mu­nich, Ger­many: Dis­ser­ta­tion, Lud­wig-Max­imil­lans Uni­ver­si­tat.

Wiens, F., A. Zitz­mann. 1999. Pre­da­tion on Wild Slow Loris (Nyc­tice­bus cou­cang) by Retic­u­lated Python (Python retic­u­la­tus). Folia Pri­ma­tolo­gia, 70: 362-364.

Wiens, F., A. Zitz­mann. 2003. So­cial struc­ture for the soli­tary slow loris Nyc­tice­bus cou­cang. Jour­nal of Zo­ol­ogy, 26(1): 35-46.

Wiens, F., A. Zitz­mann, N. Hus­sein. 2006. Fast Food for Slow Lorises: Is Low Me­tab­o­lism Re­lated to Sec­ondary Com­pounds in High-En­ergy Plant Diet?. Jour­nal of Mam­mol­ogy, 87(4): 790-798.