Species Spotlight: Javan Slow Loris
Species spotlight:
The greatest chillers of our time? You know them from hanging out in forests, but a few things might surprise you about these shy ones.
Names & Nicknames: Javan slow loris, Malu Malu, The shy one
Size: At around 30cm in length and 570-690 grams in weight, they're a similar size to a small loaf of sourdough, just with longer arms.
Smell: Their soft fur might look like it smells of freshly washed linen, but the truth is quite the opposite. Javan slow lorises produce a strong-smelling secretion from glands on their elbows, the contents of which smell quite noxious. This smelly secretion marks their territories, repels predators, and can even be combined with their saliva to deliver a venomous bite.
Communication: Slow lorises usually move through the forest silently, preferring to use scent markings from their urine and smell elbow secretions (see smell section) to mark their territories and communicate with other slow lorises. However, they also use low-pitched calls to communicate with each other in relaxed situations, high-pitched calls between females and their mates or from offspring, and even hissing and buzzing sounds to ward off predators.
Favourite HANGout: Javan slow lorises, like all their slow loris brothers, are arboreal, which means they spend most of their lives in trees. Although they can be found in areas such as fields and plantations, they much prefer a nice natural rainforest, mangrove, or bamboo forest.
Favourite Snack: Javan slow lorises will snack on a whole range of things, from insects and lizards to fruit, nectar, and eggs. But their absolute favourite scran that makes up most of their diet is yummy tree sap and gum. Mmmmmm.
Eating Habits: They deploy a special tool to get to the tasty tree gum they desire – a special tooth comb in their lower jaw to strip away bark to access gummy goodness. This tooth comb is multifunctional and used for grooming, hence the name!
Toilet Humour: Whereas most people turn their nose up to poop, the forest absolutely loves Javan slow loris droppings. That's because when they eat fruit, the seeds come out in their poop alongside a healthy splatter of nutrition and far away from their parent plant, helping the forest grow. In the wild, mothers will make sure their un-toilet-trained offspring stay clean, but unfortunately, in the pet trade, they're often separated from their mothers, and all the poop that could be saving a forest ends up sadly caking their fur.
Love Language: Javan slow loris courtship can get pretty feisty - females are very picky and have no problems letting a male know if their attention is unwarranted. They will regularly slap, bite, or even throw males out of trees if she has decided they aren't the one. However, once she finds her man, they form a very strong bond, and both mother and father will look after the resulting babies.
If you see them: Yes, they look adorable, and yes, you probably just want to give them a big ol' squeeze, but that is a very, very bad idea. Not only would it be extremely stressful for the animal, but slow lorises (including our Javan friend) hold the title of being the world's only venomous primate! They lick a noxious secretion made from glands in the crook of their elbows, and this chemical combines with their saliva to charge up a toxic bite. This toxin is no joke, and could even be potentially fatal to humans, so it is everyone's interest to just leave them alone!
Red Flags: Javan lorises have a whole host of red flags, and we aren't just talking about being thrown off a tree (see love language section). Slow lorises are severely threatened by climate change. A species that spends most of its time in trees shockingly needs some trees to live. They are also threatened by illegal capture and hunting for the pet trade, and use in traditional medicine.
Epic Journeys: Javan slow lorises aren't the speediest of folk, preferring to meander delicately through the trees at around 1 mile per hour. They can also get quite sleepy, sleeping for 12-16 hours during the day before roaming around 500 metres during the night to look for food in their territories.
Glow-up: A mother slow loris gives birth to usually one but sometimes two babies, who can grab onto branches by themselves already! A baby will cling to their mother's stomach for the first couple of months of life, and when mum needs to run some errands, she'll coat them with a layer of venom before parking them in a safe place to deter any potential predators.
Facts: The Javan slow loris has the sad title of being one of the world's most endangered primates, with populations thought to have decreased by at least 80% over the last few decades. And all they want is to be left alone in their forests!
Who are they in the friendship group: Sleepy, chill, big eyes, but don’t get on their bad side.
Name:
Javan Slow Loris
Habitat:
Primary and secondary forests, mangroves, bamboo forests, and plantations in the Western and Southern regions of the Indonesian islands of Java
Diet:
Mainly sap and tree gum but also insects, lizards, eggs, fruits, nectar, and flowers
Size:
29cm in length and 570-690 grams in weight
Behaviour:
Nocturnal and solitary/loosely social
Predators:
Various species such as snakes, hawks, civets, and orangutans
Lifespan:
~20 years
Threats:
Habitat loss, forest fires, illegal pet trade, and poaching and trade for traditional medicine
Conservation status:
Critically Endangered
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