ENDANGERED SLOW LORIS IS NOT A PET

In the attempt of having some exotic pet, someone mistreated and abandoned a slow loris in a box on the streets of the UAE. Thanks to the collaboration of The Green Planet and the Ministry of Climate Change and Environment (MOCCAE), this wide-eyed primate who is named as ‘Lonely Loris’ found a new home at The Green Planet.

However, this success story of the rescue of slow loris triggers the question of how many people still are not aware which animals can be pets and which can not be. Slow Loris, originating from the depths of Asia, the primate is a CITES 1 animal, which means it is at significant risk of extinction in the wild, sharing its critical status with African Elephants, Gorilla, and Orangutans.

This ‘cute’ looking animal is also popular on the internet and unfortunately, celebrities like pop star Rihanna and Lady Gaga have wrongly made them popular as a pet. But the truth is Slow lorises are nocturnal animals. Therefore, being kept in a brightly lit room is incredibly uncomfortable and causes pain and suffering. In the wild the slow loris would feed on a complex diet of fruits and insects, owners often struggle to meet these special dietary needs. This leads to obesity as well as other serious health problems such as infection, pneumonia, diabetes, metabolic bone disease, and malnutrition.  low lorises have a venomous bite that is harmful to humans. Usually, their teeth are clipped but if their teeth are still intact they mix venom secreted from a gland inside their upper arm with saliva to deliver a venomous bite. This can cause anaphylactic shock and even death in humans. You can read more facts about slow loris here.

The saddest truth about slow loris is Slow lorises are in serious danger of extinction, with the biggest threat to survival being the illegal trade in wildlife. Having a slow loris as a pet encourages the trade and therefore pushes these extraordinary animals closer to extinction. So this rescue incidence also puts a bright light on the illegal trade of wild animals.

Fight Against Illegal Wildlife Trade

Adopting a zero-tolerance approach to illegal wildlife trafficking, the UAE Government has recently clamped down on online animal trading and has strengthened security on the country’s land, sea and air borders.

To motivate people to join the fight against illegal wildlife trade and make them comprehend the magnitude of the harm this trade inflicts on endangered species and global biodiversity, the UAE has significantly stepped up its efforts to raise public awareness of the importance of ensuring that wild animals remain in the wild. As part of this priority, the government has joined forces with various stakeholders from the public and private sectors to run awareness campaigns and workshops in diverse locations across the country, such as shopping malls, local markets, airports, schools, and universities.

Furthermore, the UAE Government collaborates with other governments and intergovernmental organizations, such as the International Consortium on Combating Wildlife Crime (ICCWC) that comprises the Secretariat of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), INTERPOL, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, the World Bank and the World Customs Organization, in addition to the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), to identify and combat wildlife crime.

Rightly Hiba Al Shehhi, Acting Director of the Biodiversity Department at MOCCAE, said: “We are confident that our actions are making an impact on illegal wildlife trade in the region. We have strict controls in place to curb the trade, however, we believe awareness needs to be front and center. We are happy that this Slow Loris was lucky enough to have been found and taken care of professionally at The Green Planet. We hope his story can help educate the community and paint a clearer picture of the dangers of the illegal wildlife trade.”

If we focus on the illegal wildlife trade of especially slow loris, the impacts of the wildlife trade on individual slow lorises have not been as well described. We could find very limited data regarding what is the status of this venomous primate. In one of the published study ‘Welfare impacts of the illegal wildlife trade in a cohort of confiscated greater slow lorises, Nycticebus coucang’ quantitative consequences of the wildlife trade for 77 greater slow lorises, (genus Nycticebus) was done. These slow lorises have confiscated en masse and brought to Cikananga Wildlife Center in Indonesia. Medical records indicated that in total, 28.6% of the slow lorises died within the first 6 months, mostly due to traumatic injury, and all the infants died. The greatest sources of morbidity were external wounds (33.1% of 166 total medical events) and dental problems (19.3%). Of the surviving individuals, 25.4% displayed abnormal behavior. Behavioral observations indicated that healthy adults (n = 3) spent 48.2% of their active period performing stereotypes. These data illustrate the physical and behavioral impacts of the illegal wildlife trade on the welfare of slow lorises.  The published paper says, sharing these individual stories may help generate empathy and educate the public about the impacts of the exotic companion-animal (pet) trade on nonhuman animal welfare.

In another study, published in the American Journal of Primatology, examined the trade in Slow and Slender Lorises in Sri Lanka, Cambodia, and Indonesia and found clear cultural differences between countries in the way the animals are viewed. Surrounded by superstition, it is believed in South and Southeast Asia that eating loris flesh can treat leprosy, tonics made from lorises are claimed to heal wounds and broken bones and help women regain strength after childbirth, while in Sri Lanka Slender Loris body parts may ward off the “evil eye” and can be used to curse enemies. Finally, their tears are a secret ingredient in love potions. Every year thousands of lorises are caught to supply such uses.

“The tendency to freeze when spotted by humans makes lorises particularly vulnerable to collectors. Our study shows that people catch lorises any time they see them, usually while out looking for other animals. This makes the problem of the loris trade a difficult one to tackle,” said Anna Nekaris of the Nocturnal Primate Research Group at Oxford Brookes University, and lead author of the study. You can read more here.