Introduction

There are a total of 8 species of slow loris in the world and all are listed as threatened in the ICUN Red List. According to Nekaris and colleagues (2013), the Javan slow loris is one of the world’s top 25 most endangered primates.

Slow lorises are nocturnal primates that can be found across Southeast Asia and its bordering areas. However, because of its cute adorable doe-eyed look, instead of the wild, it is now commonly found in open markets in Southeast Asia to be sold as pets for as little as about US $13. It is also smuggled across the globe to places like Japan due to its popularity there. 

 

Role of Social Media

One of the biggest factors that exacerbate the illegal trade of slow lorises is social media. In 2012, a number of viral videos of pet slow lorises were posted on YouTube. One of the video showed how the slow loris was consuming a rice ball while another video portrayed how a slow loris raised its arms after being tickled. Both videos went viral by receiving millions of views and has been shared countless times. Furthermore it does not help that some celebrities like the singer Rihanna also posted pictures of carrying slow lorises on social media sites like Instagram.

These videos and posts give many the misconception than slow lorises are great pets to have and popularized the trend to keep them as pets. In their study of the impact that popular Web 2.0 sites play on public perceptions of threatened species such as the slow loris, Nekaris and colleagues (2013) found that these videos and endorsements by celebrities have introduced these wild animals to a large section of the society that normally would not have known about them. However, this is without proper education of their plight nor the illegal nature of its trade.  

 

“Tickling is Torture” Campaign

In 2015, International Animal Rescue launched a campaign that was aimed at those viral videos and photos of keeping lorises as pets. With the help of celebrities to back the campaign, people are asked to pledge to not support the illegal pet trade. This can be done by not sharing or liking these videos/images and possibly share the “Tickling is Torture” website instead. As of March 2016, the campaign has has over 450,000 pledges.

 

About the Trade

Slow lorises are definitely not suitable as pets to be kept by people. Not only they are nocturnal, which means they should not be played and kept awake during the day or in a brightly-lit room, their complex diet usually consists of live insects like crickets, birds’ eggs, fruit and the sap of certain types of trees. However, in the videos, they are shown consuming rice balls and other foods that are not suitable for them. This can lead to undernourishment and other severe health problems.

In addition, before they are sold as pets, their teeth are clipped off, often using a nail clipper without any anaesthetic. This is very painful for them as shown in the video above, in which one slow loris was crying out in pain. This could also lead to infections and blood loss of the poor slow lorises.

They are also transported in small crowded containers which results in a high mortality rate of between 30-90% because of the stress experienced.

Lastly, while many think that a slow loris raising its arms upon being tickled is cute, it is actually in a defensive position and trying to display a distress signal. This is because when threatened, they do this to mix the venom secreted from a gland inside their elbows with saliva before biting the threat.