Speaker 1: Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio, Hey brain Stuff
Speaker 1: Lauren vogelbaumb Here. Slow lorises are small primates with fuzzy
Speaker 1: fur round heads, a small snout in ears, and wide
Speaker 1: saucer like eyes that make them look like nothing more
Speaker 1: than toys from the Thai beanie line come to life.
Speaker 1: But as with wild animals in general, you shouldn't go
Speaker 1: in for a cuddle. Slow lorises are the only genus
Speaker 1: of venomous primates. When threatened, they raise their arms and
Speaker 1: licked the oils secreted from glands in their armpits, which
Speaker 1: then mixes with their saliva and pools in grooves on
Speaker 1: their specialized comb like lower front teeth. Their resulting venomous
Speaker 1: bite can cause necrosis or anaphylactic shock in humans, leading
Speaker 1: to a nasty wound or even death. There are nine
Speaker 1: or so species of slow loris that all live in
Speaker 1: the forests of South and Southeast Asia and spend most
Speaker 1: of their lives up in the trees. They have compact
Speaker 1: bodies with only a small stump of a tail, and
Speaker 1: all four limbs have long fingers and toes that let
Speaker 1: them grasp branches, vines, and other objects. They have dense,
Speaker 1: short fur in shades ranging from brown to reddish to
Speaker 1: tan to white, often with a distinctive pattern on their face,
Speaker 1: with lighter cheeks and forehead markings surrounding darker fur around
Speaker 1: their eyes and making their eyes appear even bigger than
Speaker 1: they are. The word loris comes from a Dutch word
Speaker 1: meaning clown, alluding to those facial markings. The slow part
Speaker 1: is fairly literal. A lorius can hang still from branches
Speaker 1: for long periods of time to hide from prey or predators,
Speaker 1: a thanks in part to specialized blood vessels in their
Speaker 1: wrists and ankles, though their side varies by species. They
Speaker 1: tend to range from about seven to fifteen inches long
Speaker 1: from nose to butt that's about eighteen to thirty eight centimeters,
Speaker 1: and they can weigh from just nine ounces to over
Speaker 1: four and a half pounds that's about two hundred and
Speaker 1: fifty grams to over two kilos, so we're talking about
Speaker 1: kitten sized if cats are a familiar unit of measurement
Speaker 1: for you, light cats, slow Loris's eyes have what's called
Speaker 1: a tapitum lucidum that is a light reflecting surface behind
Speaker 1: the retina that helps them see better in the dark
Speaker 1: because it gives their retina another chance to sense the light.
Speaker 1: Humans and other Haplerini primates lack this feature, which is
Speaker 1: why our eyes don't appear to shine in the dark
Speaker 1: the way that cats or dog's eyes do. This is
Speaker 1: because humans are mostly active during the day, but slow
Speaker 1: lorises are mostly nocturnal. They live in the branches of
Speaker 1: bamboo and hardwood forests, usually sleeping during the day in
Speaker 1: crevices or hollows. For water, they lick dew off of leaves.
Speaker 1: Loriuses are considered opportunistic hunters. They use their excellent sense
Speaker 1: of smell to hunt for insects and other small prey,
Speaker 1: making slow, deliberate movements. They'll also eat fruit, nectar, and
Speaker 1: tree gum, which is a sugary sap that they extract
Speaker 1: from trees using that lower jaw tooth comb that I
Speaker 1: mentioned a minute ago. In their natural habitats, lorises are
Speaker 1: thus an important part of the food chain. They help
Speaker 1: control insect populations, and they spread pollen between flowers and
Speaker 1: seeds through their poop, which they deposit on the forest floor,
Speaker 1: which is pretty much the only time they spend out
Speaker 1: of the trees as so to avoid predators, but they
Speaker 1: do serve as prey for larger arboreal animals like snakes, eagles,
Speaker 1: and orangutans. Slow Loris's venom system is thought to be
Speaker 1: one of the most complex on Earth. It's the only
Speaker 1: one we know of that has two components that the
Speaker 1: animal has to mix the oil from its underarm gland
Speaker 1: and its saliva, both of which are each unpleasant alone,
Speaker 1: but together they're potentially deadly to invertebrates and mammals, including
Speaker 1: other slow lorises. It's thought that their diet, and perhaps
Speaker 1: especially those tree gums, is how they obtain these toxic compounds.
Speaker 1: Competition amongst low lorises seems to be the primary use
Speaker 1: of their venom, though it may also help them prevent
Speaker 1: attack from parasitic insects and arachnids. For the article, this
Speaker 1: episode is based on How Stuff Works check down with
Speaker 1: researchers at the Duke Lemur Center at Duke University. Although
Speaker 1: they no longer house lorises at the center, how Stuff
Speaker 1: Works spoke via email Anna Lie, an education technician there.
Speaker 1: She said, when two lorises cross paths, interactions are generally positive,
Speaker 1: grooming instead of fighting. In the wild, males and females
Speaker 1: will occasionally remain in the same space while their offspring
Speaker 1: are young, forming small family groups until the offspring get
Speaker 1: older and disperse. These groups groom each other and sleep
Speaker 1: in contact with one another, but they frequently forage alone
Speaker 1: and there doesn't seem to be a clear dominant structure
Speaker 1: in the wild. That family time can last up to
Speaker 1: three years of a total of a ten to twenty
Speaker 1: year lifespan, but lorises seem more territorial in captivity. It's
Speaker 1: difficult to find and follow loris' in their remote rainforest
Speaker 1: habitats because they're endangered. Duke researchers were interested in following
Speaker 1: their life history, studying questions like how long female animals
Speaker 1: nurse their young and how long they live in human care.
Speaker 1: Ali said learning how to care for and eventually breed
Speaker 1: them successfully in human care is important for their continued survival.
Speaker 1: All breeding was done at the recommendation of a species
Speaker 1: survival plan, which helps avoid overbreeding and maintains healthy genetics
Speaker 1: for all slow lorises in human care. While we no
Speaker 1: longer house them ourselves, what we learned during the years
Speaker 1: we did keep slow lorises continues to help the colony
Speaker 1: in human care at other facilities Today. How stuffworks also
Speaker 1: spoke by email with Lee's colleague Jody Stark, an animal
Speaker 1: care technician who worked with the slow loss when they
Speaker 1: were at the Duke Glamer Center. She said that they
Speaker 1: exhibited distinctive personalities quote. Some are very shy or stand offish,
Speaker 1: while others are outgoing, curious and interactive with the staff.
Speaker 1: The biggest threats to the survival of slow lorises are
Speaker 1: twofold and man made, the degradation of its habitat, and
Speaker 1: direct human interaction such as hunting or attempting to domesticate them.
Speaker 1: Because of these and other threats, all species of slow
Speaker 1: loris are listed somewhere from vulnerable to critically endangered by
Speaker 1: the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A note here
Speaker 1: that non human primates, including slow lorises, don't make good pets,
Speaker 1: and trying to domesticate them isn't fair to them. Lorises
Speaker 1: are meant to live with other lorises, not people. Lisaid.
Speaker 1: Slow lorises rely on undisturbed rainforests to live in something
Speaker 1: that's in short supply in our ever changing world. Some
Speaker 1: are hunted for bush meat or use in tradition medicines,
Speaker 1: while other slow lorises are kept as props for tourists
Speaker 1: or sold into the international pet trade. With their distinctive
Speaker 1: giant eyes and slow speed, lorises are frequent viral video stars,
Speaker 1: driving up the practice of keeping them. As always, social
Speaker 1: media doesn't tell the full story. Lorises taken from the
Speaker 1: wild frequently have their teeth removed to prevent dangerous bites,
Speaker 1: and their arm raising behavior seen in videos of tickling,
Speaker 1: is a defensive posture used against threats like humans. I
Speaker 1: would add here that due to the toxins and slow
Speaker 1: lors saliva, humans who have handled or pet alorus have
Speaker 1: been known to experience symptoms like numbness in their hands
Speaker 1: and feet and even blood in their urine. Furry animals
Speaker 1: often have heavy traces of their own saliva on their
Speaker 1: fur from grooming. There are some programs working to help
Speaker 1: slow lorises out in the wild. For example, on the
Speaker 1: Indonesian island of Java, natural habitat has shrunk by as
Speaker 1: much as ninety percent, so primate research groups are building
Speaker 1: and installing loris bridges using irrigation tubing to connect spots
Speaker 1: in the treetops so the lorises aren't isolated from their
Speaker 1: home ranges. Today's episode is based on the article slow
Speaker 1: Loris is a cuddly looking primate with a toxic bite
Speaker 1: on how stuffworks dot Com, written by Patty Rasmusen. Brain
Speaker 1: Stuff is production of iHeartRadio in partnership with how stuffworks
Speaker 1: dot Com and is produced by Tyler Klaang. For more
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