Page 32 - World of Animals - Issue #39

Slow loris: cute but deadly

What makes the slow loris so deadly?

Who would have thought that the fluffy-faced animal that might lose a race to a snail could kill?
So named for its lack of speed and comical mammal of their size. They typically travel slice the flesh of the victim open to allow
appearance, this little-known primate at 2.2 kilometres (1.3 miles) per hour, and the poison to enter the bloodstream, often
forages through forests under the cloak can remain motionless for hours on end. resulting in death. This isn’t performed on BELOW
of darkness. It feasts on fruits and gums Despite all of this, the bizarre slow loris prey, only animals that get too close to the This cute
creature gets its
sprinkled with insects and curls up in a ball is one of the only venomous species of loris. It uses the venom strictly for defence name from the
to sleep during the day. They are so slow, mammal on the planet. It secretes deadly and it isn’t known if the animal bites to Dutch word for
in fact, that their metabolic rate is only 40 toxins from its elbow, which it then licks to scare an attacker away or to incapacitate ‘clown’, probably
because of its
per cent of what would be expected for a transfer them to its bite. The sharp incisors the threat. comical face

Slow lorises
start out life
weighing no more than
a fistful of paperclips, but
can live until the age of
20 and have more than
15 offspring of their
own in that time.

Hiding in plain sight

It has been suggested that lorises have evolved to
mimic cobras to further repel attacks. Their faces
do have a startling similarity, and lorises even show
snake-like movement. The two animals have lived
side by side for millions of years, so slow lorises may
have adapted to look like their reptile neighbours.

Slow loris in numbers
5 40 29 60 8KM 80 179

PER CENT
Javan slow loris’s
species of slow loris, four million of their movement The number of The distance Percentage of the CENTIMETRES
of which are classed as years since they occurs while sleeping sites one that a slow loris habitat that has been of annual rainfall this
Vulnerable and one as diverged from suspended from tree slow loris may can travel in lost, largely due to species experiences in
Critically Endangered other primates branches have at once one night deforestation the wild

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