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Pygmy Slow Loris
Paignton Zoo is home to five slow lorises: four males Englebert, Smeagol, Frank, and Lewis, and one female named Judy. They live up at Monkey Heights in a special nocturnal enclosure that they share with our male three-banded armadillo Tommy.
This species has remained elusive until fairly recently. In 2022, researchers confirmed pygmy lorises to be a separate species from slow lorises. Then in 2023, the pygmy loris was divided again, into two subspecies: northern and southern... our pygmies are the southern type!
Class:
Mammalia
Order:
Primates
Family:
Lorisidae
About the pygmy slow loris
These tiny primates don't grow any larger than 22cm total body length, and are unmistakable for their large, dark-ringed eyes. They live in small groups and can be found dwelling in the tropical forests and forest edges of Southeast Asia, with a native range spanning east of the Mekong River.
Lorises are the only primates known to have a toxic bite, although this isn't caused by venom as seen in snakes or spiders. Instead, slow lorises secrete a poison from glands under their arms, which they lick before biting.
They are omnivores, with a diet consisting mainly of fruit, nectar, invertebrates, and small vertebrates. As a nocturnal species, they crawl along trees in search of their prey rather than leaping between branches like other primate species.
Conservation
These Endangered primates are globally threatened with extinction, due to a number of threats including hunting, trade, and habitat destruction.