These extremely cute primates are found throughout Southeast Asia. Although adorable, they are venomous due to a gland located on their arm. When the venom secreted from its underarm glands is combined with their saliva, it turns their bite into a very harmful one.
Their venom-filled bites can rot flesh and cause anaphylactic shock in humans. Those chomps are a helpful defense against predators, but these territorial tree-dwellers primarily use them on other slow lorises—a rare behavior among mammals. There are only five mammals with venomous bites.
Lorises are arboreal and nocturnal, curling up to sleep by day. The slow loris is in critical danger due to deforestation and wildlife trade for traditional medicine, bushmeat, exotic pet trade, and more.
Slow lorises are not animals you find in picture books.
Our library has
• Slow Loris by Alexis Deacon
And we will add this one when it becomes available in Australia, as we have the others in the series.
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