The Cost of Cuteness: Inside Java’s Battle to Save the Slow Loris

Here, in one of Indonesia’s oldest national parks, the team from the rehabilitation centre, Yayasan Alam Inisiatif Rehabilitasi Indonesia (YIARI), carefully dons masks to protect the vulnerable slow lorises from human germs, a compassionate and committed step in caring for the animal’s welfare.

A vulnerable primate 

The Javan slow loris is a charming yet critically endangered creature. Its vulnerability to hunting and illegal trade makes rehabilitation a tough challenge. This nocturnal primate moves slowly, spending its life alone in trees. With its sad, round black eyes set in a fuzzy black and white head, it's a beautiful yet mournful sight. 

"With their cute, round faces and cuddly looks, the Javan slow loris and other loris species are easy on the eye," said Javan wildlife veterinarian Nur Purba Priambada. "It's a shame, but their cuteness has played a big part in their decline, because people want to keep them as pets. Efforts to address the illegal trade in slow lorises, which are critical to their conservation, are hopefully bearing fruit just in time."

Though it is illegal, the Javan slow loris might be found in open markets, where they are sold as pets. According to data from Yayasan Inisiasi Alam Rehabilitasi Indonesia (YIARI), at least 5,500 lorises have been seen in physical and online markets since 2012. Activity reached its peak in 2017, with more than 900 traded.

While the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) strictly prohibits any commercial trade in these monkeys, and they are also technically protected under Indonesian law, local authorities often look the other way.

The Javan slow loris has lost at least 80 per cent of its population in 24 years, making it one of the world's 25 most endangered primates. According to the IUCN, the Javan slow loris is on the verge of extinction.

It lives in an increasingly fragmented landscape characterised by coffee and rubber plantations, artificial bamboo forests and settlements, where habitat encroachment causes Javan slow lorises to frequently search for food or shelter in plantations, bamboo forests and settlements. "Hunters just pick them off the trees or shoot them with air rifles, then package them up, and eventually they end up in markets,” Priambada, who is working with YIARI, told FairPlanet. “A hunter might get $10 or $20 for a loris, but by the time it's been bought by the owner, it can cost ten times as much," he added.

Rehabilitation and recovery

In Ujung Kulon National Park, YIARI releases rescued and rehabilitated slow lorises, but the process is lengthy. The condition of the primates upon arrival at the Primate Rehabilitation Center is usually poor, as they suffer from stress, trauma, malnutrition and behavioural changes due to unmet needs in the wild.

"Slow lorises are the only venomous primate, and one of only a few venomous mammals," continued Priambada. "They are very protective of their territory, and researchers think they use their venom, which eats away at flesh, to settle disputes with other lorises. When they're caught, hunters often cut off or completely remove their teeth. They use nail clippers, wire cutters, or pliers to do this. This makes it easier to handle the lorises and stops them from biting other captive lorises.”

This cruel practice often causes Javan slow lorises to bleed to death or get infected before they are sold, and those that end up at the YIARI rehabilitation centre often arrive with infected teeth that require removal. Once their teeth are removed, they will never be able to survive in the wild again.

Commonly known as "kukang" in Indonesia, the slow loris is also called "malu-malu," meaning "shy" - a nod to the animal’s reclusive nature. With their large eyes, they can see best in dark conditions - when they hunt for insects and worms. Their diet also includes leaves, plant sap and occasionally fruit. 

"These animals are unsuited to being kept as pets in small cages," said Priambada, adding that keeping the nocturnal creatures in bright conditions would cause them pain and suffering. "We take care of them at night, so we have to become nocturnal people too.”

Most wild slow lorises have been surrendered by villagers and rescued from illegal trade by Indonesia's BKSDA in West Java. They have undergone lengthy rehabilitation at YIARI Primate Rehabilitation Center in Ciapus, Bogor, West Java, which is Indonesia's largest rescue centre for slow lorises. Over the past 14 years, the centre has rescued over 1,000 lorises, with more than 900 successfully reintroduced into the wild.

Barnas, an animal keeper, said a joint YIARI and Indonesia's Natural Resources Conservation Agency (BKSDA) team carried out the release operation, along with volunteers. Each cage had two Javan slow loris, ready to be returned to the park's primary loris habitat. They took the lorises to the habituation enclosure deep in the Ujung Kulon National Park forest.

Cici Sri Ningsih, a wildlife vet, explained to FairPlanet during the fieldwork that when the lorises are being habituated, the team in the field will continue to observe and record any changes in their behavior for five days to two weeks. “For the enclosure walls, we use plastic fiber sheets and nets. The space has a range of trees and plants that offer natural food sources for the lorises.”

"The habituation process helps the lorises adjust to their new home before they're given total freedom," Barnas told FairPlanet.

"Teams are on the mountain every night,” added Ningsih. “They provide food and observe. Suppose they're showing good natural behaviours like foraging, adapting to their new environment, and surviving. In that case, they can finally be released.”

A habitat under siege

Hunting is not the only factor making survival difficult for the slow lorises; the constant loss of habitat is also taking its toll. Java’s population of 145 million people means it has one of the highest population densities in the world, with just a quarter of the island still forested to make room. Additionally, Indonesian forests continue to be cleared or burned to make way for new palm oil plantations.

The price of its fame is that the Javan slow loris has become critically endangered. In its sole habitat, the rainforests of South and Southeast Asia, this animal faces relentless mass poaching and illegal trade. 

This crisis directly affects those working to help. Nur Purba Priambada urges the public to support conservation groups, speak out against illegal wildlife trade and share the message that the Javan slow loris belongs in the wild, not in a cage.