Who is the slow loris? Lori is a big-eyed miracle (19 photos). Who should choose a cat or a dog?
Those who have ever seen this funny animal will forever remember the huge sad eyes. Lemur loris- it's small furry animal, small in size, no larger than a domestic cat, with huge with sad eyes in which all the universal melancholy is reflected. Perhaps this is a longing for their relatives, the oldest mammals living on the planet, of which there are so few left.
Features of the lemur loris
Initially, this animal with huge sad eyes was considered a sloth because of its slowness. However, in 1766, J. Buffon, a naturalist, ranked it among the lemurs - i.e. prosimians. From the point of view of zoologists, this animal is also not a lemur and belongs to the order of primates, but the name Lemur lori is assigned to the fluffy, charming animal.
Habitat of the lemur loris
Natural habitats of loris lemurs in Southeast Asia. While true lemurs are most often found in Madagascar, loris lemurs are found in Malaysia, Vietnam, India, Cambodia, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand.
There are three types of loris:
- slim lory,
- fat or lemur loris,
- small, pygmy loris.
Depending on the species, the size of the animal ranges from 20 to 35-40 centimeters, weight ranges from 300 grams to one and a half kilograms.
Newborn lemurs hold tightly to their mother, clinging to their stomach; babies lead this lifestyle for about 2 months, occasionally changing their location, moving to their stomach close relative, returning to mom only for feeding. The cubs feed on mother's milk for an average of four to six months. The cub becomes ready for independent life after about a year and a half. One female gives birth to one or a pair of cubs.
The animals live in the crowns of trees, almost never coming down to the ground. The animal's lifestyle is nocturnal; during the day the animal prefers to sleep and does not like bright light. It goes to bed after sunrise, tightly grasping a tree branch; perhaps this feature also served as a reason to consider the loris a sloth.
Lemur loris character
The charming animal with sad eyes is extremely slow. He can remain motionless for a long time if he is in danger.
The animal has excellent hearing and vision, allowing it to navigate perfectly at night.
Laurie is quite curious and loves to play. He enters into couple relationships very choosily. It is not always possible for a representative of the opposite sex to be chosen to play the role of lover. Among the representatives of this species there are hermits who prefer solitude. The remaining animals prefer to live in small families or groups consisting of a male and several females.
They communicate between relatives using a variety of sounds, including at the level of ultrasound, which is inaccessible to human perception.
The lemur loris is not as harmless as it seems. In the area of the animal's elbows there are glands filled with poisonous liquid; when the poison is mixed with saliva, the animal can cause fatal bite to the offender. Fortunately, he resorts to this measure quite rarely.
Diet of the lemur loris
The diet of the loris lemur includes all kinds of insects, including poisonous ones.
The animal loves the bark and sap of trees, plant foods, leaves, flowers, and fruits. Often its prey is small birds and eggs. Tree resin is another favorite of loris lemurs.
Pet lemur lori
IN lately It is common to keep these animals at home. It is worth noting that the animal is difficult to train, is quite finicky and requires a lot of care and attention, otherwise it can ignore the owner without feeling a drop of affection. You can tame a loris by hand-feeding it, especially with its favorite food.
When deciding to have a pet at home, you should take it into account night look life and poor potty training ability. At good care with care and affection, the animal can reciprocate.
Only breeders distribute loris lemurs, because... The removal of animals from their natural habitat is prohibited. In addition, a wild animal will never become tame and can be infected with all sorts of exotic diseases, which few people will like.
For home life slow lorises or pygmy lorises are most often chosen. The animal is certainly charming and exotic lovers will love it. It is worth considering, however, that this animal is wild and is not very suitable for keeping at home.
Video about the lemur loris
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Nocturnal animals, loris, representatives of the Loriidae family, live in tropical forests Central Africa, South and South East Asia. Their distinguishing feature- huge eyes directed forward. Their tails are short or absent altogether. Typically, lorises reach a length of 17 to 40 cm, and the weight varies depending on the species between 0.3 and 2 kg. Lorises are active primarily at night. They are characterized by slow and careful movements, and never jump. With their strong paws, Loriids cling to branches and even by force it is very difficult to unhook them from them. Most Loriids live alone or in small genus groups. Lorises can live up to 20 years.
Lories feed mainly on insects, bird eggs and small vertebrates. In addition, they can eat fruit or tree sap. Main threat the existence of Loriids consists in the gradual destruction of their habitat, that is, tropical forests. The Loriaceae family is divided into four genera, which contain from eight to ten species, depending on your point of view. Some of the genera are: slender, fat, small, common, slow loris and potto.
Slender lorises are small graceful animals with a body weight of 85-348 grams and a head and body length of about 26 cm; there is no tail. The limbs are thin, slender, the forelimbs are only slightly shorter than the hind limbs. The eyes are round and very large, close together and directed forward, separated only by a narrow white stripe, and dark circles around the eyes, which further increases their size.
Slender lorises are inhabitants of the tropical rain forests of South India and Ceylon, but are also found in dry forest areas. Locals they are called tevangu. During the day they sleep in tree hollows or in dense foliage, most often near forked branches. In this case, the body is curled up into a ball, the head and forelimbs are between the thighs, and the feet cling tightly to the branch, sometimes the arms wrap around the branch. In captivity, they can be seen sleeping in limbo, clinging to the crossbar of their cage.
As the sun sets, the slender lorises awaken, unfurl, stretch, clean and fluff their fur with a tooth comb and a toilet claw, then slowly set out in search of food. In the twilight, their eyes shine brightly like coals. Their slow movement is due to the grasping ability of the limbs, with the feet playing the main role. The hand is also a good grasping organ; in grasping branches of small diameter and in grasping food, the main force belongs to the large and longest fourth fingers.
About six sounds they make are described, including low grunts and chirps. Of their special habits, it is interesting to note that, like many other lemurs, moving slowly along the branches, they spray their entire surface with urine, wetting their limbs with it. This habit is explained as olfactory territory marking.
The fat loris is quite similar to the slender loris, although they differ more large sizes and a dense build. Their food consists of insects, leaves, fruits, seeds, birds and their eggs, and lizards. In captivity they eat a lot of fruit and some meat. Fat lorises live alone or in pairs and small families. Several types of their voice are known - low grunt, high-pitched chirping, high clear whistle, especially in females during breeding. In captivity they are silent and sad.
The little loris differs little from the great slow loris. Mainly by size: its weight ranges from 400 to 800 g, while the great loris weighs around 1 kg. However, a lot can be said about him too interesting facts. On the Internet, on one of the forums dedicated to animals, we found the diary of one married couple from the Moscow region, who acquired a pair of small slow lorises. This essay is huge - more than a hundred pages! Being loving owners, the husband and wife learned all the intricacies of keeping, communicating and feeding slow lorises in their own practice, constantly improved the living and feeding conditions of their charges, and helped shed light on hitherto unknown facts about the life of these wonderful pets.
First, a male was taken into the house. Almost from the very first days he showed himself to be a nimble, intelligent, affectionate and sociable animal; fell in love very quickly human hands and loved to sit on his palms cupped, eating his favorite delicacy - grapes. Constantly observing his grace, habits and funny poses, these people found out why the loris is called “fat”. Firstly, of course, for their touching toy “plushness”. Secondly, the loris has a dense, spherical tummy, like that of an avid beer drinker - it is very pronounced and is especially visible at the moment when the loris sits almost like a person, leaning on its hind limbs.
After 10 days, a female was taken - a mate for the growing male. The boy could not accept the girl for a long time, but not at all because of his youth, inexperience or a sense of territoriality. He was really “jealous” of his newly made companion towards the owners! As soon as one of the spouses picked up the female and caressed her, the male immediately began to worry, scream and snap, but several days passed and peace reigned in the loris family.
To observe the mysterious life of their pets, the couple purchased a night vision camera, which was installed in the terrarium. The image was broadcast on a TV screen located in the bedroom, so people could see everything that was happening with their pets during their nightly activity, without disturbing the peace of the animals. In the dark, left alone, the loris shook off their phlegmatic drowsiness - they actively moved, communicated, and made various sounds.
It turned out that another name - slow (slow great and slow little loris) is completely unsuitable for these animals! They are playful, agile, graceful and can have a lot of fun romping and misbehaving. The female called the male, he answered her, they sniffed, played, and then, having run around and eaten their belly, they sweetly fell asleep in the house in an embrace. The camera also captured how funny the lorises eat: sitting, taking a piece of food with their “hands,” almost like small human cubs.
Slow lorises are one of five genera of wild animals in the Loriaceae family, consisting of eight species, three of which have been formed quite recently. The main ones include the following types: Bengal loris, slow loris, Javan loris, Kalimantan loris and dwarf or small slow loris. In 2013, a study of some individuals that previously belonged to the Kalimantan lorises led to the identification of three more new species - N. borneanus, N. kayan and N. bancanus.
All representatives of the genus are included in the Red Book as vulnerable or endangered species. The export of slow lorises outside their native countries is prohibited by law and can result in fines and even imprisonment.
The habitat of rare animals extends from Bangladesh and Northeast India to the Philippines and from the Chinese province of Yunnan to the island of Java. They prefer tropical rainforests.
The size of slow lorises can vary depending on the species - body length ranges from 18 to 38 cm, and weight - from 300 grams to 1.5 kg. They are nocturnal animals, so nature has endowed them with large eyes with a reflective layer called tapetum, which allows them to see in the dark. The head is rounded, with a short muzzle. The eyes of all representatives of the genus are bordered by dark “glasses” and separated by a light stripe. Perhaps thanks to this appearance, resembling a clown mask, scientists have given The animal has a corresponding name - translated from Dutch “loeris” means “clown”. The fur of slow lorises is soft and thick, its color varies from grayish to yellow, and the hair on the abdomen is lighter. Another distinctive feature is a dark stripe running from the neck along the entire spine. The ears are small and round. The hind and forelimbs are well developed, almost equal in length. All slow loris toes have nails, with the exception of the second toes. hind limbs, which are equipped with “cosmetic” claws designed for grooming.
Exotic representatives of the fauna world from Asia lead an arboreal lifestyle in natural environment habitat, practically without descending to the ground. They move with the help of four limbs, moving from branch to branch or moving along them along their length. Animals are endowed with an unusually strong grip of their arms and legs, which does not weaken throughout the day. This feature is explained special structure blood vessels of the extremities, providing intensive blood circulation and metabolism in the muscles during the movement of the animal.
Slow lorises are nocturnal, spending most of(more than 90%) of the active period alone. Sometimes they can form pairs or small unstable groups. They spend the day curled up in a fork in the branches of a tree and holding them tightly with their paws, or they are located in hollows of trees and other suitable shelters that lie at a height. One slow loris can have more than 60 favorite places for relaxation. With the onset of darkness, the animals become animated and go hunting. They slowly travel along vines and tree branches, clinging to them with their fingers. To mark their territory, males regularly mark its boundaries, not forgetting to update these scent marks. While searching for food, they may accidentally encounter representatives of their own species, with whom their individual areas are adjacent. During such meetings, the animals touch each other, engage in mutual grooming, or communicate with each other through various poses. However, most often they receive information about a congener they have encountered through hearing and smell.
Compared to other mammals of similar size, slow lorises have an extremely slow metabolism, resulting in a very leisurely lifestyle. Their main feature– the smooth and somewhat slow nature of their movements helps them sneak up on prey unnoticed or hide from enemies. True, when lorises are not afraid, they are able to move quite quickly - for example, walking around the territory and leaving marks.
Depending on the time of year, the diet of animals consists of various proportions of fruits, plants, tree resin, bird eggs, nectar, insects, terrestrial mollusks and small vertebrates. Animals catch insects with one or both hands, often grabbing branches with their hind limbs for better balance. To the main natural enemies Slow lorises include orangutans, pythons and changeable crested eagles.
Males reach sexual maturity at the age of 17-20 months, females at 18-24 months. Pregnancy lasts 180-190 days, after which the female gives birth to one or two cubs. Newborn lorises hold tightly to their mother’s fur for the first 14 days. Sometimes the female carefully removes the baby and places it in a hollow tree or a secluded fork in the branches, where it sits quietly and unnoticed while the mother forages for food. In case of discomfort, the cub emits a loud chirp, and the female hurries to him. It is believed that in the wild the male does not take part in raising the offspring, but in captivity they can take the cubs and carry them on themselves until they get hungry and want to return to the nurse. After 5-7 months, the baby is separated from the mother’s care, and at the age of 1-1.5 years he becomes old enough to live independently. In captivity, the life expectancy of representatives of the Loriidae family is 20-25 years.
Thick lorises are not the most talkative primates - they use sounds mainly to signal aggression, anxiety, and for communication between the cub and mother.
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Even though international trade slow lorises are prohibited and threaten to reduce their population; poachers continue to actively catch and export them for the purpose of selling them as pets. At the same time, the transportation of the animals does not take place, to put it mildly, under the most favorable conditions and many of them die on the road. There is also a serious danger mass felling tropical forests inhabited by these arboreal animals. World Fund wildlife makes every effort to increase the population of slow lorises, promoting their reproduction in reserves and captivity.
Is probably the most exotic pet domestic apartments from all possible. This extraordinary creature captivates with its whimsical appearance, because any lover of domestic animals will be happy to hold such a soft fluffy ball with large expressive eyes.
However, few people think that living creatures are different, and keeping such an exotic animal as a lemur requires serious preparation. Today we will analyze Loriids as a taxon, understand their habits, character, and also go through the varieties.
In fact, to be very precise, the loris is not quite a lemur. These animals belong to the suborder of wet-nosed primates, and the Loriidae family itself has for some time now been included in a separate infraorder of Lorisiformes, on equal rights in world taxonomy with lemur-like animals. Here is a clarification for lovers of scientific accuracy.
However, the lemur loris is so for a long time belonged to a related taxon, that we will no longer focus our attention on this detail, and will sometimes call this primate in the old fashioned way a lemur. That's what we agreed on.
Habitat
is a pronounced endemic of its habitat.
The native home of this animal is the tropical forests of Southeast Asia; they live mainly in the countries of the Indochinese Peninsula, and some species can also live in India and on the island. Sri Lanka.
Most of the world population of these animals lives in Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Malaysia, and Cambodia.
Appearance
Well, there's a lot to talk about here. This ex-lemur - real star television screens, not to mention the attention that this intricate appearance attracts funny animal among a public unaccustomed to such exoticism.
This animal resembles a cross between a monkey, sloth and tarsier. Many people mistakenly believe that the loris is a prosimian. Other “experts” believe that lorises, as well as indris, tupai, tarsiers, arms and galagos are all representatives of the same family.
Yes, everyone except the tupaya is primate. However, they all have significant differences from each other, both external and behavioral. Although galagos are indeed extremely close to this animal in anatomy, as well as appearance. However, we digress.
So what does this little big-eyed primate look like? This is a small animal whose weight, as a rule, ranges from 250 g to 1.5 kg. depending on the variety. The colors of different types of these animals may also differ. But we will still give a generalized description.
This primate usually has a brownish-red coat color. It has very tenacious limbs adapted for climbing trees. The animal is helped in this by thin fingers, which are equipped with sharp claws. But there was no luck with the loris tail.
On the head of the animal there is a pair of small ears and a pair of very large eyes. The eyes of the loris are a separate matter. This one is the same business card looks like the spectacled pattern of a cobra or the luxurious tail of a peacock.
The eyes of this primate are really very large, round, like 2 saucers. Moreover, there is a dark edging around them, forming glasses. This gives the animal a pitiful appearance, perhaps stimulating the desire to have such a charmer at home as a pet among lovers of cute exotics.
Well, the description of this small primate It would be incomplete if we forgot to mention his very sharp teeth. This ex-lemur has needle-sharp teeth, which he uses when asserting his rights to territory or a female.
Varieties
The Loriidae family is not as diverse as other taxonomic groups of the primate order.
Today there are only 3 main types of Loriaceae, namely:
- Slender lorises.
- Slow loris.
- Small slow lorises.
The slender loris is the smallest of all. The length of its body is 16-22 cm, its tail is 5 cm, and its weight is only 250-300 g. This animal is no larger than a squirrel in size, but it is the same primate as its larger relatives. However, it is not smaller in size than other Loriids, this is a fact.
The habitat of these big-eyed babies is the evergreen tropical forests of India, as well as about. Sri Lanka.
This species has several subspecies. Namely, there are gray and red slender lorises. The gray subspecies has a characteristic ash color, while the red subspecies differs from other varieties in its reddish-beige color.
The small slow loris, or slow loris, as it is also called, will be larger in size than the slender loris. Their body length ranges from 18-25 cm, and their weight can reach 700 g.
This primate lives in the bamboo and tropical forests of Thailand, Vietnam and Laos. This slow loris leads the same nocturnal lifestyle as its other brothers. The small loris is beige in color over most of its body with a rufous rump. Otherwise, this pygmy loris differs little in general external features from other varieties.
The great slow loris is a real giant next to its fellow taxon. These big-eyed animals can reach 20-36 cm in length without a tail, and the weight of some individuals can be 1.2-1.5 kg.
The slow loris and, even more so, the red slender loris next to such a relative can feel like dwarfs, inferior in size to themselves to a major representative family almost doubled.
Such animals live in almost all countries of the Indochina Peninsula, as well as in Bangladesh, India and even in the western part of the Philippine Island.
If we do not say a bad word about other animals of this taxon regarding their behavior, then such a “monkey” can pose a danger to humans. When irritated, this primate uses his sharp teeth, which, moreover, are equipped with a kind of poison. Like this poisonous loris, as it turns out.
This poisonous species has several subspecies. We will focus on just one. The Javan slow loris is notable because it is on the verge of extinction, including due to the capture of these animals for the purpose of selling them as pets.
Lifestyle and behavior
Now let's talk about the character traits of these animals, and also get acquainted with their way of life in the wild.
All species and subspecies of this family, be it the Javan loris or the red slender loris, are endemic to the evergreen tropical forests of South and East Asia, as we have already said.
They prefer to live at heights, among the treetops. These primates practically do not descend to the ground at all. These are exclusively arboreal creatures, well adapted to the habitat that nature has assigned them.
In some ways, these animals resemble sloths. They are also slow and unhurried, never in a hurry.
To move along branches and tree trunks, these animals are equipped with very strong limbs, as well as tenacious toes. The owners of these animals know very well that removing a loris that has grabbed onto something is the most difficult task.
They are also exclusively nocturnal and twilight creatures, whose eyes are perfectly adapted for night vision and are not at all designed for daytime vigil.
In the light of day, as soon as it dawns, these animals hide in the dense foliage among the branches and go to bed. An excellent night light for these high-altitude climbers are hollow trees or abandoned bird nests, where it is quite possible to find a sleeping animal curled up.
With the onset of dusk, the animal wakes up, washes itself, and behaves actively, as they say. Further, when night darkness reigns over the forest, the animal goes in search of food.
The diet of this primate includes plant foods with some inclusions of protein foods. Regardless of the species, be it a large Javan loris or a smaller red slender loris, this animal happily eats all kinds of fruits, but does not disdain to feast on bird eggs, and can catch and eat a small lizard or even a bird.
This lemur's diet also includes insects, including poisonous caterpillars and beetles, as well as the resin of some trees.
Lemur loris at home
A domestic lemur is nonsense for a naturalist, but quite normal for a simple lover of glamorous exoticism. Let's say it right away and directly.
Despite the fact that primates different types, especially from the Loriaceae family, are often bought and kept at home; such a purchase cannot be called otherwise than inappropriate. Not to mention the moral component of the issue.
Of the hundreds of lovers, only a few have all the necessary knowledge of how to properly care for such a pet, and what the consequences of improper maintenance and handling of the toothy primate are for both the owner and the animal itself.
We have already mentioned more than once such a species as the Javan loris. This is not just one of the large varieties of its taxon, but a species officially classified by the world conservation community as an endangered animal species.
This endemic inhabitant of the island. Java has been subjected to barbaric human persecution for many years. After all, it was the Javan loris that for a long time was the same loris in a cage, imprisoned in captivity due to its attractive and funny appearance.
What, together with the destruction of the habitat in his homeland, has now led to this plight cases of this type.
The venomous bite of a slow loris - even one with its teeth removed - should make those who dream of keeping a loris as a pet give up the idea
Thick lorises are the stars of the YouTube portal. Here, in just a few seconds, you'll find several videos of these adorable tiny primates - from a video of a slow loris nibbling on a rice cake or banana, to a video of a loris holding an umbrella. Even Lady Gaga planned to feature a loris in one of her videos, but the primate bit her hand and she abandoned the idea. And this is probably for the best, because the bite of a slow loris is a serious matter. The bite of the loris, the only known venomous primate in the world, can lead to serious consequences, including fatal outcome. Wildlife biologist George Madani is living proof of this.
On April 8, 2012, Madani was on a trip to the Malaysian part of the island of Borneo to study the local wildlife. There he met the Kayan slow loris (Nycticebus kayan), who was sitting on a mango tree. And then George’s curiosity ruined him - a loris bit his finger, which led to a number of serious consequences. The bite, which was initially merely painful, later sent Madani into anaphylactic shock. His mouth is swollen rib cage and stomach pain, nausea, difficulty breathing, weakness and trembling. Luckily for him, there was a clinic in this remote area that had a sufficient supply of adrenaline to relieve his condition.