A female slender loris, also referred to as ‘Kutti Thevangu’ in Tamil, was rescued recently from an illegal trader by members of New World Animal Rescue Charitable Trust based in Pallikonda.
S Sugumar, founder- chairman of the Trust, acting on a tip-off that a person was using the animal for illegal business near the New Bus Stand in Vellore on April 18, he and other members of the rescue team rushed to the spot. On seeing the team, the trader abandoned the animal and fled. The team rescued the animal, got it treated by the veterinary doctor and handed it over to the Forest officials from Odugathur range at the Trust office in Pallikonda on Sunday.
Commonly found in the tropical scrub and deciduous forests as well as the dense hedgerow plantations bordering farmlands of southern India and Sri Lanka, the slender loris is a small, nocturnal primate. It prefers to inhabit thick, thorny bushes and bamboo clumps where it can evade predators and also find insects. The most prominent feature of this animal is the pair of two large, closely set, brown eyes.
They live between 12-15 years. Among the strange habits they have is the urine-washing (rubbing urine over their hands, feet and face and limbs), which is thought to soothe or defend against the sting of the toxic insects they prefer to eat.
According to World Wildlife Fund-India, these animals face a threat from poachers due to the belief that these animals have magical and medicinal powers. Hunting, along with destruction of their habitat, is the major threat.
There are no exact figures as to how many slender lorises survive in the wild in the country.