Slow loris: the eyes may be cute, but the elbows are absolutely lethal (via The Guardian, WEIT)
For such an impossibly cute creature, the slow loris has it tough. The giant-eyed nocturnal primates, found across a belt of countries around Indonesia, are highly prized for their supposed medicinal and spiritual properties. As a result, the luckless lorises frequently find themselves roasted alive over wood fires while eager people catch the supposedly life-giving liquor that drips out. Bits of their bodies are used in traditional medicine. And legend has it that villagers anxious about traffic safety need only bury a loris beneath a new road to keep it free from accidents.
It gets worse. The slow loris is the world’s only poisonous primate. Its venom is stored in an elbow patch: the loris will suck in the poison from the patch, then mix it around in its mouth before delivering a toxic bite. So, when illegal traders catch them and sell them on, they usually remove the hapless creatures’ teeth - with wire cutters. If ever an animal needed to be fast, it is the slow loris. Unfortunately … well you’ve probably guessed….
