International media

The Little Fireface Project and Director Professor Anna Nekaris have featured on multiple media outlets, including many films. You’ll find titles and descriptions of each below and click on the titles to find out more!

Having premiered on 25th January 2012 on the BBC2’s Natural World and on the 20th of November 2012 on Walmart’s Frontier Earth on Animal Planet, a one-hour documentary dedicated to slow loris research and conservation produced by Icon films.
Jungle Gremlins of Java brought the plight of the loris to millions of viewers world-wide. JGOJ follows Prof Anna Nekaris, as she attempts to unravel the mystery of why slow lorises are venomous. At the same time she faces the horrific realities of one of the major conservation challenges facing slow lorises – the illegal pet trade. The film also highlights how ‘cute’ YouTube videos are impacting the conservation of these fragile primates.

We thank you for your kind comments about the emotional impact this film has had on you. It also has made its impact on the film community. In March 2012, it won overall MERITS for outstanding advocacy and animal behaviour, and also was accoladed in the Best of Category for Environmental and for Point of View at the International Wildlife Film Festival in Missoula, Montana. This was followed in February 2013 by the Award for Best Natural History Programme at the Royal Television Society Awards, West of England. In April 2013 Jungle Gremlins of Java picked up the Silver Hugo for Science / Nature Documentary at the 2013 Chicago International Film Festival Television Awards and in 2013 it won the Best New Media Award  at the Japan Willdife Film Festival.
What great news for spreading awareness of loris conservation. Our hearts are full!

  • Here Comes Darwin: Slow Loris

NHK director Mikio Kuroda follows Prof Anna Nekaris and her team as they study the amazing behaviours of the Javan slow loris, and reveal the plight of the pet trade, especially in Japan.

The LFP team works with Korean film team from EPS to expose the truth behind a growing and illegal trend for slow loris pets in Korea.

Prof. Anna Nekaris, an expert on nocturnal primates, discusses Asian slow loris species. She reveals to ‘The Wildlife’ host Laurel Neme what makes these creatures so special and why they are sought after both as pets and as a key ingredient in traditional medicine.

 Madagascar’s creepiest resident is the aye-aye. Nick must confront his fears and find out why it has become so feared by the local people. Professor Anna Nekaris provides information on this strangest of Madagascar’s primates from the Natural History Museum in London.

  • Slender Loris – Phantom of the Forest

Professor Anna Nekaris presents this one hour NHK film directed by Akira Matsubayashi on the behaviour of a family of Sri Lanka’s Endangered red slender loris. In Japanese and English.

Through YouTube videos, slow lorises have gained notoriety as adorable pets but in fact, these beautiful and shy nocturnal primates are disappearing from the wild due to this notorious trade. In this video, you can see slow lorises as they should be – in the wild – and find out about the work of The Little Fireface Project (LFP). The LFP team have been studying lorises in the wild for more than 20 years, and now, with a project on Indonesia’s island of Java, they are targeting to protect and conserve the most threatened slow loris species – the Javan slow loris. Actress Carrie Hope Fletcher narrates this award winning film, which in 2016, received the prestigious CLIP award from Germany’s ZGAP (Zoological Society for the Conservation of Species and Population). Production of this film was kindly donated to LFP by Spires Media.

Web 2.0 resources have the power to reach millions of unique viewers, and to make unknown people, and animals, into celebrities overnight. Such has been the case for the slow lorises, a group of threatened primates from Southeast Asia. Professor Anna Nekaris describes how the prevalence of loris videos and photographs on the World Wide Web have both advanced our understanding of slow loris science and taxonomy but at the same time hindered their conservation.

A small primate with big eyes has become a target for Southeast Asia’s illegal animal market. Professor Anna Nekaris speaks with ABC News about the plight of the slow loris.