I wanted to write one small post about the very big children’s book we have been working on here at LFP. My story was written in a hotel room in Sukabumi, the night before our LFP loris workshop started. My MSc student Jonna Lehtinen and I has been joking about the loris who would save the carrots…and if the loris should be a super hero – how could we make the local people love the loris?

Well the truth is the local people NEED the loris. The loris does such wonderful things for their ecosystem, and plays a vital role. So what better to empower children with this knowledge in a fun and gentle way?

I have been amazed at the feedback and messages received about our little book and education materials – where is all the death? Where are the ripped out teeth? Where is the forest being burnt down? But when we think back to our own childhoods, would those images have made us love animals? Would we have asked our parents to read us those books over and over again? I think most children reading supposed conservation education books about orang-utans in cages or chimps getting their forest burnt down do not care if the story has a happy ending. Learning theory shows us time and time again that it is only older children or even adults who can process these truths.

The children just need to learn to love. We are so selfish and also just forgetful in the west in many ways. We forget that our children’s books were mainly adorable, funny or just lovely. Those that did have death and destruction probably left an indelible mark, like when Bambi’s mother was shot. I could never look at that page ever again it me so very sad. Children in habitat countries who have never had a book want their first book to be full of life and love…not death and sorrow.

So please wish us all luck as we embark on our venture to introduce the children where we are working to a story totally fully of love, with a teacher’s pack that embraces these facts. Animals feel pain. Animals feel sadness. Animals feel love. Just like we do. And they have their important jobs to do. And that they are totally adorable is an added bonus.

I would just like to take this last paragraph to thank the wonderfully fabulous Shelley Low, who I have never met in person, but she must have entered a world as mad as my own in the last two months, drawing lorises so magical that everyone I have shown them to could not believe they were so beautiful, or that they could be more adorable than a real-life loris.It is as if a loris guardian watched over her to make every eye expression and every nail and every tooth adorable and perfect. Thank you Shelley!

I have never felt more energised by any science project than I have from the hope that this project has given me because without the love of the local people we cannot save the loris. Time will tell and we will give many updates!

But where are all these lorises coming from? And why is it so bad that  they are being carried around the beaches of Thailand? Does it hurt them to have some innocent photos taken? Isn’t it a nice experience for a tourist to hold a cute animal?

You think we should have learned from our experiences in the past – the beaches of Spain for instance, where chimpanzees were exploited for a similar trade. No matter how cute the wild animal is, it is that…a wild animal. These poor lorises are ripped from their nocturnal forest homes, dazzled by the very loud noises of the bustling streets. Even many people do not like to be out in the town of Patong at night, with bright lights, loud music and even louder tourists. For a slow loris, whose quiet life in the dark forest, it must be horrific, and it can be seen on the faces of these animals, as camera flash after camera flash sees them recoil in typical fear postures. Lorises too need to hold branches to feel secure, and holding on to a person, while dressed in a clown’s costume, is not security – it is no wonder they grasp for the slender neck of a beer bottle when it is offered.

Lorises naturally look passive and ‘cute’ when terrified. They do not necessarily need to be drugged, though some are. But most do have their teeth cut out. These teeth are vital for grooming and gouging gum, their most important food source, so these lorises cannot be returned to the wild. On top of that, most cannot survive for more than a few months in captivity on a diet of fruit and paraded in such stressful conditions, so need to be replaced with another wild loris.  So the lorises that Mark and Petra are rescuing are in a halfway house – we don’t know where they should go. But we do know that every time a tourist takes a picture with a slow loris laughs and holds it with their friends, they encourage this cruel trade. So PLEASE do not support the photo prop trade.

Take a moment to see that these lorises can have a better life. Thanks to Mark and Petra for their work in giving some of them a second chance. These photos are by Mark Mason.

“Blank Park Zoo is excited to host the 2013 Zoos and Aquariums: Committing to Conservation conference in Des Moines, Iowa, July 8 through July 12, 2013.  This biennial conference provides opportunities for zoo and aquarium personnel and field researchers to meet and develop partnerships that benefit wildlife and wild places around the globe. The informal nature of the conference creates a positive atmosphere for networking and inspires collaborative action.”

With generous support by our wonderful colleagues at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo and the Cleveland Zoo Society, Anna and Jo will travel to Iowa. We will present the first quantitative results of our conservation education and empowerment projects, participate in the ZACC film night, a round table on conservation action, and are excited to present some new LFP products at the ZACC market place. Not only will we sell our now classic glow-in-the dark tees, but we will also introduce our new line of Tereh and Bunga ‘Slow Loris Forest Protector’ products, including our gorgeous new children’s book, illustrated by Shelley Low.

Sizes and styles available are:

Ladies:
Long Sleeve Hoody Tshirts – £21.50
sm (5), m (0), l (2)

Short sleeve skinny fit – £15.50
Black sm (3), m (0), lg (2)
flame red sm (3), m (1), lg (4)

Men or Women

Regular fit: 15.50
Short sleeve tshirts
black sm (3) md (1) lg (2)
burgundy sm (2) md (1) lg (0)

Children’s

Size 2-3 (1)

Size 3-4 (2)

Size 5-6 (2)

Size 7-8 (2)

Postage & Packing:

£2.20 UK
£3.40 Europe
£5.20 USA/Canada
£6.70 Australia/ Asia

Our Flame Logo was designed by Helga Schulze. It is to represent the plight of the loris, be it perishing due to burning of forest for oil palm, burning in the hot streets when being sold as a pet, or burning in the bright lights of someone’s living room when forced to live as a pet. All shirts glow in the dark! The saying is in Indonesian and English – Don’t Let Me Vanish.

Slow lorises are an evolutionary distinct group of primates found in South and Southeast Asia. All are threatened with extinction not only due to habitat loss, but also due to their high prevalence in Asian traditional medicine, use as tourist photo props, and their high popularity as pets both nationally and internationally. Slow lorises have featured frequently recently in the international media largely due to this conservation crisis. For example, in 2007, they were the first primate since 1986 to be transferred to Appendix I of CITES. From 2009 onwards, they have been a regular feature in the global media as more and more popular media outlets discuss the legality of presence of illegal slow loris ‘pet’ videos on social networking sites.  Finally, the discovery of three new species in 2012 was instantly linked with the fact that these species are not only in sharp decline, meaning bad news for the new taxa, but also with the fact that the loris is the only venomous primate. The latter fact is just one of the many fascinating aspects of ecology within this unique evolutionary group of primates, whose feeding ecology, social behaviour, and even their distribution were not known even ten years ago. In this volume, contributors studying lorises throughout their range in India, Cambodia, Thailand, Borneo, Sumatra, Java, Singapore and Vietnam will bring together the first synthesis of the Conservation and Ecology of this fascinating group of species.

We also reflect, that during this week of COP 16 in Thailand that it was only 6 years ago that slow lorises were transferred to Appendix 1 of CITES. It was believed at the time that this move would help to stop the enormous trade in these adorable species. But it seems only to have gotten worse. In 2007, there had not yet been a “tickling slow loris” or “slow loris holding tiny umbrella” or “slow loris eating rice” video to embed in the mind of the public that it is somehow ok to have a wild Endangered animal as a pet because lorises, unlike fierce animals like tigers or pig-tailed macaques, submit when man-handled, and their submission, sadly for them, looks adorable. And in our selfishness, we just seem to want them more and more.

We have just heard that on Facebook, the viral “slow loris eating rice” video has been shared a 20000th time. I even had it shared on my own page by a friend who knew I studied lorises and had seen a film I made about the illegal trade. I was shocked and dismayed. If those we know who know the suffering of the loris think a video like that is okay, what hope is there? Please do your part by NOT sharing those videos and telling everyone you know about the truth behind the illegal trade.

And do enjoy our new newsletter.We could not upload it today! We will try again tomorrow

Loris Pet Leaflet

The Little Fireface Project is looking for someone who might want to offer their services to illustrate a children’s book for loris conservation. The book would be distributed throughout our region to villages where lorises persist in unprotected agroforest, in an attempt to instill pride in the loris, and for people to learn the important role the loris plays in the forest. We could provide an illustrator with photographs and film of the lorises to help them with their drawings. We are seeking support for funding for the book but this will be easier once we have illustrations.

The story is written by Prof Nekaris and highlights key aspects of the lorises’ ecology. It is about our favourite loris mother Tereh (fast) and her new baby Bungah (flower). The text will be in Indonesian and English, so it can also serve as an English learning tool, and can also be distributed in western countries for loris conservation.

SLOW LORIS  – FOREST PROTECTOR

By Prof Anna Nekaris

v  Night fell on the beautiful forest gardens of Cipaganti

v  Two of its most important residents woke up with a great YAWN and STRETCH!

v  “Baby Bungah,” said Mama Tereh, “You are three months old and tonight I can teach you about all the foods a grown-up slow loris needs to eat.”

v  CLIMB CLIMB, slither slither they went…slow lorises cannot jump!

v  First they saw a TALL jengjeng tree with a WIDE trunk.

v  Tereh climbed head-down…SCRAPE SCRAPE…she made a huge hole and licked the pouring sap!

v  Bungah was worried, but Tereh said, “You have strong feet and legs, and chisel-leg teeth…just try!”

v  Bungah made his first tiny hole…yummy! (but he left the tree unharmed…)

v  Next, ALLLL the way across a tomato field, Tereh spotted calliandra flowers.

v  “How do we get there?” cried Bungah.

v  “Follow me!!” said Tereh, as both mother and son sped across a water hose pipe to reach a sweet-smelling calliandra tree.

v  Tereh explained, “Farmers plant the calliandra to feed leaves to their goats and cows. It’s our job to pollinate the flowers.”

v  Tereh plunged her face into the gorgeous spiky flower – LICK LICK LICK.

v  “Mummy – you look so funny – your face is ALL white!” cried Bungah.

v  Tereh explained, “If we now feed on the flowers over there across the tea, we bring this pollen with us. This helps the forest survive!”

v  It looked a long way! Bungah was frightened, but he knew his job was important.

v  “Don’t worry. Didn’t you know you have a super power? We lorises can protect ourselves from predators!”

v  Tereh showed Bungah, just before crossing the wide patch of tea, how to anoint himself with venom.

v  They looked so funny – like two prize boxers!

v  Then they crossed…and passed a prowling jungle cat…but the venom worked like a shield – STINKY! The cat turned away.

v  A swooping owl saw them from above, but mistook them for two stinky cobras. The stripes down their backs went slither slither…SCARY!

v  They made it! Bungah loved licking the flowers and helping farmers.

v  Past the flowers were rows of carrots and cabbages mixed with more jengjeng and calliandra trees, a forest feast again the starry black sky, but….

v  Tereh said, “You have not learned your most important job!”

v  At that moment, a locust flew past Bungah’s nose…a natural, he snatched it in flight and gobbled it up. “Mummy, that was the best food yet!”

v  Tereh and Bungah raced through the beautiful agroforest –through kayputi, Afrika, alpukat, jackgruit and jengjeng trees, catching one insect after the next.

v  Tired from their race, they found themselves at the edge of the forest, and could see into a villager’s house.

v  Inside were a human mother and her son. “Bengbeng, remember to always eat your carrots.” Mama was saying.

v  Tereh smiled her loris smile. “That is why our job in the gardens is so important – we eat the pests so the carrots and other vegetables can grow, and Bengbeng can grow up big and strong…just like you Bungah!”

v  “Can we go eat some more then, Mama?”

v  And Tereh and Bungah raced off to protect Cipaganti’s gardens.