Slow Loris ID

The name Little Fireface comes from the Sundanese name for slow loris – muka geni. In other languages, loris means thin one, wind monkey (both in Sumatra and Thailand),  forest baby, and the shy one.

Eight slow loris species are currently recognised! They are found from the Northeast of India to the Philippines. Two closely related slender lorises are found in India and Sri Lanka. Many more species are likely to be discovered.

Download our ID guide in English or Japanese. These guides were designed for law enforcement officers, rescue centre workers and researchers needing to identify lorises in the wild and in trade.

Citation of this guide should be as follows: Nekaris KAI, Musing L, Parish T (2015). Slow loris species identification guide. Canopy Vol 15, Issue 3, pp 1-5.

The table below shows their distribution and body weight ranges; sadly we do not yet have this information for Borneo’s new loris species as they have rarely been seen in the wild; it will be updated when available.

Lorisinae
Loris lydekkerianus Mysore slender loris South India; Sri Lanka 225-320
Loris tardigradus red slender loris Sri Lanka 105-170
Nycticebus bengalensis Bengal slow loris Burma, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam 1140-2100
N. coucang greater slow loris Sumatra, peninsular Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore 635-850
N. javanicus Javan slow loris Indonesia (Java) 750-1150
N. menagensis Bornean slow loris Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia 265-800
N. pygmaeus pygmy slow loris Cambodia, China, Laos, Vietnam 360-580