Endangered Loris Terrified at Its Exposed Belly Being Touched, Displays Adorable Defensive Behavior

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I think that’s a slow loris.

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Yeah, looks like a slow loris.

I think you’re right and that makes me sad.

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It’s just kicking back – comfortable in the knowledge that its brachial gland exudate will coat the comb rendering it a toxic vector for the huuman.

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Hate to be that guy but I have read that the Slow Loris putting its arms up like that is a fear/defense gesture. Its elbows secrete a toxin.
But then “its elbows secrete a toxin” is just the kind of thing I tend to mindlessly repeat as fact…

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Whether or not that’s a defensive reaction: these kinds of videos make it seem really cool to own a slow loris. So in a small way, BB is contributing to the problem here. Sure, it feels good to watch this sort of thing!

I really appreciated the piece you published after Robin Williams hung himself, about how not to talk about suicide online. I wish there was a corresponding piece about how not to depict endangered species in adorable captivity.

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Lemur likes having its belly combed

Who doesn’t, really?

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Yes, they should be left in the wild. They are very cute, so that makes them attractive as pets, but they suffer greatly.

Yeah… After that one boing boing article Xeni posted awhile back about them i’ve become much more cautious about enjoying the cuteness of captive “pet” wild animals =/

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I thought the brachial secretion had to be mixed with saliva to make it toxic?

Edit the article and include this maybe?

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Don’t we all, Mark, don’t we all…

@frauenfelder

Considering Xeni posted about the Slow Loris on boingboing just two months ago I’m kind of shocked that you’d post a video of a Slow Loris: http://boingboing.net/2015/06/11/those-cute-slow-loris-viral-vi.html

I suggest that you edit this post to include a correction on what type of animal this is and that it’s actually going into a defensive pose because it’s terrified and DOES NOT enjoy the treatment it’s getting.

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Ummm:

Pretty sure this is a jaguar, Mark.

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I hope aliens never come to earth and think the gestures and vocalizations we make are so adorable, as the skin is peeled from our bodies.

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That site is asking for about 2 dozen domains to be whitelisted in my scriptblocker.

That’s absurd.

It doesn’t even degrade down to HTML. It’s a shittily built site altogether, regardless of the content it might be hosting.

I shouldn’t have to whitelist 20 odd domains to even get a site’s front page to load.

Perhaps you have a much less very shitty and untrustworthy resource for us to look at?

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I’m no evolutionary biologist, but that looks like a remarkably ineffective defensive posture. Last time I tried that in the wild, someone placed a cold glass of lemonade next to my hammock.

Come to think of it, that turned out to be darned effective after all.

If only you had poison glands in your elbows.

Turns out sticking your face in your elbows to slurp up some bitchin’ toxins in preparation for a bite is in fact a great defensive posture. If you still have teeth.

Most captive lorises have had their teeth pulled out to prevent them from further engaging in their painful, effective, and even sometimes fatal to an adult human, defense mechanism.