Call to protect slender loris

by Dhaneshi YATAWARA

The little creature with large eyes, pencil thin limbs and a furry coat and its slow walk gripping the branches is the hallmark of the threatened animal. This little animal the Unahapuluwa commonly known among the Sri Lankans also known as the loris, was 'not so rare' nearly a decade or two earlier, specially in villages.

Scientific classification Kingdom - Animalia Phylum - Chordata Class - Mammalia Order - Primates Family - Lorisidae Genus - Loris Species - Loris tardigradus Sub Sp. - Loris tardigradus nycticeboides (Hill,1942)

Man's endeavour to overrun the nature resulted this little creatures to lose its home in the dense jungles. According to zoologists fossil records of the loris extend back to the early miocene age (20 million years ago).

A team of Sri Lankan biologists launched an islandwide research on loris from early last year with the financial support from the Zoological Society of London. The team was a joint effort of Colombo University and the Open University of Sri Lanka supervised by two veteran zoologists - Professors Kalinga Padmalal and Sarath Kotagama.

The aim was to create a conservation action plan for slender loris while identifying its range distribution. The apex of the findings was re-detecting the Horton Plains slender loris - scientific name loris tardigradus nycticeboides that made headlines in the media last week.

Nearly, after 72 years Saman Gamage, the principal researcher of the biologist team along with Chaminda Mahanayakage, Vidupa Ratnayake and Chamara Hettiarachchi found this slow moving little creature in the undisturbed parts of the montane forests of the Horton Plains - it was an adult male of the montane slender loris.

After spending many nights the group discovered this wonderful animal around 2.30 in the wee hours of the day. Captured in a photograph the existence of this cuddly little prosimian primate is known all over the world.

Horton Plains slender loris also known as the montane slender loris is one of the two sub species of the red slender loris which is endemic to Sri Lanka. The other sub species is the western red slender loris ('loris tardigradus tardigradus'). Two species of the Lorisidae family are found in Sri Lanka - Red slender loris and Grey Slender loris. The Grey slender loris (loris tardigradus tardigradus) is found only in Sri Lanka and India.

Red slender loris lives in wet montane forests. These forests are found in Horton Plains, Conical Hills and Haggala - all areas in the vicinity of Nuwara Eliya.

"Over the past 72 years researchers have reported sightings but only by a number of eye shines," said Saman Gamage explaining the early records of the Montane slender loris. In 1937 Tutein Nolthenius, a British Planter lived in Sri Lanka recorded on two Montane slender lorises and today the two specimens are at the Natural History Museum in London. "Normally the body of this animal is thin and long and thus its named slender loris. Yet, the Montane slender loris is comparatively stout," Gamage explained. According to these biologists this animal is characterised by short limbs and long, dense pelage. Both fore and hind limbs are shorter and sturdier than the limbs of any other type of loris found in Sri Lanka or southern India.

This adult male montane slender loris, the first to be physically re-examined by the research team is approximately 20 centimetres long and weighed 220 grams. The upper arm has been 5.6 centimetres and the fore arm 6.4 centimetres.

The research team needs more details of other loris taxa and so far they have compared only with the western red slender loris (loris tardigradus tardigradus). According to the researchers the fur of this animal is thick and considerably longer than other Sri Lankan lorises. Nose and hand and foot digits are pinkish.

The montane forests being a highly fragmented habitat at present was difficult for the researchers to locate a site. Referring to the site of capture of the earlier records in 1937 Saman Gamage and the group located a research site at an elevation of 1940 metres in the Conical hill proposed forest reserve. "The specimen with the Natural History Museum only states as below Horton Plains," Gamage said. The Conical hill is the eighth highest peak in the country situated West of the Kande Ella reservoir in Nuwara Eliya.

On the selected site which is of a two kilometre path, they walked repeatedly for nearly 18 hours over nine days. The montane evergreen rainforests are characterised by low canopy heights of approximately 5-15 metres. These are the areas where the temperature drops to -4 centigrade and less prone to drought compared to other parts of the country and froests are not uncommon.

The researchers are continuing to survey sites across this area to determine the full extent of the subspecies' range.

As the researchers observed the main threat these animals face is the degradation of montane forest due to over collection of firewood and cardamom production. Though electrocution is a common cause of death of lorises in the dryer regions of North Central area it is largely absent in the montane habitat due to the lack of power lines. Agricultural developments also seems to be contributing to the forest fragmentation.

However, the researchers have found no evidence to say that lorises are killed for folklore medicine in these areas. Being specially confined to these montane forests the Horton Plains slender loris is threatened mainly with fragmentation and degradation of habitat and the climate change which affects the ecology of these high altitude forests can only aggravate the situation.

To protect this little primate an extensive, non-degraded natural habitat is essential. It's loosing its native grounds as we, humans, invade.

There is a famous Sinhala idiom saying 'The offsprings are gems even to the lorises (unhapuluwa)' and today it is a rare gem to the unique ecosystem of this island nation.

After many years we have found this little slender loris and now it is our duty to protect them.