Little Fireface Project: The Un-Primates in Our Family Tree

When we talk about primates, we most often think of the monkeys and apes.  They are the members of our order that are the most unmistakably... human.  They typically live in communities and family groups.  They are diurnal, active, social, and inquisitive.  Some of them even use tools, just like we do.  It's hard not to watch a troop of chimpanzees, or gorillas, or olive baboons and not be struck by the similarities between us.

On the other end of the stick are some of our more distant relatives.  Past the monkeys, past the lemurs, there are the small, nocturnal primates of tropical Africa and Asia, the prosimians ("pre-monkeys").  They tend to be solitary, nocturnal, strictly arboreal, and pretty damn weird.  Few, perhaps, are as bizarre as the slow loris, a sleepy-looking Teddy Bear of a critter with big, lost looking eyes and a body that looks like it's begging for some cuddles... if only it weren't for that venomous bite.  Yes... a venomous primate.  Talk about a black sheep in the family tree.

Bite aside, the slow loris has the misfortune that many of the attributes that monkeys and apes possess that can help convince people that they are unsuitable as pets - their strength, agility, propensity to fling feces, etc - are absent in these little guys.  They are readily (and illegally) plucked from the wild to be sold as pets, where most will suffer a short, unpleasant life before dying of improper care.  What has especially proven to be a problem for the little guys is the series of viral Youtube videos showing people tickling slow lorises, often with captions to the effect of "Isn't this adorable?"  For the loris, it isn't.  Tickling is downright torture.

One organization which is very active in the field, helping to protect slow lorises, is the Little Fireface Project.  Many zoos that work with slow lorises have stepped up to support this organization in its goals to save some of the world's most obscure, exploited primates.  Learn more about their mission and how you can help them here: