Three New Slow Loris Species Discovered in Borneo; Rare Venomous Primates Threatened by Illegal Pet Trade

Protecting the adorable but endangered slow loris--the world's only venomous primate--from the illegal pet trade suddenly got a little harder. According to a paper pending publication in the American Journal of Primatology , what was once recognized as one slow loris species and two subspecies is actually four different species.Lead author Rachel Munds, an anthropology doctoral student at the University of Missouri, Columbia, (MU), says the loris's nocturnal nature and relatively similar appearance hid these species from science until the animals were examined more closely. "Historically, many species went unrecognized as they were falsely lumped together as one species," she said in a press release issued by Wiley, the journal's publisher. "While the number of recognized primate species has doubled in the past 25 years, some nocturnal species remain hidden to science." [More]