The Bengal slow loris
How many can you spot? The slow loris is traded as an exotic pet in Asia. It is also killed, dissected and dried, with individual body parts such as the arms, legs, skin and skeleton sold separately as medicine.
Professor Vincent Nijman of Oxford Brookes University said: “Based on data collected in the Myanmar border town of Mong La in recent years, we estimate that at least a thousand Bengal slow lorises are traded each year in this town alone and because of difficulties in conducting research on illegal activities, we expect the true number to be considerably higher.”
Slow lorises are a group of shy, nocturnal and the only known venomous primates in South and Southeast Asia. A bite can lead to severe anaphylactic shock in a human. Listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List of Endangered Species it is being pushed to extinction by habitat loss (mainly due to Jhum cultivation and tea estates in India) and over-exploitation largely in Cambodia, Indonesia, Myanmar and southern China.
“Although international trade in slow lorises is regulated under CITES, enforcement is minimal in certain border markets such as Mong La, which seriously undermines the very intentions of the Convention,” said Dr Chris R. Shepherd, Regional Director of TRAFFIC in Southeast Asia.
The Indian star tortoise
Illegal collection for the international wildlife pet trade is by far its biggest threat (followed by habitat loss for farmland). At least 55,000 wild tortoises are smuggled from just Telangana and Andhra Pradesh every year. And this number is only the tip of the iceberg.
Smuggled tortoises have been seized in Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Bangkok and even stored in inhumane conditions in suitcases, backpacks, boxes, on trains, cars across India and Sri Lanka! The seizures only continue to rise.
Wild Indian star tortoises are found only in grasslands in Sri Lanka, south and northwestern India (Gujarat and Rajasthan) and Pakistan. Given that they only start reproducing typically at over 7 years of age and are usually targeted when they’re juveniles, the species is extremely vulnerable.
