Slow loris
This little critter climbed to stardom almost overnight. One video was viewed over 400,000 times in one day; we couldn’t get enough.
When cute is a curse
Slow lorises are small primates. The 5 species of slow loris currently recognised are adapted to life in the forests of southeast Asia. They are nocturnal, and with their mobile joints and opposable thumbs slow lorises are able to move about the tree tops with ease, catching prey and scent-marking territory.
Unfortunately, due to habitat loss and the illegal pet trade their numbers are in decline. They are already among the rarest primates.
But these wide-eyed wonders hold a dark secret – they are the only venomous primate. Extra vertebra gives the stripe on the lorises back a snake like movement, warning potential attackers away. If threatened they lift their arms above their head to look like a cobra. Then, with a quick lick, the oil secreted from glands in their elbow is mixed with saliva to produce a toxic concoction. A slow loris’s bite is so toxic it can kill a human. Not so cute.
Cute factor - Big eyes
The slow lorises wide eyes send our cute responses spiralling. Their pupil can dilate so wide that they are able to hunt with amazing accuracy in dim starlight.
Wide-eyed internet celebrity
Those wide eyes made the slow loris an internet superstar but cute can be a curse
