watch it: “Slow loris loves getting tickled”

i now want a slow loris.

This is something I never thought I'd see. It's adorable! Have you ever seen a Slow Loris? They're amazing, and they're not called slow for nothing. I once stood watching some in the London Zoo for over half an hour. They move around their tree-limb habitat with excruciating slowness. If they were on film it would be in super slo-mo. The one in this video is probably just as excited as a kitten would be getting tickled.

I want one too.

You know I almost never do this but I have to say something here. It's probably not a great idea to post this video without some kind of disclaimer that a Slow Loris doesn't really make a great pet.

These vids are cropping up all over and sparking the demand for these little guys. They are sold all over with by black market animal dealers with their teeth broken or pulled out so they don't bite (their bites are toxic btw) and they often die in captivity as a result because they can't eat properly.

So cute? Absolutely, but not really pet material.

Thanks, barbana, you're only too right. People (like me my ownself) can't help cooing over the cutest creatures, but we have to be satisfied with kittens and puppies - or maybe ferrets. We just can't have everything we wish we could.

Barbara, I too want to thank you for speaking up. I thought about saying something, and I should have done so.

When otherwise intelligent people say things like "I want a slow loris," I too often assume they actually mean something along the lines of "I wish we lived in a world where the slow loris and other cute wild animals were suitable pets, but of course I realize, in the real world that would be a bad idea."

This might be a better world if such knowledge was more common, but sadly, it is all too rare, as you rightly point out.

I completely agree... they are as cute as can be, and I'd love to get a chance to tickle one (and feed one, did you see the om nom nom video of this wee lass eating bugs?) but they are not ideal pets. It's a bit like the weird practice of surgically removing a skunk's stink gland so they can be kept as a household pet.
I would love to live in a world where I could have my own chimp though... As long as he didn't flip out one day and rip my friend's face off.

i didn't mean i *literally* wanted one... i just like cute fuzzy things with deceptively humanoid faces. my sister worked at the Bronx Zoo and was a licensed exotic animal keeper for many years before that. i understand suitable pets and unsuitable pets. i don't approve of keeping monkeys as pets, either... or other large, dangerous and almost non-domesticable animals.

it was just... cute.

Bronxbee, sorry, should have phrased my comment more clearly. I didn't mean to target you or Althea in particular, only to mention the unfortunately large percentage of other people out there in the general population who DO mean it literally when they say such things.

Especially the ones who change their minds and abandon the poor creature after finding out their "cute pet" is actually a high-maintenance wild animal.

I don't think anyone posting here fits that description, and now that we've discussed the issue a bit more, I hope it's less likely anyone reading these comments will come away with any plans to actually own an exotic animal as a "pet."

I hope it's less likely anyone reading these comments will come away with any plans to actually own an exotic animal as a "pet."

Kidding. :-)

Heh. Thanks for linking back to that other conversation, Bluejay. Somehow I'd previously missed the later comments on that thread, and had no idea the secret was out about my skink.