Endangered
Red slender loris
Loris tardigradus
The red slender loris is a small, nocturnal strephsirrhine primate native to the rainforests of Sri Lanka.
Appearance
The soft dense fur is reddish-brown color on the back, and the underside is whitish-grey with a sprinkling of silver hair. It has a dark face mask with central pale stripe, much like the slow lorises. L. Tardigradus tardigradus is reddish brown in the back and creamy yellow below, while L. Tardigradus nycticeboides is dark brown dorsally and very light brown in upperparts.
Its body length on average is 18–25 cm (7–10 in), with an average weight of a mere 85–370 g (3–13 oz).
Range and habitat
This species is endemic to the rainforests of Sri Lanka. It is typically found in the southwestern wet zone and the adjacent central highlands. Its range spans the wet southwestern region, extending from Colombo through Kalutara, Ratnapura, Kegalle, Galle, and Matara, and possibly into the wetter parts of Hambantota District.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
Diet and breeding
This species is among the most social of the nocturnal primates. This species mates while hanging upside down from branches. Individuals in captivity will not breed if no suitable branch is available.
The gestation period is 166–169 days, after that the female will bear 1–2 young that feed from her for 6–7 months. The red slender loris is a small, nocturnal strephsirrhine primate native to the rainforests of Sri Lanka.
In crisis
This is No. 6 of the 10 focal species and No. 22 of the 100 EDGE mammal species worldwide considered the most evolutionarily distinct and globally endangered. This slender loris is an endangered species. Habitat destruction is a major threat.
Other threats include electrocution on live wires, road accidents and capture for the pet trade. The red slender loris was identified as one of the top-10 "focal species" in 2007 by the Evolutionarily Distinct and Globally Endangered (EDGE) project.
CITES lists this taxon on Appendix II. Confirm the current appendix on the CITES checklist.
Red slender loris is Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.
Sources
Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on Red slender loris, Wikidata item Q614947. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.
