Lewis Smith The Guardian 19 Jul 10;
A mysterious primate driven to the brink of extinction by Britain's taste for tea has been photographed for the first time. The Horton Plains slender loris, found only in Sri Lanka, was for more than 60 years believed to be extinct.
Then one was spotted fleetingly in 2002 when a light shone in its eyes and was reflected. Researchers have now managed to get the world's first pictures of the animal.More than 1,000 night surveys were carried out in 120 forested regions by Sri Lankan researchers working in partnership with the Zoological Society of London (ZSL). The loris was found in half a dozen regions and researchers managed to capture three live specimens long enough to measure them.
The prime reason for the animal's rarity is the loss of its natural forest habitat, which has been largely destroyed by the drive to create tea plantations. The loss of land to other crops also contributed.
Estimates suggest there are just 100 left, putting it among the world's top five most threatened primates. But so little is known about the animal that numbers could be below 60 – which would make it the rarest species.
Dr Craig Turner of ZSL said: "There's been a lot of loss of habitat historically. Forest covered much of the south-west area of Sri Lanka, but it's been cleared for agriculture and tea estates.
"More recently they've been cleared for firewood collection. We are now left with a very few islands of forest that aren't connected.
"Because they [lorises] are so rare and because for many years they were thought to be extinct, virtually nothing is known about them."
Rare Sri Lankan primate gets 1st wide-eyed closeup
Krishan Francis, Associated Press Yahoo News 19 Jul 10;
GALLE, Sri Lanka – A nocturnal, forest-dwelling primate with orb-like eyes and short limbs was photographed in central Sri Lanka late last year after being feared extinct, researchers said Monday.
A Horton Plains slender loris was caught on camera after lengthy surveys of the forest by researchers from the Zoological Society of London, the University of Colombo and the Open University of Sri Lanka.
Team leader Saman Gamage said the mammal was not sighted for more than 60 years until in 2002 a researcher reported spotting its eyes during a search - inspiring the effort to view it fully and photograph it to prove the primate existed.
"We are thrilled to have captured the first ever photographs and prove its continued existence," said Craig Turner, a conservation biologist with the Zoological Society.
The primate's population is thought to have begun dwindling in the mountain forest habitat after British colonial rulers from the 19th century cleared large tracts of forest for coffee and tea plantations, Gamage said.
Logging, agriculture and development made it hard for the lorises to find food, escape threats or meet mates.
Turner, a conservation biologist at the Zoological Society of London, said only one or two sightings occurred between 1937 and 2002. Despite repeated attempts to find it, there were no sightings between 2002 and 2009.
"People, including ourselves, had begun to think: 'Yeah, maybe it has disappeared'," he said.
Given its size and nocturnal habits, the eight-inch (20-centimer) beast was tough to find. But the giveaway was in its eerily large, night-vision eyes. Scientists combed the forest canopy with red-filtered flashlights - eventually catching sight of the loris.
"You get a very distinct red eyeshine reflecting from the loris," Turner told The Associated Press. "That's how we picked up on the initial presence of the species."
Turner said scientists were then able to briefly capture the primate, taking measurements and genetic material before releasing it back into the wild. He said the critter's orb-like peepers and gangly limbs made it an easy sell to the general population.
"It's a very appealing species," he said.
Gamage said more of the lorises are thought to live in small patches of forest in Sri Lanka's hill country.
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Associated Press Writer Raphael Satter in London contributed to this report.
Wide-eyed primate caught on camera for first time
Yahoo News 19 Jul 10;
LONDON (AFP) – A "cute" primate so rare it was thought to be extinct has been caught on camera in the forests of Sri Lanka for the first time, scientists said Monday.
The Horton Plains slender loris is a small, nocturnal animal which can grow up to 17 centimetres (six inches) long with big, bulging eyes.
Endemic to Sri Lanka, it was first discovered in 1937 but had only been seen four times since then.
Scientists last caught a glimpse of the primate in 2002, and believed the elusive animal had since died out.
But field researchers, working with the Zoological Society of London, managed to track down the mysterious creature in the forests of central Sri Lanka.
In a world first, they were able to take pictures of an adult male slender loris sitting on a tree branch.
The field team was able to capture one of the creatures and give it a physical examination, the first time that has ever been done, before releasing it back into the wild.
But experts warned that deforestation in Sri Lanka -- largely blamed on the drive to create tea plantations in the region -- was now the biggest threat to the loris.
Craig Turner, a conservation biologist at the ZSL, said their natural forest habitat had been divided up for farming and logging use, cutting off the "very cute" animals from their partners.
"The forest has now been fragmented into a series of small islands," Turner told BBC radio.
"They can't move to one another, they can't mate, breed, so it has real implications for the future persistence of the species."