Welcome Moira!

We told you earlier in the week about Pearl’s story (the baby long-tailed macaque), Moira was owned by the same person. So, she arrived at the same time.

On her arrival the WFFT Vet team realized that the Loris brought was a Pygmy Loris (Nycticebus pygmaeus).

They are a seriously threatened species and are classified it as “Vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and are listed in Appendix. I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).

The major threads, like for a lot of wild animals are, hunting, trade for the pet market and traditional medicine, habitat destruction due to human activities and development. They are native in some of Asia but not native to Thailand and the trade of them is illegal. A fun fact about Lorises is that they are the only primates who don’t leap.

Nevertheless, the pet trade is growing regarding the demand. Considered as a cute animal and watching the video of Lorises being tickled is not making things better. The reality for those videos is that tickling a Loris is simply torture! “When a slow Loris is tickled it raises its arms above its head, not because it is enjoying it but, in an attempt, to defend itself by accessing a venomous gland on the inside of its elbow,” International Animal Rescue (IAR) explained in a statement (the organization who rescued the tiny sadly YouTube star).
When Moira arrived, she had a health checkup, which turned pretty fast into… an investigation. Indeed, what was this Pygmy Loris? Female? Male? It is pretty hard to determinate sometimes but our vet team refuse to give up and really wanted to give her a correct name. After research on Pygmy Lorises (we have only one at WFFT centre), they all agreed on female and she’s be named regarding the name of the mom of one of our Vets.
She is now in quarantine at the hospital (the Pygmy Loris, not the Vet’s mom) but will be moved in an enclosure pretty soon after the observation stay.
Stay tuned to our Facebook page and Website to see how she is doing.