Slender Loris: Out-Of-Place Sighting
Posted by: Loren Coleman on April 3rd, 2011
Slender Loris (Loris tardigradus) – Photo: animal.discovery.com
Wildlifer Ramesh Zarmekar had an interesting sighting on a nature trail through the Mahaveer wildlife sanctuary at Tambdi Surla last week – a slender loris.
Locally known as van manus, the slender loris is a small, nocturnal primate found mostly in the tropical rain forests of Southern India and Sri Lanka.
Says Zarmekar, “I was deep in the lush green forest with a group of nature lovers when we sighted the primate on a tree.”
He adds, “On earlier occasions I have seen the slender loris in Ponsuli village of the Mhadei wildlife sanctuary.”
Slender loris is an arboreal mammal with large, long slender limbs and well-developed index fingers.
In the absence of a tail it moves through trees by stretching and twisting its long limbs.
It feasts on insects, slugs, tender leaves and flowers.
One of the least studied primates, falsehoods about the slender loris abound, says Zarmekar.
Ramchandra Gaonkar a villager of Morlem in Sattari taluka agrees. “Poachers often kill slender loris as the primate has a cry-like call which is taken to be an unlucky sign,” he says.
Villages like Hivre, Charavane and Ponsuli in the Mhadei wildlife sanctuary are considered the habitats of the slender loris.
Ecologist Nirmal Kulkarni says, “The presence of the slender loris in the jungles of the Mhadei sanctuary is a significant pointer to the eco-sensitive nature of the forests here. Efforts should be made to protect the primate and its habitats.”
Times of India, April 3, 2011.
About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct).
Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015.
Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
