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Tuesday, 20 July 2010

Sri Lankan primate believed to be extinct for 60 years found

The Britain's Guardian newspaper has reported today (19) that a mysterious Sri Lankan primate driven to the brink of extinction has been photographed for the first time in Sri Lanka.



The Guardian report says that the Horton Plains slender loris, found only in Sri Lanka, was believed to be extinct for more than 60 years.
The article states that researchers have now managed to get the world's first pictures of the animal spotted in 2002 for the first time. Since then Sri Lankan researchers working in partnership with the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) have carried out over 1,000 surveys in the night in 120 forested regions of the country.

The researchers have found the animal in half a dozen regions and managed to capture three live specimens to take measurements.
The report says the drive to create tea plantations has driven the animal to extinct as their natural forest habitat has been largely destroyed by the clearing of land for crops.
The researchers estimate that only about 100 are left making the loris one of the world's top five most threatened primates.
ZSL's EDGE of Existence conservation programme supports conservation of slender lorises in Sri Lanka, where populations are thought to be under threat from deforestation.
Last October the first baby slender loris in 13 years was born in the London Zoo.


(Photo of loris from ZSL website)

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