For such an impossibly cute creature, the slow loris has it tough. The giant-eyed nocturnal primates, found across a belt of countries around Indonesia, are highly prized for their supposed medicinal and spiritual properties. As a result, the luckless lorises frequently find themselves roasted alive over wood fires while eager people catch the supposedly life-giving liquor that drips out. Bits of their bodies are used in traditional medicine. And legend has it that villagers anxious about traffic safety need only bury a loris beneath a new road to keep it free from accidents.

It gets worse. The slow loris is the ...

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