A Camera Boy has just turned up to help us find a giant squid somewhere in the big wet area in front of our house. He is fresh in from Indonesia where he was filming slow lorises (sounds a lot like slow lorries).
The slow loris in the wild is nocturnal and it is the world's only venomous primate; they excrete venom from their elbows and when threatened they lick their elbows to make their bite poisonous.
Before they were brought to my attention by the Camera Boy's filming trip I knew nothing about this animal but now I know that it is cute, furry and big-eyed so they are captured to sell on as pets*. They are also endangered.
*To get round the venom thing their teeth are snapped off.
Shuntaro Tanikawa.
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Another post about an interesting translator: Michael S. Rosenwald at the
NY Times reports that “Shuntaro Tanikawa, Popular Poet and Translator of
‘Peanuts...
7 hours ago
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The lorises are so cute! Maybe they could use a new PR agency though and go change to Fast Loris!
ReplyDeleteMy goodness that is the first time I have heard of such a wonderful benefit of the elbows.
ReplyDeleteThis is right up there with toad licking.
ReplyDelete...I bet some pet owners get a shock when they find out about the elbow business...
ReplyDeleteSx
Hello Lulu:
ReplyDeleteGosh! Well this rather puts hard skin on the elbows into perspective as a problem.
We wonder what a collective term for Lorises is...a traffic jam perhaps?
whoa! that's a bit of information i wasn't expecting, sugar! xoxoxox
ReplyDeleteBlimey, poor old Slow Doris: it tried to make itself as uncuddly as possible by licking its armpits and then biting you, but people still want it as a pet!
ReplyDeleteI feel sorry for those lorises.
ReplyDeleteI feel sorry for them too.
ReplyDeleteI think my wife might be a Slow Loris.
ReplyDeleteWow, - it puts a whole new complexion on the idea of elbowing someone aside doesn't it?
ReplyDeleteMJ - I actually think it's better than toad licking.
Miss Scarlet - I bet!
Jane and Lance - We wonder what a collective term for Lorises is a convoy I think
Sav - you get all sorts round here xxx
Gadjo Dilo - they also lick their elbows before grooming their childrens so predators get a shock ... I think that's quite cool.
ReplyDeleteEryl and Synchy - I feel sorry for them too. Hopefully the film will publicise their fate and stop the pet trade though.
Red-handed - Is she actually called Loris?
This post was going so well until you educated me about the venom thing. Sometimes too much knowledge is a bad thing. I guess I will have to snap my teeth off and return to my monkey-hunting ways. W.C.C.
ReplyDelete???
ReplyDeletelx - oops - I think a Loris must've bit off my response. Probably because they like themselves just as they are ... nice... and ... slo.o.o.ow and POISONOUS dammit!
ReplyDeleteI call these sorts of animals venus hug traps.
ReplyDelete