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'Slow loris tickling' video points to online peril for endangered species

This article is more than 10 years old
Study follows arc of public opinion as awareness grew of pygmy slow loris's endangered status and lethal properties
Vietnam Hanoi Slow loris for sale
Slow loris for sale in Hanoi market, Vietnam Photograph: Frans Lemmens/Alamy

New research suggests that viral videos can have a devastating effect on the populations of endangered species and that a mechanism is urgently needed to report images of them online.

Picture the scene: people clustered around a computer screen, cooing over the latest cute baby-animal video. A grinning, umbrella-toting slow loris is entrancing them and the video views pile up.

But the work of Professor Anne Nekaris points to a darker side to this internet fame, as it has led to slow lorises, an endangered species, being targeted by vendors exploiting the public perception of the species as the ideal pets – despite their being potentially lethal to humans. The primates are transported miles from their original homes in China, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, to be sold for as little as £10.

Nekaris's study is based on a video of a pygmy slow loris called Sonya, uploaded in 2009, two years after the species was designated as endangered by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (Cites). Nekaris and her researchers analysed user interaction with the video, noting how perceptions of slow lorises changed in response to media coverage and the awareness campaigns of wildlife pressure groups.

They collected data from a 33-month period, examining trends within the 12,411 comments posted. What the scientists found was encouraging: toward the end of the comment thread the desire among users to own the animals as pets decreased sharply. The data in the study suggested that by February 2012 more viewers were aware that slow lorises are poisonous.

The proportion increased when a related article appeared in the Daily Mail after the study was concluded. Graphs report a dramatic spike in comments after the BBC broadcast The Jungle Gremlins of Java, a documentary on slow loris conservation.

It is hard to believe soppy viewers would ever intentionally put a species at risk but, seduced by the image of slow lorises as tame and friendly, many have done so unwittingly. Until 9 Feburary 2012 wired.com had not removed their version of the Sonya video and its popularity was fed when it was shared by celebrities including Ricky Gervais, Hayley Williams and Drake.

"As far as I can see, as long as the animal is loved and happy, it doesn't matter. Provided they are treated right," one YouTube viewer commented, and about a quarter of the total comments seemed to agree.

But investigations have indicated that slow lorises suffer cruelty at the hands of vendors hoping to make a quick buck out of an online fad. Their teeth are cut down, or pulled out to make them fit for ownership and they are often transported in cramped conditions. A decade ago 80% of the slow lorises captured for display at Saigon zoo died on their journey. In Prague over the period 1999-2000 the prospect was even bleaker: all pygmy lorises confiscated at the airport that year died.

The research paper concludes: "The strong desire of those commenting on the sites to express their want for one as a pet demonstrates the need for web 2.0 sites to provide a mechanism via which illegal animal material can be identified and policed."

More on this story

More on this story

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  • Thailand's prime minister pledges to outlaw domestic ivory trade

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