User:Maky/Sandbox2
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The conservation of slow lorises is a challenge that deals with the threats of deforestation and the wildlife trade, including the exotic pet trade, traditional medicine, and bushmeat. Because of these and other threats, such as habitat fragmentation, selective logging, and slash and burn agriculture, slow lorises (genus Nycticebus) are list as either "Vulnerable" or "Endangered" by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Because of the frequency in which these primates were found in animal markets and imprecise population surveys, their conservation status was originally listed as "Least Concern." Their rapidly declining populations and local extinctions, their status was updated and CITES elevated them to Appendix I, which prohibits international commercial trade in 2007. Local laws also protect slow loris from hunting and trade, however, enforcement is lacking in most areas.
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Slow lorises have been a part of the traditional beliefs of Southeast Asia for at least several hundred years. Their remains are buried under houses and roads to bring good luck, and every part of their body is used for traditional medicine to make everything from love potions to unproven cures for cancer, leprosy, epilepsy, and sexually transmitted diseases. The primary users of this traditional medicine or urban, middle-aged women who are reluctant to consider alternatives. Despite the beliefs about their use in medicine, a large number of slow lorises are traded as pets, both locally and internationally. Although it is illegal to import slow lorises for commercial sale, they are popular pets in Japan, the United States, and Europe, largely due to their "cute" appearance, which has been popularized in highly-viewed YouTube videos. Hundreds of slow lorises have been confiscated at airports, but because they are easy to hide, these numbers are likely to be only a small fraction of the total number being trafficked. Traders cut or pull the teeth of slow lorises to make them appear to be an appropriate pet for small children, but this practice often leads to extreme blood loss, infection, and death. Slow lorises lacking their teeth cannot be released into the wild. Captive lorises also experience improper care and die from poor nutrition, stress, or infection. Despite this, demand has risen, and slow lorises are no longer taken opportunistically, but are now hunted on a commercial scale using flashlights, from which the animals do not flee.
Connected protected areas are important for the conservation of slow lorises because these primates are not suited for traveling long distances on the ground. Training for enforcement officials is important to improve identification and the awareness of their legal protection. Sanctuaries and rescue facilities are available to provide both temporary and lifelong care for confiscated slow lorises. Zoo populations of some species have not bred much recently and are growing too old to reproduce, although the Pygmy slow loris is doing well at some facilities, such as the San Diego Zoo.