Venomous Primate Rediscovered After 90 Years on Bangka

Scientists thought they'd lost the Bangka slow loris forever, but this rare venomous primate has been hiding in plain sight on an Indonesian island near one of the world's largest cities.

The Bangka slow loris hadn't been scientifically documented since the early 1930s. In 2020, conservationists officially listed it as critically endangered and possibly extinct.

Then something remarkable happened. Between 2015 and 2025, the Indonesian conservation group Alobi Wildlife Rescue Center found more than 90 individual Bangka slow lorises across different parts of the island.

These aren't just scattered survivors in one tiny pocket of forest. The rescued animals came from various locations across Bangka, an island off the southeastern coast of Sumatra, proving the species has persisted despite decades of habitat loss from tin mining and oil palm plantations.

"The Bangka slow loris is still alive," said Timon Glaw, a graduate student at the Haus des Meeres Aqua Terra Zoo in Vienna who co-authored the study. He published the findings in the journal Spixiana, officially bringing this "lost primate" back from the brink.

The small, nocturnal primate moves slowly and deliberately through trees with its reddish-brown fur and distinctive facial markings. Those enormous eyes that make it look adorable also make it popular in the illegal pet trade, one of the biggest threats to its survival.

Unlike most mammals, the Bangka slow loris is venomous. It produces a special secretion from glands near its elbows, mixes it with saliva, and delivers the venom through a bite that can cause severe allergic reactions in humans.

Why This Inspires

This rediscovery proves that species we've given up on can still surprise us. Bangka sits just an hour's flight from Jakarta, yet this distinctive primate managed to survive unnoticed by scientists for nearly 100 years.

The rescue center has already returned 86 of the lorises to suitable natural habitats after treating them. Many were found in houses, gardens, or injured on roads and electrical wires, but they're getting a second chance at life in the wild.

Glaw points out that the loris is more closely related to Madagascar's lemurs and Africa's galagos than to monkeys, apes, or humans. Every species represents millions of years of evolution, and this one almost slipped away without anyone noticing.

The discovery offers hope that other "lost" species might still exist in places scientists haven't looked recently. Sometimes the most astonishing finds happen in our own backyards, or in this case, right next door to a megacity.

Now the urgent work begins: protecting Bangka's remaining forests and conducting surveys to determine where the species still lives and how many individuals remain.