Slow lorises are threatened by the black wildlife market, where they are sold mainly as pets. In addition, slow lorises are also threatened by the trade for medicinal and ritual purposes, as well as the loss of their habitat. In addition, they are hunted and offered to tourists to photograph for money mainly in Thailand. For these reasons, the number of slow lorises in the wild is dramatically decreasing. Unfortunately, we are getting into a situation where the populations of slow lorises are decreasing even in human care in modern zoos, and this threatens their breeding and the maintenance of backup populations. That is why we are coming up with one of the possible solutions in the form of the construction of breeding centres (Slow Loris Arks) for the pygmy slow loris (Nycticebus pygmaeus) within the framework of modern zoos associated mainly within the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA). We are collaborating on this with a group of prosimian experts called “Prosimian TAG” and the coordinator for the breeding of pygmy slow lorises from the Poznań Zoo, Katarzyna Byczyk. In this way, we are trying to create a sustainable backup population of slow lorises in human care, the so-called ex situ. The goal is for this population to eventually be a source of slow lorises for release back into the wild should the current threats disappear. Pygmy slow lorises are currently the most represented species in zoos, so efforts are focused on this species..
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