The International Union for Conservation of Nature lists the Javan slow loris as Critically Endangered (IUCN 2015), appearing on the IUCN’s Red List of Threatened Species. The major threats facing them are habitat destruction and fragmentation and collection for the pet trade. An estimated 20% of their historic habitat is remaining, and studies show that the remaining populations of Javan slow lorises are extremely fragmented. Only about 17% of the potential population exists within protected areas. Javan slow lorises are believed to have undergone a population loss of at least 80% over the last 24 years, or three generations.

In addition to the amazing diversity of animal and plant life it is home to, the island of Java is the most populous in the world—home to 130 million people on an island the size of New York State. The huge population of humans has placed a significant strain on the natural ecosystem—in fact, a mere 7% of Java’s forests remain. Javan slow lorises are significantly more heavily impacted by human activity than other Indonesian slow lorises. It’s not just a loss of habitat that is impacting the lorises, it’s the lack of habitat connectivity. The forest habitat of Java is so fragmented that every patch of forest with slow lorises is separated from other patches by at least several miles/kilometers of intensely modified land. As Anna Nekaris, a professor of primate conservation and biological anthropology at Oxford Brookes University and founder of the Little Fireface Project, puts it, “It’s a miracle there are any [lorises] at all.”

Habitat destruction alone is enough to put a significant strain on the survival of Javan slow lorises as a species. Unfortunately, they face another major threat: the pet trade. Some people have been so taken by the Javan slow loris’s wide-eyed charm that they have taken them in as pets. Online videos showcasing the pet lorises have unfortunately only made the problem worse. This has become a major detriment to the species as a whole and, sadly, a death sentence for many of the animals subjected to this fate.

They are easy targets for capture due to their lack of jumping skills and their accessible daytime sleeping sites. Most of the animals captured for the pet trade stay in Indonesia, although some are smuggled to the Middle East and Japan. The lorises face many perils in their journeys as pets: they are subject to unsafe transportation conditions such as being stuffed into boxes or bags, and because of their fierce territoriality and venomous bite, they can severely injure each other in transit. As they are venomous, their captors often cut or extract their canine teeth, which can kill them. It doesn’t even completely remove the danger of their venom to their human handlers, because they can still give a nasty, venomous bite with their incisors. 

They are often not properly cared for when they reach their new home. They may be forced into a diurnal lifestyle, which can cause permanent damage to their sensitive eyes that have adapted over millions of years to dark nighttime forests. Their diet, composed largely of tree gum and sap, is very difficult to replicate in captivity, and they can become bloated due to a poor diet. They often are provided with inappropriate housing. Further, it can also be difficult for their captors to correctly interpret their behavior. For example, when they are tickled, they shoot their arms up. A human may interpret this as joy, but it is actually a sign of distress—the action gives them quick access to the venom-producing glands under their arms. Their cries are often at too high a frequency to be heard by humans.

Once captured for the pet trade, it is very difficult to successfully reintroduce them to the wild. Because they rely heavily on their teeth for defense and to gouge bark for tree gum, individuals who have had their teeth removed can never be released, and with those who are, their survival rate is very low. In one case, 11 slow lorises were released back to the wild from the pet trade, and only two survived long-term.