Prof Anna Nekaris will lead the editing of a new volume, on the Conservation and Ecology of Asian Slow Lorises as a special Theme Section issue of the international journal Endangered Species Research.The volume will appear in Summer 2013.

Slow lorises are an evolutionary distinct group of primates found in South and Southeast Asia. All are threatened with extinction not only due to habitat loss, but also due to their high prevalence in Asian traditional medicine, use as tourist photo props, and their high popularity as pets both nationally and internationally. Slow lorises have featured frequently recently in the international media largely due to this conservation crisis. For example, in 2007, they were the first primate since 1986 to be transferred to Appendix I of CITES. From 2009 onwards, they have been a regular feature in the global media as more and more popular media outlets discuss the legality of presence of illegal slow loris ‘pet’ videos on social networking sites.  Finally, the discovery of three new species in 2012 was instantly linked with the fact that these species are not only in sharp decline, meaning bad news for the new taxa, but also with the fact that the loris is the only venomous primate. The latter fact is just one of the many fascinating aspects of ecology within this unique evolutionary group of primates, whose feeding ecology, social behaviour, and even their distribution were not known even ten years ago. In this volume, contributors studying lorises throughout their range in India, Cambodia, Thailand, Borneo, Sumatra, Java, Singapore and Vietnam will bring together the first synthesis of the Conservation and Ecology of this fascinating group of species.