Rescue Successful of the Little Slow Loris
Hey 🙂 I’m Lucy and I began volunteering for LFP in 2015. I am now the Public Relations Outreach Officer for LFP, which involves organising events such as Slow Loris Outreach Week and managing LFP’s social media. I am also a Masters student in Primatology and Conservation at Oxford Brookes University.
About My Work
For my Thesis I am interested in arboreal bridges as a habitat strategy for the slow loris living within a fragmented agroforest. I have designed a Building Bridges Education Pack for children in Java, and these activities take place every Friday and Saturday in Nature Club. Furthermore I will be measuring the programme’s success at instilling a sense of compassion and protection towards the slow loris and the natural environment. Finally I will also be working and learning alongside local farmers, and helping out with the agroforestry project, as well as creating and participating in outreach days within the local community. I am very passionate about caring for animals, people and the planet <3
Trees Sprout Magically
This is my second time at the LFP field station in Cipaganti, West Java. I arrived two weeks ago and it feels great to be back! It has been a wonderful and busy two weeks. It is awesome to make new friends and be a part of such a lovely and hard-working team here in Java and we have bonded over lots of delicious food and Kaboo card games.
Last week we all had a great time planting over 100 Kayu Putih and Alba trees, just a week before over 100 Kayu Putih and Afrika trees were also planted. Yay for trees, the little saplings are so cute and it is so amazing to watch them grow. The slow lorises will be very happy!
We have had lots of fun in Nature Club. I have made some new friends that are inspiring and great teachers. The children have a fabulous time and they like to call me Miss Barbie!
In the Right Place at the Right Time
This Saturday morning had an unusual beginning … Myself and Ella were walking down the mountain to go to the photo copier shop when two female farmers were calling for us from their field. We went to see if they were ok and it turns out there was a tiny fluffy baby slow loris in their Labu plantation, the women seemed to be scared of the slow loris (they are the only venomous primate after all). This was definitely a right place right time moment! We rang our local trackers for help, we had no idea where this little loris had come from, and she was too far down the mountain to be a baby of one of the slow lorises we observe. The team carried out health checks and she was healthy and thankfully not hurt. We named her Poko, she is so adorable <3
The Release of Poko
That night tracker Yiyi took Poko to a forested area right next to where we found her. He released her onto a Kayu Putih tree and he observed her for the night. We were worried about Poko, was it able to feed itself? and we hoped that his mother could appear. Poko stayed within the bamboo for about half an hour and then she began to explore. Poko is so fast the team was struggling to keep an eye on her. It was so windy and she is so small, I felt like a worried mother!
Home Sweet Home
We observed her from a distance so we did not disturb her natural behaviour and by using binoculars I was able to observe her catch an insect and explore for more food. We were all very glad that her behaviour seemed normal and that she was able to look after herself without her mother, since she is far too young to be on her own and normally slow lorises have not dispersed at this age. Sadly we did not see any other slow lorises that night. Tonight we will check on her again to make sure she is ok and see how things go. We will keep you posted!
A big thank you to everyone that supports LFP, we really appreciate all the help given to keep the #lorisintheforest! Lots of loris love, cinta kukang xxx By Lucy -Public Relations Outreach Officer
