Prof. Dr Anna Nekaris is renowned for her studies of the unique group of primates known as the Asian lorises.  Her studies cover all species, including five she named or elevated from subspecies. Anna is Director of the Little Fireface Project and the Vice-Chair of the Special Section of the IUCN Primates Specialist Group for African and Asian Prosimians. She is a Professor of Ecology, Conservation and Environment at Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge. She is Co-editor in chief of Folia Primatologica and Section Editor of Discover Conservation. She completed her BA in Anthropology at the University of Missouri Columbia, USA in 1993, a Certificat d’Universite de Primatologie from the Universite de Louis Pasteur Strasbourg France in 1994 and her PhD in Anthropology at Washington University St Louis, USA in 2000. In early 2024, Anna received the great honour from His Majesty King Charles the III, to appear on The King’s New Year Honour List, being appointed to the title of Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire for her services to conservation.

Anna is the world’s leading expert on Asian lorises and her research ranges from behavioural ecology in zoos, rescue centres and in the wild, museum studies, genetics, acoustics, taxonomy, conservation education, and now a novel study of chemical ecology and how this bizarre primate is one of the only mammals that produces venom.  Despite reports of this extraordinary phenomenon 40 years ago, virtually nothing was known about how slow lorises use venom before her research. Click here to see her publications.

Of her more than 60 postgraduate students, over 45 of Anna’s MSc, MRes, MPhil and PhD students, including from range countries, have completed research on lorises. Anna has a world-wide association with rescue centres, field stations, and zoos, providing advice regarding lorises.  Anna’s expertise has also been sought when an illegal YouTube video of a pet loris, which violated international legislation, became viral reaching over 12 million hits. You can watch her Tedx Talk on this topic here. Lorises are protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species therefore Anna campaigned on over 800 radio stations and television programmes to urge YouTube to remove this illegal video –  it is just one example of how her research has worldwide impact.

Anna hopes her research will convince people that lorises do not make good pets. They are wild animals. All species of loris are threatened with extinction. Some are amongst the rarest primates on the planet. It is her hope that they can remain in the forest for as long as possible so we can learn more about these most unique primates.

Click here to see the international media and film work of the Little Fireface Project, including our award-winning Jungle Gremlins of Java.