Our lorises have been very busy this week. It seems, there is something in the air which has spurred on a bout of frolicking. Lorises all over the land have been spotted doing the deed. On Saturday night Josie was subjected to three hours of loris liaisons of the sexy sort. She was out with tracker Aconk, observing golden guy Mo, it was a particularly cold second shift and she got more than an eyeful!
When the duo arrived to begin their observations of Mo he was lounging about and then put some serious effort into grooming. Little did Josie and Aconk know, he was actually getting himself ready for a big date!! After a while Aconk spotted the eyeshine of another loris edging towards Mo from a hiding place in the Kaliandra mereh. Initially the pair wondered if they were about to witness a standoff as the un-collared loris confidently wandered towards Mo. However, quite the opposite happened and the un-collared loris sidled up and began grooming Mr. Mo. After some social grooming and canoodling between the pair things began heating up and the lorises got down to business.
“At first I was absolutely amazed! I was to witness slow loris mating, it was really exciting. I thought this for about ten minutes, and then it went on and on and on. It actually got a bit embarrassing because they were at it for so long! Especially when Aconk said “Oh they changed position”, I really couldn’t hold back my giggles. In retrospect it was a really cool thing to see, since Javan slow lorises are now critically endangered, I actually witnessed something really special” says Josie.
The pair was inseparable for the rest of the night and for several hours afterwards they groomed one another and curled up on a branch– in a way to only be described as cuddling. They fell asleep early at around 4am, no doubt totally exhausted from their earlier antics.
Alas! That wasn’t the only fornication to take place in loris land this week. Playboy Azka has been up to his old tricks again, this time with cutie loris One Eye! The pair has been spending a great deal of time together of late and on several occasions have been recording sharing their sleeping site. Azka has put a lot of effort into developing a relationship with sweetie One Eye and the pair was observed foraging together last week. In addition, adorably the other night One Eye was seen grooming a baby loris! After a while of bonding between the two, Azka appeared and joined the mother and baby. He even had a turn at grooming the little one! At the end of the night Azka carried the little one on his belly as the trio ventured into the bamboo to sleep. It was an adorable scene of happy families, although currently we’re unsure who the father of One Eyes baby is. All we can say is that the baby definitely takes after its father because it has two eyes!
Observations on Azka the other night found the trio together again in their bamboo home, grooming the little one for some time. After a while Azka and One eye ventured off together into the bamboo and the evening went in a particularly steamy direction. Again Josie and tracker Aconk – poor souls have witnessed a little too much ‘loris loving’ this week – observed the pair alternate between vigorous mating and foraging for insects for five hours! Our lorises are certainly using up lots of energy during their mating routine and require pauses to refuel!
“Love is in the air!” Aconk joked throughout the shift. At the changeover of shifts, Josie and Aconk explained Azka’s evening’s activities to Pak Dendi and Charlotte. The following morning Charlotte confirmed that the ‘loris loving’ had continued throughout the night and the pair merrily returned to their sleeping spot together.
Loris land has been more like a soap opera than a field site this week! It seems like there’s been a lot of ‘bamboo bed hopping’! We’ll have to keep you updated on our lorises antic’s in the following weeks. Who knows? We might witness another baby boom in a few months, so watch this space – things are heating up.