A rare slow loris may have a much larger population in China than scientists thought

Researchers at Guangxi Normal University documented 98 northern pygmy slow lorises across surveys of six areas in Guangxi, China, covering nearly 286 kilometers between June and October 2025, in what may be the country's largest known population of the species. The animals were previously thought to number just over 100 individuals in China, mostly in Yunnan, with their range otherwise confined to Vietnam and Laos.

Four out of five of the documented lorises live outside protected areas, which researchers say fits patterns seen elsewhere: the animals can persist in fragmented, mixed-use landscapes but remain vulnerable to opportunistic capture for the pet and traditional medicine trades, particularly in Japan and parts of Southeast Asia. Scientists say the discovery likely reflects a lack of prior nighttime surveying rather than a sudden population boom, since the nocturnal, venomous primates are notoriously hard to find.

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