I have the extreme pleasure that I get to learn all about the lorisidae family by a well-known expert on one of the species in the family. Species within the lorisidae family include lorises, pottos and angwantibos. These primates are a little different than the families I have been talking about recently. I was mostly discussing catarrhines and now we have officially moved on to strepsirrhines. Remember what I said about catarrhines, strepsirrhines, and platyrrhines? No? That’s okay! They are words that refer to different groups of primates, mostly based on their noses, of all things! Strepsirrhines, like those species found in lorisidae have wet noses, like your dog or cat at home, rather than dry noses like we have.

Lorisidae is a pretty cool family because for the first time in our journey through the primate families we are encountering nocturnal primates! That expert I mentioned up at the top studies the nocturnal and venomous slow loris. Her name is Dr. Anna Nekaris and she runs the Little Fireface Project, you should check it out if you have a free moment.

Something you may think when you hear primate is a creature leaping energetically through the trees, but lorisids never leap or jump. They move steadily through the trees at night hunting insects or keeping an eye out for yummy fruit. They tend to be solitary but sometimes live in small family groups.

One of the species of the lorisidae family, the angwantibo, is a very rare primate and few studies have actually been conducted on them. They are one of those ‘last great mysteries of the world’ that we hear are disappearing with advances in technology and such.