Bridge over troubled forests: how Java's slow lorises are creeping back

A pioneering project uses water pipes suspended in the trees to allow the endangered primates to gather food in safety

Photographs by Andrew Walmsley

Largely solitary, nocturnal, venomous and pint-sized, slow lorises are strong contenders for the primates that least resemble humans. Which may be why they are among the least studied, least protected and most poorly understood primates, according to Anna Nekaris, professor of primate conservation and biological anthropology at Oxford Brookes University.

Out of over 600 primate species, we have five great apes, and everybody wants to study them," she says.