A slow loris’ journey from underpants to a cage in Delhi Zoo

slow loris, which had hit the headlines around five years ago after being rescued from Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International airport, is now spending its days alone in a cage in the zoo hospital. Three Dubaibound passengers were trying to smuggle the primate, one of them having tucked it into his underwear.

The lone primate, around 6-7 inches tall and weighing around 200 grams, is in the 2X1.5 feet cage, too small for it to play and move around, for the last two years. Although these nocturnal creatures are considered to be a solitary species, family groups have occasionally been found together. As slow lorises sleep during the day and do all their activities at night, which include feeding and moving, this loris has to cover his eyes throughout the day even while sleeping to protect himself from daylight.

The story dates back to September 2012 when three male passengers en route from Bangkok to Dubai were held with the primate at Delhi airport. “It came to us in the year 2014-15 and since then it has been living in the zoo. We tried to put in an enclosure but then it had to be shifted to a cage as there were some problems,” said a senior zoo official.

A source at the zoo said that the problem was rats. When the animal was put in an enclosure with birds, rats started stealing his food, consisting mostly of fruits, eggs and bread dipped in honey, and they also disturbed him during the day.

As slow lorises spend their lives on tree tops, zoo keepers have been kind enough to place a twig inside the cage to make it feel ‘homely’. A rag, which falls short to cover the entire cage, has been placed on the top of the cage to provide some extra protection from day light.

“Even though it is placed in the lobby area of the zoo hospital during the day, we shift the cage to the surgery room at night. We keep its food in the cage and lock the hospital,” said an official.

The Delhi zoo lacks any special enclosures such as a ‘Nocturnal House’ to keep animals such as loris, civets and owls.

Three people were trying to smuggle the primate in 2012.