Endangered primate seen in south China

A pygmy slow loris, an endangered species of primate animal, has recently been spotted in a natural reserve in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

The pygmy slow loris was seen by a local in the Longrui protection station area under the Guangxi Nonggang National Nature Reserve and he took it to the animal relief and protection station for further checkups.

Zoologists at the station identified the animal as a pygmy slow loris, a rare primate under first-class state protection in China

At present, there are only about 100 left in the wild in China, mainly distributed in southern Yunnan and southern Guangxi.

The pygmy slow loris was finally released to the wild after checkups.

"We took samples for testing the sources of epidemic and diseases. We've collected samples using throat swab, anal swab, and drawn blood and kept hair samples. We also implanted a chip in it, which serves as an ID card," said Li Shousheng, deputy director of the Guangxi Terrestrial Wildlife Protection Research and Epidemic Source Disease Detection Center.

The discovery of pygmy slow loris has brought the number of primate species recorded in the Nonggang Reserve to seven, making it one of the reserves with the largest distribution of primates in China.

"This is the first time a pygmy slow loris has been found in the vicinity of our reserve, setting a new record for the distribution of this mammal. The more species are found in an area, the better the ecological environment and bio-diversity are," said Wang Ailong, director of the management center of the reserve.