Have you seen Madagascar? LOL. Yesterday, while waiting for sungkai, I watched the it again for the 100th time on HBO. Haha, now THAT is a really funny movie/cartoon/animated film. If you haven’t seen it (gasp!), then I insist insist that you get yourself a copy of the DVD and watch it at least 35 times!
Anyway, in the film, remember King Julian and his subjects? The cute, furry things that relied on Alex to scare away the Fossa? Hihi. I have just realised that they’re actually lemurs, and are for a fact that quite high in the list of endangered species.
This reminds me. I actually had an encounter with a lemur-like animal few weeks ago (well, at least I think it’s a lemur it was actually a slow loris, but it does resemble the lemur). It was a cute little thing, obviously very scared, but it has the biggest eyes on an animal I have ever seen.
It does look like a lemur though
We found it in UBD (which as most of you know is surrounded by a wealth of rainforest) somehow stuck inside my (now ex) art lecturer’s engine (or something like that, basically the poor thing couldn’t get away). My lecturer didn’t want to just let it go at the parking lot itself since it will be most likely to get stuck again, or worse it’ll run in panic to the middle of the road and get hit. Also, my lecturer was already very late for class anyway. So, hastefully, he put the lemur in a Sehat box, carved breathing holes, and left it with an apple so that he could release it to the wild later.
He showed it to a few of us, and obviously I took pictures. The poor thing was terrified of so many people looking at it, but it was very attracted (or curious) to the red light that my camera gives off when it’s about to shoot. So that’s why it’s looking straight at me in the picture above.
After class, my art lecturer drove up to the hill behind the UBD Library (I think) and released it there. The lemur kukang ran and ran and ran and ran. Hehe. Cute thing. I hope it’s doing fine now. Procreate! Save your species!
Anyway, so I did a little research and apparently it’s called a kukang here. Oh and they are also smart, and they have opposable thumbs! Ahhh, anyway, they are thought to only be naturally found on the island of Madagascar, and the surrounding islands. Hmmmm, but then what are they doing here ya?
Whatever lah, I don’t mind them kukangs. They’re cute, if I wasn’t afraid of rabies or something, I’d probably scooped it up from the box and koocheekoocheekooed and hugged it till its entrails came out of its nose! But I didn’t, plus they’re endangered just small little animals. So we must protect them.
<editted: 18/09/2007 @ 1.27pm>
Awwww, so I was wrong. The animal featured in the photo above is NOT an endangered lemur, but a more commonly found slow loris (nyticebus coucang). So though I was correct with the Malay name of kukang, I was wrong with the English name. Hehe. Thanks to the resident biologist, Amie, for the information!
Here are more pictures by the way. 🙂 Click to view larger.
iammaurina 
That is such a good picture!
I’m scared of animals, except for me domestic cats, as I fear them crawling or climbing up my back and scratch my eyeballs out. This includes huge-ass moths. Haha.
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Awuuuu dang lemur tu.. A few use to live up on the roof of my house. And yes KIUUUTTTT… Mun arah Animal Planet kau liat lagi memberi gerigitan.. massive cuteness… *dies* You can tell aku suka binatang kiut. Kdg2 baby alligator pun ku kekiutan.
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Tina, THANKS! Haha. Animals are more afraid of us than we are afraid of them. But in your case, BWOHHHHHHHHH BUBUTNYA KAU TU!!!!
Dee, I KNOW CUTE OVERLOAD. Baby aligator atu macam bulat, I totally rasa they’re cute also!
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Awwwww. So berry cute! Hehe. Good thing your lecturer released it into the wild. We’re advised to do so whenever we see animals out of their habitat especially endangered and protected ones.
Nice shot, Maw. Tapi macam beri kesian mukanya atu. Maybe it’s the puppy dog eyes.
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awuuu macam kan menangis usulnya! bari rawan ati! yea, he released it, although ada some students who saw the lemur in his office ckp “INDA DIBUAT PELIHARA????” hehehehe. baik jua he didnt listen.
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*awww* kiut. eh macam-macam jua binatangnya di UBD atu ah. kekekeke
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Hahaha, I remember watching it 3 times while it was showing in cinemas, with three different crowds.
If you watch the same movie three tiems within 2 weeks, by the third time.. no thrill already lol.
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endangered kan??? i see them climbing on telephone wires alot. tapi cute. ahh banci ku meliat!! great photo 😀
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Umm, I hate to disappoint you mau, but it’s not a lemur, it’s a slow loris. Two very different species.
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awww, amy, that’s too bad. how u know? heheh i said it’s definitely a kukang but maybe a lemur. heheh. so on the plus side, we all know its actual speies for real!
sha u watched it 3 times!!! LOL, like you know every single punchline and joke already.. like ya ya HEARD I ALL BEFORE.
shasha, nahhh, mun lemur banar, andang endangered. but since these are actually slow lorises then they’re not. 🙂
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Oh atu panya kukang! Its so cute! Never seen one in UBD before or any other animals for that matter except a snake time presentation haha.
Now only if there’s a Pygmy Mouse Lemur disana, ku tangkap tu eh, 1.5 ounces of cuteness!
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it’s not really not endangered, tapinya it’s in the list of animals protected under the Wildlife Protection Act of Brunei, and is under Appendix II of CITES, meaning that you can’t buy or sell it under both laws. I blogged about it once, masa ku rajin blog about conservation skajap atu. Hehe, remembered it masa class conservation. http://www.amieheidi.com/?p=56
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i used to have one of these as a pet duluuuuu banar-banar. as in in the 90’s. but i didnt know it was one of protected animals kan dulu atu. but yeah, it was one cute thing.
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amy, wow really? thanks for that very crucial bit of information. interesting indeed.
snowshoed, hahaha, eh boleh bawa kemana2 saja tu mun banar. ganya 1.5 ounce. barat lagi bigi mata. hahaha
olive, bisai jua jadi pet. was it house trained? hehe.
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kiut! mcm ia mcm SHY hahahaha. sama matanya basar and brown 🙂
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Sian ni slow loris ani, in Indonesia, durang punya gigi kana kacip/tarik, supaya dapat dijual as pets, sal nya bite nya ada venom. Bila gigi nya kana kacip/tarik, slow loris usually die a slooow and paaaainful death, from infection gigi nya kana kacip/tarik. Arah UBD akhir-akhir ani banyak reported sighting of slow loris (maybe sal banyak tempat tinggal durang kana ceroboh kali – new buildings etc), 1 person even got bitten, then nearly pengsan, and had to be sent to RIPAS (ok plang ia sudah). So lau jumpa jangan tah di hug….
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I want eyes like that!
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Ahh Tibadak you spoiled it for me. Aku kan mau hug jua kalau ku jumpa but oh well.
Esh jealous ku ko Mau sampai dapat gambar ia hehe. Cute ah!
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Nonnie, apparently in Indonesia, the eyes are used to make love potions. :S So kasian!
War, bah boleh pulang tapi mun gigitnya, pengsan kau karang hahahaha. Paksa berpuasa di spital.
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olive, yg banarnya even in the 90s, its already in the list of animals dlm the wildlife protection act, tapinya list atu nda kana gitau to the general public wah by the museum people.
Baru2 ani (as in 2 years ago), ada org bali di tamu tutong as a pet, org atu mana tau yg its a protected animal, itah masa kana minta balik to return the animal back to the forest, dibaginya tia jua arh the museum people to return it to the forest in Tasek Merimbun.
Mau, mun ada org jumpa wild animals like the tarsier (another cute animal) sama slow loris kana jual ditamu, do inform the museum people. They will appreciate it very very much.
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Here are some of the animals listed, mau.
Proboscis Monkey (Orang Belanda / Bangkatan)
Clouded Leopard (Harimau Dahan)
Tarsier
Slow Loris (Kukang)
Cattle Egret (kenawai)
Storm’s Stork (Bangau)
Dugong
Rhinoceros Hornbill (Kenyalang)
The full list can be found here, if you want to know the other animals. http://faolex.fao.org/docs/pdf/bru40233.pdf
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aku nampak kau dalam newspaper yang hari ani (20th september) hehehe…you know, yang pasal joie fitness *winks*
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Aisehmen, thanks to Olive, I’ve found it online! 😉 Here.
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should let u know that i nearly admitted one of the UBD staff to ICU after being bitten by a very very frightened Kukang, i think this was sometime last month… the toxin hasn’t killed, but it can make u feel pretty sick and unwell. be careful when you approach them…. no anti-venoms around for it, i think it gives some sort of allergic reaction to ‘victims’
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Kapisan ku si olive kenal hahaha. gambar bida lagitu.
Dr Doom, so you’re a real doctor! HEHEHEEH. Yes, I’ve heard about that! Some UBD staff were talking about it actually. Bah intabiu sikit lah since you know more about this.
What happens really when kukangs bite? Do we pengsan? Are there steps we should do after kukang bites in order to minimise effects? What do you administer to a Kukang bitten victim? Has there been an increase of kukang bite cases lately?
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Cute jua kukang ani ah, u kno where i can buy one? =P mcm the tiny lemur in Madagascar yg suka hang on to King Julian’s legs, sapa kah namanya tu, “Didn’t I tell you not to touch the feet?!” *hahahaha*
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ooooooooooookkkkkkkkkkkkkkk
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this is so cool i think you could have included a conparacin of a slow loris and a leaner fron madacsar
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You are so lucky. I wish I had found a slow loris in my car engine.
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hey! Interesting read. However, slow lori are also an endangered species. and super cute!so we also should do our best to save them!
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Just to be pedantic, I don’t think it is a slow loris, it looks more like some kind of mouse lemur. And the slow loris is from Asia anyway, not Madagascar. They are just about the cutest animal on the planet though, I work at a zoo where we have some, they’re so lovely!
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But I am in Asia! Not in Madagascar huhuhu.
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