Slow lorises occupy a wide range across southern Asia and western Indonesia, including parts of Bangladesh, Burma, China, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and many other isolated islands in the Indian Ocean. They are generally found high in the trees in tropical rainforests, preferring warm, lowland areas below 1300 meters (4265 ft.) in elevation. Slow lorises are perhaps the most edge-adapted of the loris species, staying near the rainforest boundaries where there are more vertical supports and more insect prey.

Due to their nocturnal lifestyle and politically restricted access to their home range, it has been difficult to determine exactly how many slow lorises remain in the wild. Recent estimates put their numbers right around one million. What is known is that they are not well-distributed within their home range, and they face stiff competition from arboreal monkeys in areas where the two overlap.

We also know that they are facing the consequences of rampant environmental destruction. In Indonesia, it is believed that two-thirds of the animals’ habitat has been lost to logging and agricultural pursuits. Similar activities in southeastern China have reduced the number of individuals there to only a few hundred. Furthermore, slow lorises are threatened by human hunters, who prize them for their fur and for use in traditional medicine.