A slow loris, armed with a metal pole and fruit-print shorts, became Instagram famous overnight after it showed off its impressive pole dancing skills over the weekend.
Russian Instagram personality Irina Goncharova trained her pet slow loris to hold on to a metal pole and swivel around whilst performing dancer moves like the spinner variation, floater, aerial invert, and others.
The video, which has attracted over 70,000 online viewers, shows the slow loris “dancing” on the pole in front of different backdrops, one of which was a leopard print wall.
While some say the video of the pole-dancing wide-eyed primate is adorable, others find it to be distasteful and a form of animal cruelty.
According to Ruptly , in the last few years, people have increasingly been getting slow lorises as pets because of the mammal’s “cute behavior and large eyes.”
This recent obsession, however, is an unfortunate situation for the slow loris, as being traded as exotic pets is seen as a threat to the survival of the species. Over half of the slow loris population is either vulnerable, at risk or endangered, estimates the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
[Image via Ruptly/ NineMSN ]
