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Hey, Brain Stuff, Lauren Vogelbaum here.

Slow Lorrises are small primates with fuzzy fur, brown heads, a small snout and ears,

and wide saucer-like eyes that make them

look like nothing more than toys from the Thai beanie line come to life. But as with wild animals

in general, you shouldn't go in for a cuddle. A slow loruses are the only genus of venomous primates.

When threatened, they raise their arms and lick the oils secreted from glands in their armpits,

which then mixes with their saliva and pools in grooves on their specialized comb-like lower-front teeth.

Their resulting venomous bite can cause necrosis or anaphylactic shock in humans, leading to a nasty wound or even death.

There are nine or so species of slow Loris that all live in the forests of South and Southeast Asia and spend most of their lives up in the trees.

They have compact bodies with only a small stump of a tail, and all four limbs have long fingers and toes that let them grasp branches, vines, and other objects.

They have dense short fur in shades ranging from brown to reddish to tan to white, often with a distinctive pattern on their face, with lighter cheeks and forehead markings, surrounding darker fur around their eyes, making their eyes appear even bigger than they are.

The word, Loris, comes from a Dutch word meaning clown, alluding to those facial markings.

The slow part is fairly literal. A Loris can hang still from branches for long periods of time to hide from prey or predators,

thanks in part to specialized blood vessels in their wrists and ankles.

Though their size varies by species, they tend to range from about 7 to 15 inches long from nose to butt.

That's about 18 to 38 centimeters.

And they can weigh from just 9 ounces to over 4.5 pounds. That's about 250 grams to over 2 kilos.

So we're talking about kitten sized, if cats are a familiar unit of measurement for you.

Like cats, Slow Loris's eyes have what's called Atapidum lucidum, that is a light-reflecting surface behind the retina that helps them see better in the dark, because it gives their retina

another chance to sense the light.

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