This skinny little fellow is the skeleton of a Slender Loris.
One of the projects I’m currently working on as a volunteer is rebuilding the website for the Cole Museum of Zoology, so I thought it would be useful to go and have a look around. I’m so glad I did!
If you’re freaked out by skeletons or things-in-jars then you might not like it, but it’s a fabulously interesting place. The room is dominated by the skeletons of an indian elephant and a false killer whale.
Because I’m a lover of monkeys, I spent most of my time looking at the incredible variety in all of the different primate skeletons on display. The slender loris is a prosimian, which means that he’s related to lemurs. You can tell from those amazing eye sockets that he’s nocturnal. And just look at his adorable little hands and feet!
The slender loris is classed as a “vulnerable” species, but as of yesterday there’s one more – a baby slender loris was born at London Zoo!
Of course a loris in the zoo isn’t the same thing as a loris in the wild – but at least this little fellow can be studied in ways which might be of benefit to his Sri Lankan cousins.
If primates aren’t your preference, you can see plenty of other exhibits at the Cole Museum. I particularly enjoyed looking at the insides of a squid. A warning for the phobic though – there are plenty of snakes and spiders.
If you fancy going and having a look, the museum is on the Whiteknights campus of the University of Reading, on the ground floor of the AMS tower. (The tall one, to the left of the Palmer Building.) There’s a lot of building work going on at the moment, but the museum is still accessible through the right hand door. It’s open Monday to Friday, 9:30-5. Here’s a map.
I really enjoyed my quick visit this morning, and I’ll definitely be going back!