These adorable creatures at about 8 inches, called the Hortain Plains slender loris, were discovered in 1937, and long thought to be extinct. In 2002, uncertain sightings of a creature gave hopes to scientists that the loris might still exist. Answering the hopes of the scientists, they were seen recently in 2009 in their only known habitat, Sri Lanka. Scientists are now working on protecting them as they are one of the world's rarest primates with an estimated population of less than 100. However, once considered to be a subspecies of the red slender loris in Sri Lanka, obvious differences in physical features seen in these new photos of these "extinct" creatures have led scientists to believe that they could possibly be a new species, so DNA tests will be taken to clarify this issue.
This article relates to biology concepts, because a creature long thought to be extinct actually still exists. The extinction of every animal would be important because its effect on the food chain of the organisms in the animal's habitat.
We should care about the matter of this endangered species, because there are only so few of these creatures left and the extinction of any creature might have a devastation effect in the creatures' environment. Once a species is really extinct, it would be gone forever and won't ever make an unexpected appearance again like the Hortain Plain's slender loris, so we should act quickly to save the loris and protect the population.
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