47 Asian Primates Journal 9(1), 2021 EXTIRPATED OR IGNORED? FIRST EVIDENCE OF BENGAL SLOW LORIS Nycticebus bengalensis FROM MADHUPUR NATIONAL PARK, BANGLADESH Tanvir Ahmed1* and Md Abdur Rahman Rupom2 1 Wildlife Research and Conservation Unit, Nature Conservation Management (NACOM), Dhaka 1212, Bangladesh. E-mail:
[email protected] 2 Holding No. 1230, Masterpara, Madhupur 1996, Tangail, Dhaka, Bangladesh. E-mail:
[email protected] * Corresponding author ABSTRACT We report the first verifiable record of globally Endangered Bengal Slow LorisNycticebus bengalensis in Madhupur National Park, an old-growth natural Sal Shorea robusta forest in north-central Bangladesh. On 21 October 2020, we sighted a male N. bengalensis in Madhupur National Park by chance while recording videos on the forest’s biodiversity. For three decades, N. bengalensis was believed to have been extirpated from the Sal forests in Bangladesh, in the absence of a specialized nocturnal survey. Given the alarming state of extreme habitat alterations due to human activities and other threats to N. bengalensis in Bangladesh, an assessment of its distribution and population status in Sal forests is crucial for conservation planning. Keywords: Distribution, Nycticebus bengalensis, slow loris, strepsirrhine, tropical moist deciduous forest Bengal Slow Loris Nycticebus bengalensis author encountered an adult male N. bengalensis in (Lacépède) is an arboreal strepsirrhine primate native a roadside bamboo Bambusa sp. clump near Lohoria to Bangladesh, north-eastern India, Bhutan, Myanmar, Deer Breeding Centre at Lohoria Beat (24°41’44.7”N, China, Thailand, Cambodia, Lao PDR and Viet Nam 90°06’21.1”E; Fig. 2). A group of Macaca mulatta (Nekaris et al., 2020).