The pygmy slow (hereafter pygmy) loris is endemic to Vietnam, Laos, southern China and eastern Cambodia (Brandon-Jones et al., 2004). The species is threatened by heavy exploitation for traditional medicine, pets (Nekaris et al., 2010b; Starr et al., 2010) and habitat loss (Streicher et al., 2008b). The first intensive field study of a wild population of pygmy loris occurred from 2008 to 2009 (Starr, 2011a; Starr and Nekaris, 2013; Starr et al., 2012a, 2012b), and only preliminary field surveys of wild populations had been conducted prior in Cambodia (Starr et al., 2011), Vietnam (Fitch-Snyder and Thanh, 2002; Tan, 1994) and Laos (Duckworth, 1994; Evans et al., 2000). Much of our knowledge of this species and decision-making about their conservation had come from knowledge gained in zoos (e.g. Fisher et al., 2003b; Fitch-Snyder and Ehrlich, 2003; Fitch-Snyder and Jurke, 2003; Jurke et al., 1997, 1998), or captive animals from trade (Streicher, 2003, 2004; Streicher and Nadler, 2003).