In what has to be the best news story of the week, a Japanese high school student was accosted by a slow loris pygmy monkey while walking home. Even more intriguingly, the student in question looks remarkably like a species of monkey himself:

The student said: “Firstly, the monkey climbed up onto my back, and after that climbed even further upwards.”

Slow lorises are not native to Japan, and are found mainly in southeast asia. The buying and selling of them was made illegal in September 2007, but they can still be bought on the thriving exotic-species black market for a cool ¥1 million (£5,000).

NHK news report:

Clip of a domesticated slow loris living somewhere in Japan:

Last Modified : June 22nd, 2008 Filed under : Animals, News, Only in Japan, TV, Video Navigate : Previous post / Next post