Dortmund/Kassel (dpa/lhe) – Fluffy fur and big eyes: A pygmy slow lorikeet that was kept illegally in Kassel for years has found a new home in Dortmund Zoo. The almost blind Rosi is now exploring her new enclosure, the zoo announced on Thursday. This is the end of years of torture in the illegal wildlife trade for the animal. The primate, who was given the name Rosi by her keepers, was accidentally discovered during a police operation in Kassel last year. When the officers wanted to arrest a man, they discovered the pygmy slow loris lady in a covered birdcage in his apartment. Rosi is almost blind – probably because she was fed the wrong diet and too much sugar for years. After an operation, she regained some of her sight.
Their history can only be partially reconstructed. She had probably been illegally brought to Germany via Russia since 2011. Slow lorises, which actually live in the rainforests of Southeast Asia, are among the most frequently smuggled and illegally traded animals in the world, said the Dortmund Zoo.
