JAKARTA, Jan. 10 (Xinhua) -- Indonesian police have arrested two people for illegally poaching and trading Javan slow lorises which have been on the brink of extinction, a police officer said on Thursday.
The police seized a total of 79 Javan slow lorises during the arrest and raid in Cibodas village of Majalengka district in West Java province, police chief in the district Mariyono said.
"During a raid we captured two suspects," the police chief said.
Two out of the 79 nocturnal primates were dead because of having stress for staying in cages, he added.
The police immediately handed the remaining animals to the conservation agency in Tasikmalaya district of the province for rescue, said Mariyono.
The suspects with initials of Yy and Yn allegedly hunt for the species every day and keep them in wooden cages before selling the animals to buyers, he was quoted by the local media as saying.
They will be charged with violating the country's conservation law on protected animals.
Head of the conservation agency in Tasikmalaya district Didin Syarifudin said the rescued animals will be handed to the International Animal Rescue.
"The species will be fully taken care and then they will be released back to the nature," he said..
Javan slow loris is classified as critically endangered species for its rapid decline in population. The arboreal animal occurs only on the western and central parts of Indonesia's Java Island.
