The Philippine tarsier, (Tarsius syrichta) is very peculiar small animal. In fact it is one of the smallest known primates, no larger than a adult men's hand. Mostly active at night, it lives on a diet of insects. Folk traditions sometimes has it that tarsiers eat charcoal, but actually they retrieve the insects from (sometimes burned) wood. It can be found in the islands of Samar, Leyte, Bohol, and Mindanao in the Philippines.
I have actually seen them in Bohol when my friend Willem and I went there once. We bought couples of Tarsier stuff toys as present to our friends.
Can you see those big eyes? Their eyes are really enormous. In volume, the capacity of the bony eye orbits, or eye sockets, is larger than that of the brain case, and also larger than its stomach. Their eye sockets have post-orbital closure rather than the postorbital bar of the prosimians. This feature keeps the eyeballs from being pressed against by the powerful temporal muscles to their sides.
If you want to see them live, maybe you can plan a trip to Bohol. There are a lot of tourist destination in this beautiful island.
Monday, July 20, 2009
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Very interesting Primate. It is amazing what wonderful creatures are out there.
ReplyDeleteim looking forward to seeing this lil monster hehehe...la pjud mi kaanha anang bohol
ReplyDeletelolz...laag gud sa bohol chie...hehehe
ReplyDeletewanna go back there :-)
ReplyDelete