Bohol
Tarsier - Bohol Islands Philippines
The province is the home of the world's
smallest monkey, the Tarsier. The size of a fist, the tarsier lives
on hills of Corella, some ten kilometers from Tagbilaran. Other exotic
flora and fauna can be found amongst the forest of Bohol. All year-round,
the province's museums and churches attest to the province's rich
heritage and culture.
Philippine
Tarsier Foundation - Tagbilaran Bohol Philippines
Nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting the tarsier, a small
primate with a round head and large owl-like eyes.
Philippine Tarsier: Tarsius syrichta
Suborder : Prosimii/Haplorrhini
Infraorder: Tarsiiformes
Superfamily: Tarsioidea
Taxonomy 3 subspecies
Distinguishing Characteristics
Philippine tarsiers have gray fur and a nearly naked tail. The middle
finger is elongated.
Physical Characteristics
Head and Body Length: 124 mm (118-140)
[4.9 in. (4.6-5.5)].
Tail Length: 232 mm [9.1 in.].
Weight: Female 117 gm [4.6 oz], Male 134 g [5.3 oz]
Intermembral Index: 58
Adult Brain Weight: 4 g [0.2 oz]. Males are larger than females.
Tarsiers have the highest infant-weight-to-maternal-weight
ratio of any primate that gives birth to a single infant.
Habitat: Secondary lowland and coastal
forest.
Diet: Animal prey (mostly insects;
lizards).
Philippine tarsier in captivity will
eat live shrimp and fish in a bowl of water.
Life History Weaning: 60d.
Sexual maturity: NA.
Estrus cycle: 23.5d.
Gestation: 180 d.
Age 1st Birth: NA.
Birth Interval: NA
Life span: 13.5y.
Mating: Year-round.
Offspring: 1
After copulation in captivity, vaginal
plugs have been observed. The infant is born with open eyes and is
carried by the female in her mouth when disturbed in captivity. The
female parks her infant while foraging.
Locomotion Vertical clinging and leaping.
Social Structure
Groups are believed to be larger than
1 male and 1 female.
Group size: >2
Home Range: NA
Night Range: NA
Behavior Nocturnal and Arboreal.
Philippine tarsiers use hollows close
to the ground for hiding. In captivity, individuals may huddle together
or intertwine their tails. No male parental care has been observed.
These tarsiers have intestinal parasites and external parasites such
as Trichomonas.
Scent marking: Males have epigastric
gland used for scent marking.
Vocalizations: The loud call is a loud piercing single note.
The contented call is a “soft
sweet bird-like trill.” Several individuals make a “chirping
locust-like communication." Females have a vocalization that
signals their approaching sexual receptivity.
Tarsiers share some characteristics
of both the prosimians and the anthropoids, while maintaining characteristics
unique to themselves. Taxonomists have classified them as intermediate
between both groups and have assigned them to their own infraorder,
which has just one living genus - Tarsius. Their relatives in the
fossil record are found going back to the Eocene epoch, from 54 to
36 million years ago.
Tarsiers are small, weighing only
113 - 142 grams (4 -5 ounces). Like many prosimians, they are nocturnal
and have grooming claws and bicornuate uterus. Like anthropoids, they
do not have a tapetum (a reflective layer in their eyes), and their
eye sockets have postorbital closure rather than the postorbital bar
of the prosimians. In tarsiers, the internal structures of the nose
and ears and the blood supply to the brain and to a developing fetus
are more like those of monkeys than of lorises. The monthly sexual
swellings of female tarsiers are also similar to those in anthropoids.
Unique among primates, tarsiers have
only 2, rather than 4, incisors in their lower jaw. Their dental formula
is
2.1.3.3 1.1.3.3 x 2 = 34.
Tarsiers are named for their special
elongated tarsal bones, which form their ankles and enable them to
leap 3 meters (almost 10 feet) from tree to tree. They have a long,
partly hairless tail that arcs over their back when they hop on the
ground.
The eyes are the tarsiers’ most
notable features. Each eye is bigger than the entire brain. tarsiers
can rotate their head almost 180 degrees in each direction, like owls.
All tarsiers hunt at night, exclusively for animal prey. Their diet
includes primarily insects
such as cockroaches and crickets and sometimes reptiles, birds, and
bats. One tarsier species is found in the Philippines. Four species
are currently recognized in Indonesia and another (Tarsius sangirensis)
has been proposed, based on recently gathered field data on vocalizations,
measurements, and genetics.
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