Philippine Tarsier
World: Endangered
Background
Some of the most noticeable features on this animal is it's enormous eyes and large ears. This animal have the biggest eyes compared to it's body weight. It has short forelimbs, but very long hind limbs. It also has very long digits with pads on the end to grip many different surfaces. It can live from 2 years to twelve years. Tarsier's are nocturnal, and climb through trees to catch their food which mostly consists of insects. Tarsier's are born with their eyes open and with fur, and they are climbing trees within an hour after being born.
Threats and Causes of Endangerment
Threats include habitat destruction and fragmentation, hunting, agricultural pollutants and human disturbance. Tarsiers do not like to come into contact with humans, and they are very shy. Tarsiers are very particular, they have specific feeding requirements and rarely breed successfully; overall they do not do well in captivity. Wild Tarsiers which are caught and kept in captivity only show around a 50% rate of survival and in many cases they die quickly of overstress by committing “suicide”.
There are many types of Tarsiers, but the Philippine Tarsiers are the most endangered.
How can we help the Philippine Tarsier?
The best thing we can do to help the Philippine Tarsier is to help preserve their natural habitat. Putting them in captivity will not help at all as you have seen. We should also focus on their wild population, and not put them in captivity.