I remember a classmate bringing a strange-looking creature — small but with huge eyes — to school back in elementary. While we called it kuwago because of its big eyes, the term kuwago more properly refers to a bird that also has big eyes — the owl. It’s known locally as mawmag. The tarsier is closely associated with Bohol, although it’s also found in the neighboring islands of Leyte, Samar and parts of Mindanao. Indeed, when you say Bohol, you think of beautiful beaches, chocolate hills, peanut kisses, the Loboc river and the world-famous Loboc children’s choir, and, of course, the tarsier.
Philippine Tarsier (tarsius syrichta) in Bohol
An endangered species, the Philippine tarsier (scientific name, tarsius syrichta) has fixed eyes, but that’s not a problem because the tarsier could rotate its head 180 degrees. It’s one of the smallest known primates and can fit comfortably in a human’s hand.
Tarsier in Bohol
There’s a bit of controversy whether it’s a monkey or something else. Consider this entry from Wikipedia: “The Philippine Tarsier has been called “the world’s smallest monkey” or “smallest primate” by locals before. However, the Philippine Tarsier is neither a monkey nor the smallest primate. It is related to other primates, including monkeys, lemurs, gorillas and humans but it occupies a small evolutionary branch between the strepsirrhine prosimians, and the haplorrhine simians. While it is a prosimian, and used to be grouped with the rest of the prosimians, it has some phylogenetic features that caused scientists to classify it as a haplorrhine and, therefore, more closely related to apes and monkeys than to the other prosimians.”
Confused? Just see the tarsier when you travel to Bohol.
You’ll be surprised to learn that the location where the tarsiers are kept in captivity is not a zoo, but a family-run enclosure (with the proper environmental certificates, of course).
Tarsiers are very sensitive creatures. Even if you’re not reminded when you get to Bohol, please remember to be silent and avoid flash photography. Most importantly, DON’T hold the tarsiers.
Added: Tarsiers (Tarsius syrichta) can hear and communicate in ultrasound, which is why the usual observation that they’re always “silent” is a misconception. We just can’t hear the sound they make.
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Hola, Fred, buenos dias desde Espana!
I was just reading a fascinating list of Filipino Inventors and I was so pleased to know that we do have a long list of Filipinos who have greatl contributed to te world of medicine and technology. Hopefully, you will feature them in this very informative and useful site so we can boost their work and make them true Filipino World Icons. Anyway, a couple of years or so ago, while watching a UK TV afternoon chat show, one of the guests was a British man who claimed to be a “conservationist”. As the chat went, he mentioned “tarsier” and he claimed that tarsiers came from Indonesia!
While I was watching it i thought, “This guy is incredulous…I mean, how come he keeps saying that tarsiers are indigenous to Indonesia. Anyway, to my horror, he even brought with him a real, live tarsier. I was shocked, dismayed and felt like throwing egg on his face…shame the TV would have been damaged! Fred, this guy unrwrapped a cloth bag and there it was, a tarsier. He even let it climb a tree and God knows what else he was trying to prove.
Fred, if “tarsiers” were truly indigenous to our country, how come this guy claims that tarsiers can be found in Indonesia? And why on earth was he allowed to take one tarsier with him? Who gave him permission to bring it back to Europe? IS there “tarsier-smuggling” going in in the Philippines? The biggest question is, how come this British guy keeps claiming that the tarsiers come from Indonesia? Isn’t it time to check it out? If Bohol authorities are not aware of this, perhaps, your site or you can tip them off, right?
Fred, keep up the good work. This site is a gem, just like Good News Pilipinas. Hope you didn’t mind my plugging GNP.
Cheers and God bless!
Fred ,
I truly believe that the British conservationist was showing our Philippine tarsier, and not the one from Indonesia. I compared the two photographs you showed in this site and I can assure you it was nowhere near that Indonesian counterpart.
I wish I could remember the British man’s programme which was aired on the
Discovery (?) or National Geographic Channel. I hope I’m wrong, Fred. Still,
if I ended up with egg on my face, it’s because the tarsier he showed was indeed
from Indonesia and I will accept it as the truth.
Hasta luego!
Hill, maybe you’re referring to the Pygmy Tarsier, found in Indonesia. We have a post on that here…turns out it has a different scientific name.
No problem with plugging other sites or programs that promote the Philippines. It is, in fact, encouraged here. =)
ur so cute……………………….