Study bares other facets in the life of a tarsier

A recent scientific study has unfolded other interesting facets in the life of the elusive tarsier, said to be among the world’s smallest primates. For instance, like some members of the animal kingdom, those tiny creatures of the forecasts practice “turfier.”

They do so by marking off their territories with their urine in specific parts of the woods which they consider their domain.

This was noted by a researcher who conducted a recent study on those big-eyed forest dwellers now headed for extinction because of the shrinking forest areas where they live.

Tarsiers (scientific name: Tarsius ayrichts) are known to thrive in forests in Bohol, Samar, Leyte and some parts of Mindanao. They live mostly in brushlands and open forests where they have much food, said Tomas Reyes, a faculty-researcher of the Central Visayas State College of Agriculture, Forestry and Technology in Pilar, Bohol.

“There are many tarsier territories in the brushlands and open forests in Bohol,” Reyes said, as reported by Dr. Leila America and Paula Bianca Ferrer of the Los Baños-based Philippine Council for Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resources Research and Development.

Reyes presented the results of his study at the R&D Symposium of the Central Visayas Consortium for Integrated Resources Research and Development (CV-CIRRD) held recently in Dumaguete City.

PCARRD, a member of the CV-CIRRD, was one of the CVSCAFT project’s evaluators. Reyes also reported that Philippine tarsiers occupy four ecosystem types of Bohol, namely: grassland, brushland, open forest, and closed forest.

The additional pieces of information generated by the study are expected to be of great value to the formulation of sound management decisions for the endangered Philippine tarsier such as in developing tarsier sanctuaries. These are especially important since the tarsier is one of the country’s more famous wildlife, FCARRD pointed out.

America, a forest scientist, has volunteered to give information studies done by other researchers that had found tarsiers to have suicidal tendencies.

For instance, they kill themselves usually by hanging their heads on walls – when they are held captive in an enclosure.

America recalled a research project that sought to breed tarsier in captivity.

In the first batch of the study of primates, all died. So another batch was gathered but the experimental primates died, too. Perplexed, the researchers obtained another batch and articulously observed them in their pens. To their horror, they found that the tarsiers hanged their heads on the wall until they died, asking the researchers to conclude that they detested being held captive.

In one visit to Bohol, visitors taken to a riverside place where tarsiers were raised in the open. The friendly tiny creatures merrily played with the guests, jumping onto their shoulders, did not mind being fondled with their hands, and did not mind being photographed.

But the thing is, do not hold them captive, said America.

Records show that since 1990, the Philippine tarsier has been included in the international union for the conservation of nature and natural resources red list of threatened mammals. This means it needs special attention owing to its endangered status and taxonomic uniqueness.