NAME:
English: Philippine Tarsier
Tagalog: Mamag
Scientific: Tarsius Philippensis
ORIGIN
Population Status/Origin /Distribution Habitat
The Philippine Tarsier stays in the lowlands and medium elevations, in the plains and in rolling or hilly country. It stays in mixed open country with dense patches of bush, tall grass, light bamboo, and low trees, preferably along the dense edges of clearing made in these areas. The animal may be accidentally disturbed during daytime from its living quarters among the dense low vegetation at the edge of clearing frequently in newly-opened country, and at the outskirts of forests. It jumps agilely and at first glance appears more like a surprised rat than anything else.
At night the tarsier is often found in the edges of clearings looking for food. It is often encountered in newly-burned kaingin patches, where it is after the ash and the pieces of charcoal as sources of salt.
It is a timid animal and dislikes to stay in strong light, even if it is only the light of the day. It is satisfied to stay in the darkest corner of a cage and cling there, hiding its face away from the spectator. when two or more animals are placed together inside a cage, all of them stay together in the darkest corner, one on top of the back of another. The animal acts and moves sluggishly during the day but at night it becomes very active.
The tarsier feeds mainly on insects and small reptiles. Captive tarsiers relish cockroaches and house lizard.
Tarsier occur in Samar, Leyte, Bohol and Mindanao. Several species have been described but it is more likely that there is only one species that is distributed among these islands, which may include two or three subspecies.
Description
Small monkeylike animal with the body typically smaller than that of the common Philippine field rat, the color ranging from almost uniform dark gray to an almost uniform reddish brown.
Skull with large orbits, their diameters only slightly less than half the total length of skull, separated from each other by a very narrow intertribal space, less than 2 mm; a distinctly depressed area between posterior parts of orbits; postorbital process supported by thin bone, separating orbit from temporal fosse; palate short, not even extending up to behind last moral; palatine processes .extended back and attach to large auditory bullas, which almost touch each other medially, but separated by deep groove between; condoles immediately below median part of brain case; no sagittal crest; two ill-defined crests rise posterior to orbits, curve backward over brain case , and are widely separated.
First upper incisors larger than upper canines but slightly smaller than lower canines, very close together; second upper incisors greatly reduced; separated from the canines; upper molars distinctly 3-cusped; lower molar 4 or 5-cusped; first upper and lower premolars smaller than succeeding teeth.
BEHAVIOR
The Philippine tarsier stays in the lowlands and medium elevations, in the plains and in rolling or hilly country. It stays in mixed open country with dense patches of bush; tall grass, light bamboo, and low trees, preferably along the dense edges of clearings made in these areas. The animal may be accidentally disturbed during daytime from its living quarters among the dense low vegetation at the edges of clearing frequently in newly-opened country, and at the outskirts of forests. It jumps agilely and at first glance appears more like a surprised rat than anything else.
At night the tarsier is often found in the edges of clearings looking for food. It is often encountered in newly-burned kaingin patches, where it is after the ash and the pieces of charcoal as sources of salt.
It is timid animal and dislikes to stay in strong light, even if it is only the light of the day. Form study made, has been established as a herbivore and they abound in places where sea grasses and seaweeds are plentiful . This is particularly true of young turtle and those kept in captivity. It is commonly believed that young turtles are carnivorous during their first few months of life, and they become herbivores when they pass one year of age or when reaching a weights of between 1 and 4 kilograms (Hirths, 1971). The reason behind the change in their food preference is not yet known. Studies on their stomach contents have shown that the more common food consumed by the would adults and sub-adult are the different species of sea grasses and algae. grass, snails, sponges, mollusks and jellyfishes were also recovered from some of the turtle, but occurrence was not that significant to establish these food as part of their regular diet (about2%).
http://www.ac.wwu.edu/~fasawwu/resources/endangered/philippine-tarsier.htm
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