Tuesday, March 14, 2006

My new acquaintance...

My orientation buddy Kurt went on vacation recently to the Philippines.
He told me about this little creature that can be found only in 3 islands in the Philippines, it is called Tarsiers, it is very small and has huge eyes. I asked his permission to post this picture on my Blog. Aren't they adorable? Double click on pic to see them better, they are sitting on the tree.

And this is what i found about them on Internet, including a bigger picture:

The family Tarsiidae contains one genus and five species. Tarsiers are found in the islands of southeastern Asia, including Borneo, Sumatra, some East Indian islands and some Philippine islands. They are species of secondary forest. Tarsiers are small haplorhine primates, weighing 80-150g. Their fur is silky and buff, grayish brown, or dark brown on the back and grayish or buffy on the underside. They have round heads and remarkably large eyes that are directed forward. Their ears are nearly hairless and seemingly membranous in texture. Their muzzle is short, and they seem to have almost no neck (although they are capable of turning their head over 180 degrees!). They are active at night and highly arboreal. During the day, they sleep in dense vegetation, usually on a vertical branch; occasionally, they use a hollow tree. They feed on insects and small vertebrates, which they capture by leaping on their prey and grabbing it with their hands. Tarsiers are usually found in family groups or by themselves. Family groups are based on a stable pair bond. They are not sexually dimorphic.

2 comments:

~Frooghi's~ said...

ahhh those eyes!!!!!!!

I want to squeeze it!!!! :)

I am still trying to understand what dimorphic means ... even the dictionary isn't clear enough.

tahmina, amir & azamat said...

as far as my english-russian dictionary tells me it means that they exist in two genders