Gursky-Doyen, ; MacDonald, Spectral tarsiers breed twice a year, and copulation occurs during either May or November. The gestation period is approximately 6 months, and births also usually occur during May or November. Females give birth to a single offspring, which is born fully furred and with its eyes open. Newborns are precocial and are able to climb at just one day of age. Among mammals, tarsier offspring are the largest relative to the mother's body mass.
Newborns weigh on average A large proportion their weight is invested in the brain mass, eyes, and cranium. Lactation generally lasts up to 80 days. Weaning occurs between 4 and 10 weeks of age, and independence occurs directly after weaning as offspring are capable of hunting on their own.
Spectral tarsiers reach sexual maturity at 17 months of age. Females possess a bicornuate uterus and haemochorial placenta. Young spectral tarsiers are precocial and receive only maternal care. Mothers pick up and carry their infants by mouth for the first 3 weeks and cache them trees while they forage. Offspring are left alone for an average of 27 minutes at a time, and then they are moved to new locations. Mothers generally remain within 4 m of their young when foraging.
Mothers sling offspring older than 3 weeks of age under their bellies while leaping and moving from tree to tree. Gursky, ; Gursky-Doyen, ; Napier and Napier, Therefore, this probably does not represent the longest lifespan of spectral tarsiers in the wild. A female tarsier greater than 5 years of age currently resides at the Singapore zoo. A closely related species, Tarsius bancanus has a lifespan of 17 years and 7 months in captivity. It is likely that T. Shekelle and Nietsch, Spectral tarsiers are both crepuscular and nocturnal and are very active throughout the night.
At dusk, they travel for about 30 minutes until they find a forage site. During this time, they frequently stop to groom themselves by licking and scratching their fur with their toilet claws.
If a heavy rain occurs, tarsiers find a dry area and remain inactive. They move through the trees and can leap more than 40 times the length of their body. As morning approaches, spectral tarsiers "sing" as they return to their sleeping sites, either as a duet with their mate or in a family chorus. These songs signal to neighboring groups that a territory is occupied. Spectral tarsiers are extremely territorial and engage in disputes with neighboring groups that venture into their boundaries.
They mark their territories with urine and glandular secretions. Spectral tarsiers usually live in pairs or small family groups. They are highly social animals. When two adult group members are in physical contact, they spend all of their time resting and socializing. When less than 10 m apart, they forage and, when they are 50 to m apart, they spend most of their time traveling. Spectral tarsiers also engage in play behavior, snuggling, allogrooming, and food sharing.
Competition for food results in increased time foraging. Individuals appear to benefit from group living, particularly when predation pressure is high, when females are sexually receptive, and when there is high likelihood of encountering a potentially infanticidal male.
The average home range of spectral tarsiers is 3 ha for males and 2 ha for females. They have high site fidelity, remaining at the same sleeping site for multiple years, usually with a mate. Females often establish a territory adjacent to their parental territory, while males disperse twice as far as females.
Spectral tarsiers scent-mark their territories with urine and secretions from their epigastric glands. Gursky, Species-specific vocalizations of spectral tarsiers include trills and twitters, alarm calls, duet songs, and family choruses. Twitters and trills are used to converse or to make their location known to other group members while foraging. Alarms calls serve as a warning system to others when a predator is spotted and also encourage predator mobbing.
Duet songs and family choruses convey territoriality and function as a mate guarding mechanism. The male and female sing very different but equally high-pitched songs, which can be heard up to m away. Species-specific vocal acoustics are used in conjunction with morphogenetics to assess classification of tarsiers. Spectral tarsiers use their urine as well as secretions from the epigastric gland, ano-genital gland, and circum-oral gland to mark the boundaries of their territory.
Males scent mark twice as frequently as females. Physical contact appears to contribute to tarsier sociality, and members of the same group often rest and socialize while touching. Spectral tarsiers sit next to one another and intertwine tails and are know to snuggle. Visual communication appears to be most effective when group members are in close contact with one another.
They communicate by changes in facial musculature and body posture. Folded ears seem to convey uneasiness, and a crouched posture is taken when defensive. When aggressive, a tarsier stands on its hind feet with its mouth open. Spectral tarsiers feeds exclusively on live animals. They primarily prey on flying insects such as moths , locusts , beetles and cicadas. They occasionally eat small vertebrates, such as lizards or bats.
Spectral tarsiers listen with their independently moving ears to locate potential prey. Once a prey item is targeted, a tarsier ambushes its prey with a sudden lunge, grasps it with its long, slender fingers, and bites to kill it. The tarsier then returns to its perch to consume its prey.
This form of ambush hunting requires excellent hand-eye coordination. Spectral tarsiers can collect their prey out of the air, on the ground, or off leaves and branches. Spectral tarsiers appear to take advantage of the moonlight when foraging. This is an unusual behavior, as most small, nocturnal mammals exhibit lunar phobia as a predator avoidance mechanism.
Tarsiers cope with this increased risk of predation by foraging in groups. Potential predators of spectral tarsiers include arboreal snakes , civets , monitor lizards , owls and other raptors, and feral cats. If a predator, particularly a snake, is identified, they emit an alarm call. This initiates mobbing behavior, in which numerous tarsiers gather and approach the predator as a group, screaming, lunging, and even biting.
They live in the trees of dense forests, and have a shy, nervous nature. Tarsiers are active at night nocturnal , and rest during the day clinging vertically to tree branches. Read on to learn about the tarsier. The appearance of tarsiers varies between the species, but all are relatively similar with a small, stocky body, and long tail that either has a tuft of fur at the end, or is sparsely covered.
Their fur is very soft and the color varies from gray to brown, or reddish-brown. All tarsiers have long hind legs to help them move about in the trees they inhabit. They also have large, sensitive ears to detect even the smallest of sounds. Tarsiers have very long fingers and toes, which have pads at the tips, and nails to help them grip both branches and prey. Tarsiers are nocturnal and live in trees arboreal. They have a number of interesting characteristics to help them with this lifestyle.
The preferred habitat varies between the species, but all live in forests. For example, western tarsiers are usually found in lowland primary forests or low mountain forests, eastern tarsiers live in different levels of forest, and the pygmy tarsier is restricted to very high mountainous forests.
Tarsiers were once found around the world, but in modern times they are restricted to islands in south-east Asia.
Tarsiers are unique, in that they are the only primates known that are strictly carnivorous. Their main food source is insects, which they catch by jumping at them. They also prey on birds, bats, lizards , and snakes. Because of the shy nature of tarsiers, there is often limited information about their distribution and the effects of human interactions. The Tarsier eats mainly insects and hunt by jumping at their prey.
They need to eat one-tenth of their body weight to stay healthy. For humans, it is hard to arrange this amount of living insects when feeding Tarsiers. As a result, they are often malnourished and sick in captivity. As we walked along the trail we saw three tarsiers in total. The sanctuary made it clear why you should never pet a Tarsier or why you should not keep one as a pet.
But are they being strict enough when it comes to noise levels and disruptions? How is it that all three Tarsiers we saw were all along the path?
Was it a coincidence? Do they have different paths that they clear in the morning according to where they find the animals sleeping? Or do they move the animals close to the track so that they will be easy to spot for visitors? Book your flight to the Philippines now! Do you have any experience with the Philippine Tarsier? Please share your experiences and thoughts in the comments.
Check out the best things to do in Bohol. Email address:. What a thought provoking post! Thanks for sharing. Hi Sheree! Thank you for your supportive words! I agree that it is important to spread the knowledge we acquire during our travels. In that way, we will contribute to a better world little by little, step by step. Thanks for sharing this post Linn. Thanks for spreading the message about ethical tourism in connection with wildlife.
Such a cute pic of the little sleeping tarsier too:. Thank you so much, Shelley! I appreciate that you see the importance of ethical tourism choices in connection with wildlife. Unfortunately, it is overseen by so many because of the lack of knowledge.
I know, the Tarsiers are super-cute!
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