Endangered tarsier dead when found by rangers

SIBU: The Sarawak Forestry Corporation rangers were a step too late in saving an endangered rainforest species - a tarsier found only in Borneo and Sumatra - last Thursday.

The shy creature was found roaming the road a day earlier by a housewife in Ulu Sungai Merah. Injured on its right eye, it was weak and hungry.

The woman managed to call the Sarawak Forestry Corporation on Thursday, but by then the rare big-eyed creature had died.

“The tarsier’s right eye had ruptured. We initially did not know who to ask help from, and how to care for it. My family kept it in a cage until the rangers arrived the next morning.”

The woman managed to contact the forestry rangers with the help of a reporter.

The palm-sized creature is called Horsfield’s tarsier (Cephalopachus bancanus) or western tarsier.

The housewife stumbled on it while she was opening her gate. She initially thought it was a pigeon, but found otherwise when she got near.

“I waved down a lorry driver; he advised me to contact the Forestry Corporation. The two rangers who arrived the next morning did not rule out that deforestation in the area for property development had forced the tarsier out of its habitat, and it had got lost in the residential area. It could have been roaming for days without food,” she recalled.

It is unclear how the tarsier’s right eye got injured. The woman wondered whether it had been knocked down by a car.

The rangers took the creature’s carcass back.

The housewife said she had first thought it was a monkey, so her family fed it fruits, which the tarsier refused to eat.

“My son searched on the internet and thought the animal fed on worms. He rushed out to buy worms, but the hungry tarsier only ate some and refused to eat thereafter.”

A search in the Internet shows the woman’s son had got the wrong information.

Tarsiers do not feed on worms. This creature of carnivorous species feeds mainly on insects like beetles, grasshoppers, cockroaches, butterflies, moths, praying mantis, ants, phasmids, cicadas and others.

Horsfield’s tarsier resembles a monkey with big eyes like an owl. And like an owl, it sleeps during the day and comes out to hunt for food at nightfall. Its big round eyes eyes do not reflect light. The creature can see in the dark with the help of light from the stars.

The adult animal, measuring 121 to 154 mm, has a tail from 181 to 224 mm which is longer than its body.

This species has two grooming claws on each foot. The fingers are long with claw-like nails and pads on the tips.

In Borneo, it is found in the lowlands of Sabah, Brunei, Sarawak and West Kalimantan and above 900m in the Kelabit uplands of Northern Sarawak.

It sleeps during the day on a vertical angle of 5 degrees on tree trunks at a height of 3.5 to 5 metres.

Infants are born with their eyes open, fully furred and able to groom themselves.

The mother will carry her infant in her mouth, and when she forages for food, she will park the infant on a branch.

The rapid loss of habitat due to deforestation, oil palm plantations, fire and logging is