Bohol – Philippine Tarsier Foundation, Inc.

Fruits Trees from Tzu Chi

“To help preserve the world’s smallest primate” and the Mother Earth as a whole.”-excerpts from Tzu Chi Foundation

Last October 22, 2016, Philippine Tarsier Foundation, Corella Tarsier Sanctuary got a wonderful visit from Tzu Chi Foundation. The visit was primarily for biodiversity support of the Tarsier Sanctuary by planting close to 140 insect host plants which are basically fruit trees.

The fruit trees would attract insects such as beetles and grasshoppers which are the ideal food for tarsiers… not fruit and certainly not worms! Not matter how mega or superworm they are. Or no matter how cultured those maybe.

Plus the Tarsiers health primarily rests on their need to hunt and that means allowing them to roam for more than 1 kilometer every night to catch live insects. That is why caging them would never work! And claims of breeding them in a 20 meter square area is just simple–IMPOSSIBLE! 🙂

Tarsier population in Corella is growing and therefore the need for insects too is increasing, and these fruit trees are a GREAT HELP.

Sad But True: Other tarsier sites in Bohol (because tarsiers scattered all over Bohol) are experiencing a decrease in tarsier numbers so much since the areas too have tarsier viewing facilities which are simply for profit no matter how fancy they call themselves be and tarsiers just aren’t happy with mahogany trees.

Thank you Tzu Chi for the warm support. May the world be filled with amazing humans like you.

Spreading the Tarsier Love with NOSTE and HNU

NOTSE- a National Organization of Science Teachers and Educators held their 2016 NOSTE International Research and Seminar Workshop in Cebu with a day in Bohol where in Philippine Tarsier Foundation was their main site tour last October 9.

Before the brief tour to the Tarsier Sanctuary in Corella, the manager of the Tarsier Foundation was made to do a 30 minute Tarsier Education Talk and campaign for tarsier conservation which was the highlight of the October 9 event held in Nursing Skills Laboratory, HNU.

The event was participated by Science Teachers all over the Philippines and a representative from Guam and Malaysia and all expressed their love for the Tarsiers.

Want to spread the word? Want us to be part of your event? Send us a message and let’s collaborate!

PIRATE!!!

It’s a sad but true story… Approximately three weeks ago we’ve discovered that one of our Tarsiers looks a bit different and is nlacking i one eye! Quite fast gained a new name – Pirate. At the beginning we weren’t sure if it will survive in a natural environment. A little tarsier has to hunt for most of the night thus it needs to be in a perfect shape. Tarsier has to be a great hunter in order to catch a big amount of insects. Apparently our pirate is doing well enough, has survived those past weeks and is getting better now.

A ‘huggable looking’ tarsier at day time, is a great predator at night time! What is surprising, tarsiers can fight with each other, first of all – for the territory, second of all – for the females! And mating season is on now… The two males while fighting in order to charm a female can even kill each other! Cruel but real natural environment is not for the weak ones… But our pirate doesn’t have any other scars or injuries which rather occur right after the fight. Which leads to another theory, it could be just a bad accident or a big beetle bite.

But whatever that was, the good news is he is alive and is doing fine in the natural habitat. Which proves he is in deed one tough tarsier. Animals do do well in their natural environment.

by Kamila Fy

See more photo at https://www.facebook.com/tarsierfoundation

A View from the Top

These are just some of the photos the Polish Volunteers took during the Day Trek and Camping.

The photo above is taken during the early morning where the forest was covered with fog and looked like, well at least to me, a grass with cob webs and dew.

Just before sunset, beautiful orange and dark clouds with a powder blue background of a sky made the scene almost out of this world, thanks to volunteer Ms. Marta Patyra for capturing the view.

It never fails to remind me of Jurassic Park or Avatar.

These are just some of the views you’ll when you trek to the viewing decks found inside the tarsier sanctuary. But of course, experiencing it is a whole lot different than mere photos.