Classroom lesson 路 Wildlife馃嚨馃嚟 Philippines

The Philippine tarsier

One of the smallest primates in the world - with eyes bigger than its brain

A tiny Philippine tarsier gripping a branch with both hands, huge round eyes wide open

Photo 路 Wikimedia Commons

What is it?

The Philippine tarsier is one of the tiniest primates on Earth - a primate is the family of mammals that includes monkeys, apes and humans. A grown-up tarsier can fit in a child's hand. It has enormous round eyes, soft fur, and lives in the forests of the island of Bohol.

Tell me more

A tarsier weighs about as much as a small apple - around 120 grams. From head to tail it is roughly the length of a pencil. Its tail is longer than its body, used for balance when it leaps from tree to tree.

Its eyes are the most surprising thing about it. Each eye is bigger than its own brain. Tarsiers can't move their eyes around in their sockets like we can, so to look in different directions they rotate their whole head - almost all the way round, like an owl.

Tarsiers are night animals. They sleep during the day, curled up against a tree trunk, and come out at dusk to hunt for crickets, beetles and grasshoppers. Their huge eyes soak up moonlight, helping them see in the dark.

Tarsiers live only on a few Philippine islands - mainly Bohol, Samar and Leyte. Today there are special protected forests where they are safe and tourists can visit quietly to see them. The rule is simple: no flash photos, no loud noises, and definitely no touching. Tarsiers are easily upset, so the people who look after them ask everyone to be calm and gentle.

In the classroom

Walk your class through this in 15 minutes.

Talk together

Discussion prompts

  1. 01Tarsiers can't move their eyes, so they move their whole head. What is something your body can do that you don't usually think about?
  2. 02Why do you think tarsiers are so easily upset by loud noises? What does that tell us about how to treat wild animals?
  3. 03If you could leap 40 times your own body length, how far would that be?
Try this

Classroom activity

Mark out a distance on the playground equal to a tarsier's leap - 5 metres. Then measure each pupil's height. As a class, work out: how many times your own body length is 5 metres? Then think: a tarsier does this in one jump.

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