tarsier

Tarsier comes from French tarsier, coined by Comte de Buffon in 1765, based on the Latin tarsus, meaning 'ankle' or 'the flat of the foot.' The name refers to the animal's extraordinarily elongated tarsal bones—the ankle and foot bones that give tarsiers their remarkable leaping ability. A tarsier can jump over 40 times its own body length.

The first scientific description came from Johann Petiver in 1705, who examined a specimen from the Philippines. But Buffon's name stuck. The animal was identified by its ankles, not its eyes—despite those eyes being the most immediately striking feature. Each eye is approximately 16 millimeters in diameter, the same size as the tarsier's brain. The eyes cannot move in their sockets; the animal must turn its entire head to look sideways.

Tarsiers are found only in Southeast Asia: the Philippines, Borneo, Sumatra, and Sulawesi. They are the only fully carnivorous primates—they eat insects, lizards, and small birds, never fruit or leaves. They are also among the few primates that can vocalize in ultrasound, communicating at frequencies above 90 kHz, far beyond human hearing.

Philippine tarsiers (Carlito syrichta) face severe stress in captivity. They have been known to commit suicide by bashing their heads against enclosure walls. The Philippine Tarsier Foundation, established in 1996, shifted conservation focus from captive display to habitat protection in Bohol province. The tarsier cannot be caged. It dies rather than adapt.