Researchers receive grant to study unique primate

Philippines trip will be used to observe tarsiers, form conservation strategies

By Mary Sorrick

Friday, March 28, 2008

National Geographic awarded two University of Kansas researchers a $24,605 grant to study tarsiers, one of the more unique primates in Southeast Asia.

Jennifer Weghorst, adjunct research assistant with the Natural History Museum and Biodiversity Research Center, and Rafe Brown, assistant professor in the Department of Biology and curator at the Natural History Museum, will travel to the southern Philippines this spring for the first of several trips to research tarsiers.

“They are the coolest primates in the world,” Brown said. “They are little pocket-sized forest goblins.”

photo

Rafe Brown

Rafe Brown

This Philippine tarsier (Tarsius syrichta) is on the island of Bohol, Philippines. This tarsier's pupils are so small because the photo was taken during the day, and a photo of a tarsier at night would show its large eyes almost completely filled by its pupils. Very large eyes are an adaptation for a nocturnal lifestyle.

Weghorst and Brown will analyze tarsier calls and collect DNA samples from populations on different Filipino islands to help pinpoint the number of different species that may exist.

With that information, Weghorst said scientists could begin forming conservation strategies for tarsiers.

The small, nocturnal animals weigh about 130 grams and reach a foot in length when stretched out.

They are the only entirely carnivorous primates, eating caterpillars, beetles, frogs and small lizards. Tarsiers are also easily distinguishable by their big, round eyes, Weghorst said.

“Someone I know has described them as looking like yoda,” Weghorst said.

With a team of Filipino researchers, Weghorst and Brown will use mist nets to catch tarsiers. After photographing and weighing them, the researchers will take blood and tissue samples before releasing the tarsiers back into the wild.

The researchers will also compare tarsier calls among populations from different islands.

Because tarsiers live on volcanic islands that have never been in contact with each other, it is likely that three to six distinct species of tarsiers could exist in the Philippines, Brown said.

“If we find out that there are different species limited to geographic areas, conservation threats would be very specific,” he said.

Though tarsiers can survive in changing habitats, Brown said deforestation from commercial and small-scale logging could still be a threat to their survival.

He said he hoped the research and conservation strategies for tarsiers would lead to habitat protection in the Philippines through the establishment of national parks and reserves.

Weghorst and Brown’s tarsier research will take two years to complete. In the mean time, the team of Filipino researchers will come to the University to help analyze the tarsier findings.

Weghorst said the research could be an important element of biodiversity conservation.

“Population dynamics would be out of whack if there were no tarsiers,” she said. “And the world would be such a boring place.”

—Edited by Jared Duncan

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