Philippine Tarsiers in Captivity

According to: Endangered Species International, Inc. (Copyright 2011) 

The Philippine Tarsier

This species (Carlito Syrichta) is endemic to the Southern Philippine islands of Bohol, Samar, Leyte, and Mindanao. It occupies mainly forests and bush thickets. It has also been observed in mangrove forests. Each subspecies has a very precise and limited distribution: C.S. Syrichta can be found on the islands of Leyte and Samar while C.S. Carbonariusis Und is only found in the island of Mindanao and C.S. Fraterculus only lives in Bohol.

 What's Happening To Them Now?

The majority of Tarsier species are now endangered or threatened, and some are designated critically endangered. Threats include habitat destruction and fragmentation, hunting, agricultural pollutants and human disturbance. Tarsiers are very shy animals that prefer to stay away from human contact. Tarsiers do not live well in captivity – they have specific feeding requirements which are difficult to meet and rarely successfully breed. Wild Tarsiers which are caught and kept in captivity only show around a 50% rate of survival and in many cases they die quickly of overstress by committing “suicide”.
                               

The Tarsius Project

Lead by a Czech zoologist, Dr. Milada Řeháková-Petrů from Decin Zoo(November 25, 2011) 

"I conducted a survey of all captive tarsier facilities on the main tourist route on Bohol Island and evaluated the condition in that the animals are kept and also behavior of the visitors and guides. The results were shocking. The tarsiers were kept in a very limited area, some animals were apparently sick or dying. The nocturnal tarsier were permanently stressed,” says Dr. Řeháková.

If the displayed tarsiers die, their numbers are replenished by tarsiers captured from the wild. Growing demand on numbers of tarsier kept in captivity increases the numbers of illegally caught tarsiers from the wild. The tarsiers are thus slowly disappearing from neighbouring forests. This is the reality. Or it was, until the Czech team started to focus on this issue.

The Czech zoologist presented the results of her survey to the Minister of the Environment Ramon Paje and also the Undersecretary for policy and planning Demetrio Ignacio, DENR officials, Bohol governor Edgar Chatto and other authorities and a meeting was held in December 2010 especially because of this issue. This all wouldn’t be possible without help and support of the Ambassador of the Czech Republic Dr. Josef Rychtar.

During this year, it became apparent that these efforts bear the first fruits. The authorities recognized the seriousness of the whole situation, thanks to the efforts of Czech colleagues. It was decided that all the tarsiers from the facilities along the main tourist road will be transferred to more suitable conditions. Recently, a new enclosure naturally planted was opened in Loboc. Tarsiers find more space and also less stress here. The most importantly, this step will hopefully also cause a decrease of newly poached tarsiers.

What I Think...

These articles are shockingly true. A few years ago, my family and I visited Bohol. Part of our tour was to visit tarsiers held in captivity. What we saw were tarsiers placed on a tree which was surrounded by a cage. These tarsiers were not in their natural habitat. What was worse, tourists were allowed to hold and interact with them. At that time, I was not aware that this was illegal and was harmful to them. If you ever plan to visit Bohol, please be aware of this. Do not patronize tarsier tours that you think are illegal. Let us do our share to help conserve our tarsier population.