Sulawesi tarsiers threatened with extinction

Badri Jawara, The Jakarta Post, Palu, Central Sulawesi

Belonging to the family of small primates, a tarsier has a body that measures about 20 centimeters in length and resembles a rat or a squirrel. Its tail is longer than its body, and its head is slightly round. The tarsier has eyes that are round and sharp, with large irises like those of an owl.

A female tarsier is pregnant for 6 months before giving birth. Then, like a baby monkey, a baby tarsier is breast-fed by the mother.

An arboreal animal, it jumps from one tree to another like a squirrel, using its feet, which resemble those of a rabbit. A tarsier lives on lizards, grasshoppers, worms, crickets, flies, mosquitoes and other insects. Like an owl, it is a nocturnal animal: sleeping during the day and looking for its food at night.

Tarsiers, which are among the world's smallest primates, are a protected species. The total tarsier population in Sulawesi has never been calculated.

But the animal is much easier to spot in Central Sulawesi than the region's other rare and unique animals, like deer-hogs and anoa (dwarf buffaloes).

"A census has yet to be conducted on tarsiers and other animals endemic to this province. One of the reasons is a lack of both funds and the necessary equipment," M.Z. Hudiyono, the head of Central Sulawesi's natural resources conservation center, said.

Despite its status as a protected species, tarsiers enjoy less attention and care than other rare species in Central Sulawesi, like deer-hogs and anoa. Physically, tarsiers are not attractive enough to be in demand as pets, so they are generally safe from hunters. The tarsier population has dropped because its habitat has been damaged by logging and land clearing.

Compared with other animals, there has been little research about tarsiers. In Indonesia, a study of this animal was not conducted until 1994, when the Center for Primate Studies at the Agricultural Institute of Bogor and the Indonesian Safari Park in Cisarua teamed up to do some research on tarsiers.

This 1994 study recommended the captive breeding of tarsiers because their habitat had been damaged by logging. Unfortunately, it was found that tarsiers born in captivity grew very slowly.

There is no definite data about the size of the entire tarsier population in the world. Perhaps, the number is larger than current estimates. The results of a number of studies on the animal shows that there are three species of tarsiers: Tarsius Bancanus in Sumatra and Kalimantan, Tarsius Spectrum in Sulawesi, particularly in the Lore Lindu National Park, and Tarsius Syrichta, which is found only in the Philippines. These species are also divided into a number of sub-species. The largest number of sub-species -- 44 -- is found in Sulawesi, particularly in Central Sulawesi, said Hudiyono.

Many years ago, he said, tarsiers could still be found in Java, particularly in West Java. Today, however, there are no longer tarsier sightings in Java, and it is thought the animal has disappeared for good from the island. And unless logging is controlled, tarsiers will some day just be animals from the past.

Luckily, in Sulawesi, tarsiers are still enjoying their freedom in the thick forests. But even here, if forest clearing is allowed to continue unabated, the tarsier population will continue to fall.

Sulawesi can today still boast of its diversified rare flora and fauna. Deer-hogs and anoas are good examples, as they can be found nowhere else in the world.

Tarsiers are not highly sought after as pets, nor do farmers view them as crop-destroying pests. This rare animal attracts the scientists, though.

Hudiyono said the Lore Lindu National Park was the area with the largest number of tarsiers. In Sumatra and Kalimantan, there are some tarsiers, but their numbers are not as high as in Sulawesi.

Research conducted by R.P. Agus Lelana, a veterinary surgeon at the Center for Primates Studies, concluded that tarsiers were primates in a transition from simple primates to a more advanced species. The tarsier begins to mate at the age of six.

The question is whether this small primate will eventually become extinct. Of course, the answer lies in our wisdom in conserving our forests. As long as there are forests, the tarsier will survive. But once the forests are gone, this animal will have lost its natural habitat and will have become extinct.

Today, the Central Sulawesi's Center for Natural Resources Conservation and the Lore Lindu National Park are developing a new system to maintain the region's rare and endemic flora and fauna.

The head of the Lore Lindu National Park, Banjar Yulianto Laban, called this new system a policy of "eco-populism". He said that under this system, the involvement of local people in environmental conservation was a must.

"Eco-populism is the opposite 'eco-fascism', the removal of indigenous people from the conservation concept," he said.