Here’s a cute Official Postcrossing card I got from the Philippines! As the caption says, the star of the show today is the smallest monkey in the world – the tarsier! Tarsiers are intriguing little creatures that can be found in the islands of Southeast Asia, particularly in Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, and the Philippines. Tail excluded, they can be as short as 9 cm and as tall as 16 – in other words, ranging from the length of a Kitkat bar to about the length of a Butterfinger bar (don’t judge, I’m craving dessert right now). Even shorter than a banana, ironically. But here’s a fun fact about tarsiers: they are primarily carnivorous (they only eat meat)! Their diets mainly consist of things like small animals: insects (like beetles and roaches), lizards, even small birds. This makes them the only entirely carnivorous primate in existence! Quite an interesting feat if you ask me. Speaking of interesting “feet”, the length of their legs (including foot) is about twice their body length! As you can see, they also have elongated fingers with nails, which help them to grab onto branches. And grabbing onto branches is indeed what they do, as they climb and jump from branch to branch at up to a distance of nearly 5 meters at a shot. Yeah, I wouldn’t wanna be a beetle, lizard or small bird in their vicinity. While tarsiers are amazing creatures, many species of them are unfortunately endangered, and conservation efforts for them are tough given their need for live food, as well as a few other factors. It’s always rough doing research on an animal from a card I receive, just to later find out how endangered they are. If anything, though, I hope this can help bring some awareness of these cool creatures to others as the sender did for me. Thank you Susan for sharing this beautiful, big-eyed primate with me!
