The Peleng tarsier (''Tarsius pelengensis''), or the Peleng Island tarsier, is a

nocturnal Nocturnality is an animal behavior characterized by being active during the night and sleeping during the day. The common adjective is "nocturnal", versus diurnal meaning the opposite. Nocturnal creatures generally have highly developed sens ...

primate Primates are a diverse order of mammals. They are divided into the strepsirrhines, which include the lemurs, galagos, and lorisids, and the haplorhines, which include the tarsiers and the simians (monkeys and apes, the latter including huma ...

found on the island of

Peleng Peleng is an island off the east coast of Sulawesi, Indonesia and is the largest island of the Banggai Islands (''Kepulauan Banggai''). It is surrounded by the Banda Sea and Molucca Sea and has an area of 2,406 km². Some of the smaller i ...

, just east of

Sulawesi Sulawesi (), also known as Celebes (), is an island in Indonesia. One of the four Greater Sunda Islands, and the world's eleventh-largest island, it is situated east of Borneo, west of the Maluku Islands, and south of Mindanao and the Sulu Ar ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

Description

Tarsiers Tarsiers ( ) are haplorhine primates of the family Tarsiidae, which is itself the lone extant family within the infraorder Tarsiiformes. Although the group was once more widespread, all of its species living today are found in Maritime Southeast ...

are small, agile primates, adapted for climbing, leaping and foraging at night. They have long fingers and toes with gripping pads, large eyes, large ears and greyish fur. The body is about long, with a tail double this length. The adult weight is generally between , with males tending to be slightly larger than females.

Distribution and habitat

The Peleng tarsier is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

to the island of

, off the east coast of

, and it may also be present on other smaller islands of the Banggai Archipelago. The natural habitat of this tarsier is

primary forest An old-growth forestalso termed primary forest, virgin forest, late seral forest, primeval forest, or first-growth forestis a forest that has attained great age without significant disturbance, and thereby exhibits unique ecological featur ...

; however,

illegal logging Illegal logging is the harvest, transportation, purchase or sale of timber in violation of laws. The harvesting procedure itself may be illegal, including using corrupt means to gain access to forests; extraction without permission, or from a pro ...

and forest clearance has reduced the primary forest of the island to about 9% of its original extent. Little is known about the habitat requirement for this species, but other tarsier species have been found in

secondary forest A secondary forest (or second-growth forest) is a forest or woodland area which has re-grown after a timber harvest or clearing for agriculture, until a long enough period has passed so that the effects of the disturbance are no longer evident. ...

, or other non-primary habitat, so it seems likely that the Peleng tarsier can occupy similar habitat. Secondary forest occupies about 63% of the island, making 72% of the surface area potentially providing suitable habitat.

Ecology

Tarsiers are social and tend to live in family groups with a home range. They are carnivorous, feeding on insects, spiders and other small arthropods as well as small vertebrates. During the day they sleep in concealed locations in tangled vegetation a few metres off the ground, emerging at dusk to forage during the night. Like other

tarsier Tarsiers ( ) are haplorhine primates of the family Tarsiidae, which is itself the lone extant family within the infraorder Tarsiiformes. Although the group was once more widespread, all of its species living today are found in Maritime Southeast ...

s, this species can turn its head through almost 180 degrees in each direction, much like an

owl Owls are birds from the order Strigiformes (), which includes over 200 species of mostly solitary and nocturnal birds of prey typified by an upright stance, a large, broad head, binocular vision, binaural hearing, sharp talons, and feathers a ...

. Breeding pairs communicate by making characteristic duetting calls. Due to the great similarity of these calls to those of

Dian's tarsier Dian's tarsier (''Tarsius dentatus''), also known as the Diana tarsier, is a nocturnal primate endemic to central Sulawesi, Indonesia. Its head-body length is and it has a tail of . Dian's tarsier lives in rainforests. It was formerly called ...

(''Tarsius dentatus''), the two species are thought to be closely related. Studies of the calls of tarsiers on Sulawesi and the surrounding islands enable cryptic species to be distinguished from one another, and indicate that there may be four as yet undescribed species.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q205340

Peleng tarsier The Peleng tarsier (''Tarsius pelengensis''), or the Peleng Island tarsier, is a nocturnal primate found on the island of Peleng, just east of Sulawesi, Indonesia. Description Tarsiers are small, agile primates, adapted for climbing, leaping and ...

Endemic fauna of Indonesia Mammals of Sulawesi Primates of Indonesia Endangered fauna of Asia