Why is this animal unusual?
It’s the only primate that is 100% carnivore. Every other monkey, ape and lemur eats at least some plants. The tarsier eats only things that move.
Why does it look like that?
The eyes are so huge that they can’t turn in their sockets. To make up for it, the tarsier can rotate its head nearly 180 degrees in each direction, like an owl.
Strangest biological feature
Those eyes. Each one is about 0.6 in (16 mm) across – roughly the same size as the animal’s entire brain.
Why is it strange?
Some tarsiers talk in pure ultrasound. Their calls are so high-pitched that humans, and most of their predators, can’t hear them at all.
Interesting behavioral facts
Tarsiers cling upright to thin trunks and leap between them like frogs, covering up to 16 ft (5 metres) in one jump – about 40 times their body length. Their name comes from the extra-long tarsus bones in their feet that power those jumps.
Records held
One of the smallest primates in the world, from a family line that goes back at least 45 million years.
