|
|
Photos of living 'gremlin' discovered in Indonesia Pygmy tarsier is captured 80 years after last collected mongabay.com November 19, 2008
Conducting a survey of Mount Rore Katimbo in Lore Lindu National Park on the island of Sulawesi, a team led by Sharon Gursky-Doyen of Texas A&M University captured three pygmy tarsiers, a tiny species of primate that was last collected in 1921 and was assumed to be extinct until 2000 when two scientists studying rats accidently trapped and killed an individual. Gursky-Doyen's team spent two months using 276 mist nets to capture the gremlin-like creatures so they could be fitted with radio collars and tracked. One other individual was spotted but eluded capture. Pygmy tarsiers are among the smallest and rarest primates in the world. The species is distinguished from tarsiers by its diminutive size (50 grams) and its fingers which have claws instead of nails, which Gursky-Doyen believes may be an adaptation to its mossy habitat some 7,000-8,000 feet (2,100-2,440) about sea level.
Straddling the Wallace line, an area of biological discontinuity between Asia and Australia, Sulawesi is characterized by high levels of endemism--more than 60 percent of its mammals and more than one third of its birds are found nowhere else on the planet. So unusual the island's biodiversity, it helped inspire Alfred Russel Wallace to independently propose a theory of natural selection that pushed Charles Darwin to publish his masterwork, The Origin of Species before he was ready to go to press. Nevertheless, despite its storied history and species richness, Sulawsi's biodiversity is poorly known by scientists. More troubling, the island has long been overlooked conservationists. Their neglect has been costly—Sulawesi's forests have fast been converted for agriculture, felled by loggers, and degraded by miners. A new study, published lay year in the journal Biotropica showed that roughly 80 percent of the island's habitats have been degraded or destroyed.     The pygmy tarsier. Photos by Sharon Gursky-Doyen/Texas A&M University VIDEO
News index | RSS | News Feed Advertisements: Organic Apparel from Patagonia | Insect-repelling clothing |
MONGABAY.COM
WEEKLY NEWSLETTER INTERACT
T-SHIRTS 
CALENDARS 
CANVAS BAGS 
|
|
Copyright mongabay 2009 |
