Tourists terrify tiny tarsiers
Tarsier photo from Wikimedia Commons
Dear Friends,
My balikbayan daughter Erika, my youngest son Michael, and myself went on an exciting trip to Bohol recently. Of course, we were excited to see the Philippine Tarsier! The teeny animal, as big as one’s fist, is so delightful but so shy (or frightened). The guides said there were “over a thousand visitors a day” coming by.
During our trip, a foreign tourist was almost jamming his SLR camera into the poor creature’s face. His kid was shaking the tree where the Tarsier was perched even when the poor thing crouched in fear. We kept telling them to stop shaking the tree and not to shove the camera into the Tarsier’s face but they just kept giggling with delight and ignored us. (The forest guides just stood by.)
I guess the tourists didn’t understand English? And that the guy didn’t know how to use a long lens?
Why are tourists allowed to come so near the Tarsiers? In Sydney, there is a roped-off distance between the super cute Koalas and the visitors.
Please can anyone send a copy of this letter to the Secretary of Tourism?
The Philippine Tarsiers gives birth only once a year and they are so stressed, they are committing suicide! Read the article below and you too will be alarmed.
Thanks a lot!
Edi Koch Arroyo
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December 18th, 2011 at 23:09
I deliberately avoided the “see the tarsiers” part of our itinerary when our group visited Bohol a couple of years ago. It was just too sadistic for me.
December 19th, 2011 at 17:12
A lot of tarsiers have actually died because of stress from constantly being touched and harassed by tourists. On my third visit there, a tarsier had a blind eye – a result of a very bright camera flash that lit inches from its face. They are nocturnal animals and they get harassed during daytime and they perch on very tiny trees within reach of insensitive tourists. I’m guilty of this when I first visited them. I put one on my head for a photo-op.
December 19th, 2011 at 19:03
i went to Bohol for the second time early this year. it seemed to me that they’ve become lax about protecting the tarsiers since the last time i went there (2005). i asked this place (not the sanctuary) where they got those tarsiers and if they have a permit for keeping them and they couldn’t give me a straight answer. i was just disgusted at how the poor creatures were being terrorized, with all the camera flash and the tourists poking them.