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The tiny Furby-like pygmy tarsier, presumed to be extinct, was found during a recent expedition to Indonesia. And the cuddly, huge-eyed nocturnal critter is the very definition of cute.

"They always look like they have a perpetual smile on their face, which adds to the attraction," says physical anthropologist Sharon Gursky-Doyen, who found the presumed lost species.

Gursky-Doyen of Texas A&M University traveled into the mountains of Sulawesi Island in Indonesia to confirm that the pygmy tarsier was unequivocally extinct, but ended up becoming the first person in more than 80 years to spot a live one.

Many scientific teams had previously tried but failed to find the two-ounce (60-gram) primate, which has long spindly fingers, dines on insects and can rotate its head 180 degrees like an owl. "I honestly didn't have a lot of faith," Gursky-Doyen told ScientificAmerican.com, "I had very low expectations of actually finding them."

But then she did. "It was very, very euphoric, but I was shaking like a leaf," she says about her surprising discovery. "I was shaking so much that I could barely handle him."

Over the course of two months, her team captured two more and spotted a fourth. They snapped radio collars on the fuzzy creatures to track them.

Gursky-Doyen explains that finding the pygmy tarsier means that other animals on the island may have smaller ranges than previously believed, making them more vulnerable to extinction.

Pygmy tarsiers are about half the size of other species and sport claws on their hands and feet instead of nails. Gursky-Doyen speculates that their claws may be an evolutionary adaptation to help them grasp the moss-covered trees of their damp environment.

15 Comments

1. 1. Kirby Olson 08:29 PM 11/19/08

   Gregory Corso has a neat poem about tarsiers in his book Long Live Man. It's called Active Night, and begins,
   
   A tarsier bewrays the end of an epical rain.
   
   It's set in Indonesia, or in the Malaysian peninsula.

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2. 2. boystrada in reply to Kirby Olson 10:21 PM 11/19/08

   Hi,
   
   My name is lope j. diamante jr. from the philippines. Its not only in india that tarsier thrive. we also have tarsiers here in our country. tarsiers thrive in the disland of bohol.
   
   thanks

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3. 3. boystrada in reply to Kirby Olson 10:23 PM 11/19/08

   Hi,
   
   My name is lope j. diamante jr. from the philippines. Its not only in india that tarsier thrive. we also have tarsiers here in our country. tarsiers thrive in the disland of bohol.
   
   thanks

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4. 4. ejealum 12:26 AM 11/20/08

   Bohol Island, Philippines -where Tarsiers has long been existing.

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5. 5. wowie 12:36 AM 11/20/08

   My name is April, Tarsiers are well protected in Bohol Island Philippines.
   You should visit the Philippines and rediscover the experience of seeing
   the oldest living mammal on earth.

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6. 6. savchenko 05:47 AM 11/20/08

   The Philippines are home to the Philippino tarsier. This is a pygmy tarsier, different species, previously thought to be extinct!

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7. 7. ffkling 07:23 AM 11/20/08

   My God, how can mankind continue driving so many species extinct? Why do zoos not create captive breeding programs for critically endangered species? How many more broken links in the chain of life can Mother Nature endure before the ecosystem implodes?

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8. 8. abcd 09:36 AM 11/20/08

   Why bother these little creatures and I think it is enough. At this point of human overpopulation, what we should care is about pollution instead of dragging these precious creatures to human eyes and to human pollution. Leave them alone.

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9. 9. zapphyre in reply to 10:14 AM 11/20/08

   This is funny, it has long been discovered and not endangered as may it seems even the smallest snakes in the world that was recently discovered is not actually extinct all of these are found in the Philippines.

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10. 10. Kirby Olson 05:07 PM 11/20/08

    Here is the whole poem by Gregory Corso.
    
    Active Night
    
    A tarsier bewrays the end of an epical rain
    Burying beetles ponderously lug a dead rat
    A moth, just a few seconds old, tumbles down fern
    Bats are drinking flowers
    The lonely tapir walks the river bottom
    And up comes a manatee with a sea-anemone
    on its nose
    
    (Mind Field, p. 114).
    
    Do all of those creatures including the tapir live in the Philippines?
    
    I thought the tapir lived in and around Malaysia. It's a tiny rhino, shy and nocturnal, according to the dictionary.

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11. 11. frettylie 08:28 PM 11/20/08

    im from philippines and the tarsier that you are talking about is popular here and it is found in bohol. It is our main attraction in bohol and it is not "instinct". there are many of them and people are taking care of them.thank you

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12. 12. hotblack 09:36 PM 11/20/08

    Different. Tarsiers. Ach.
    
    And Z, finding six of a species when you thought they were extinct doesn't mean it's not endangered. "Well, here's one, everything's fine!" is not how it works.
    
    Efforts should at least be made to archive their genes, so that when we are eventually able, we may consider reintroduction. Yes, it's a long way off, but now's the time to catalog while there are still a few of these disappearing species left.

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13. 13. ZenaV 01:11 PM 11/21/08

    Aaaawwww....I want one.

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14. 14. moonscarlet 03:12 PM 11/22/08

    western are so stupid. they say its extinct when it can be found all around here as well in my hometown at sabah, Malaysia. Duhhhh!!! And what zapphyre say is correct, the smallest snake also happens to always appeared in our backyard now and then .. and these ppl claimed to first find it and called it after them???? !!! hahahah!!

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15. 15. m1rv9n41v5 10:48 PM 6/6/09

    Attention! Tarsier are originated in the Philippines.....

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