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tarsier

/ˈtɑrsiər/
IPA guide

Other forms: tarsiers

A tarsier is a very small, big-eyed primate that lives in Southeast Asian countries including Indonesia and Malaysia.

Tarsiers live in forests, spending most of their lives in the trees. They cling upright to the vertical surfaces of tree trunks, and they propel themselves from tree to tree by pushing off with their long, powerful hind limbs. Tarsiers are the only primates that are totally carnivorous — they primarily eat insects, but sometimes snack on lizards, bats, and other small animals. The most distinctive thing about tarsiers is their enormous eyes; in some species, each of a tarsier's eyeballs is as big as or larger than its brain. Tarsiers get their name from their long tarsal, or toe bones.

Definitions of tarsier
  1. noun
    nocturnal arboreal primate of Indonesia and the Philippines having huge eyes and digits ending in pads to facilitate climbing; the only primate that spurns all plant material as food living entirely on insects and small vertebrates
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    types:
    Tarsius syrichta
    a variety of tarsier
    Tarsius glis
    a variety of tarsier
    type of:
    primate
    any placental mammal of the order Primates; has good eyesight and flexible hands and feet
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