Loboc and Bilar, Bohol, the Philippines

April 2, 2011

I may have found the cross between a marmoset and a gremlin. If you mixed the furry monkey so tiny it could fit in the cup of your hand and that 80’s movie critter with huge protruding eyes, long bony fingers, pointy ears, and upturned lips together (with a good measure of Yoda thrown in), you’d get the cute mascot of the province of Bohol – the tarsier.

A Tarsier at Kanipaan Kingdom in Bohol
Mom at Kanipaan Kingdom in Bohol

The tarsier, endemic to Bohol and among the smallest primates in the world, was known to do a Linda Blair in The Exorcist – a 360-degree head rotation, minus the vomit. Like a gremlin, it was nocturnal and highly sensitive to light. Exposure to the noontime sun could be fatal. But unlike a gremlin that multiplied asexually when wet, the tarsier was very fragile. Exposed in the open during a thunderstorm without any leaf cover, the tarsier could die from pellets of raindrops.

Tarsiers at Kanipaan Kingdom in Bohol

Given such vulnerability, human contact was potentially traumatic, at the very least, to tarsiers. My family and I witnessed their wide-eyed suffering, for a fee, at a roadside stop in Loboc called Kanipaan Kingdom: The House of Tarsier and Rare Animals. Showcased in the middle of the hut were several tarsiers grasping the branches of a small tree within a screen enclosure.

A sign advising tourists to use non-flash photography went largely unheeded. The lone attendant could barely monitor an unruly group of camera-toting Filipino and foreign tourists who were stubbornly snapping away at the hapless creatures. The tarsiers with their prominent eyes looked shell-shocked at every explosion of light.

Mom Comforting a Tarsier
Tormented Tarsier

A  bit of humanity could ease the stress that these tarsiers were subjected to. As it was, they were made to stay awake during their sleep hours, much like Filipino call center agents on graveyard shift. Perhaps visitors allowed in the enclosure should be minimized to a manageable number at a time. Although that may create long lines and lead to less business, it would be a more respectful and ethical way to treat these living icons of the country.

A week or so before writing this post, the country mourned the passing of Philippine National Artist for Literature Edith Tiempo. A portion of her poem, Lament for the Littlest Fellow, reminded me of the tarsiers in the cage.

The littlest fellow was a marmoset.
He held the bars and blinked his old man’s eyes.
You said he knew us and took my arm and set
My fingers around the bars with coaxing mimicries
Of squeak and twitter. “Now he thinks you are
Another marmoset in a cage.”

Edith L. Tiempo

So who was the littler fellow – the tarsier or its tormentor?

Peek-a-Mom

In all fairness to Bohol, efforts were taken to protect the tarsiers and their forest habitat. A sterling showcase of environmental conservation in the province was the Bilar Man-Made Forest, which merited another stop. According to our van rental driver, the towering trees were planted by Boy Scouts many decades ago. A similar reforestation project by the government was conducted in Capitol Hills, Cebu.

Bilar Man-Made Forest
TTT at Bilar Man-Made Forest

However, I noticed the presence of a dominant species in this forest. The uniformly spaced and slender trunks of mahogany trees appeared to be the antithesis of the free-for-all vegetation growth of a natural rainforest. These foreign trees would’ve somehow disrupted the ecological balance of indigenous flora and fauna.

These brushes with nature in Bohol could be summed up by the feeling of having a butterfly land on my nose.

A Nosy Butterfly at Simply Butterflies Conservation Center
Grabbed by the Lapel: Mom at Simply Butterflies
“Spread your wings and prepare to fly….”

Still in the town of Bilar, we stopped by a butterfly sanctuary called Simply Butterflies Conservation Center. Michael, our knowledgeable guide, led us through an info-loading, rapid-fire lesson on the life cycle of butterflies. It was difficult to focus on the lesson while the subject was actually fluttering about.

Mom at Simply Butterflies
Butterfly Specimen at Simply Butterflies
Mom at Simply Butterflies Conservation Center

The tour culminated with a surreal surprise from a butterfly whisperer of sorts. The man practically flicked a butterfly, one with an unbelievably large wing span, to perch (or pose) on our noses long enough for a photo-op. It was uncommon to have a tantalizingly elusive creature right under, actually on top of, your nose. The experience was equal parts organic and orchestrated, much like the feeling of seeing a tarsier in a cage and being in a man-made mahogany forest.

Mom with Butterfly Wings at Simply Butterflies

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