Some experts feared that Indonesia's pygmy tarsier was extinct
A pygmy tarsier, captured this summer on Indonesia's Mount Rorekatimbo, hardly makes a handful. Scientists had thought the species was extinct.
By Alan Boyle
Science editor
updated 2:01 p.m. ET Nov. 18, 2008
A primate species that looks like a living, breathing version of the Furby electronic toy has been found alive in the forested highlands of an Indonesian island for the first time in more than 70 years, scientists announced Tuesday.
Three specimens of the pygmy tarsier, a nocturnal creature about the size of a small mouse, were trapped and tracked this summer on Mount Rorekatimbo in Lore Lindu National Park in Central Sulawesi, Texas A&M University.
Texas A&M anthropologist Sharon Gursky-Doyen, leader of the expedition, said the tarsiers were found on mountainsides above 6,000 feet (1,800 meters) in elevation, amid damp, dangerous terrain. "I actually broke my fibula walking around there," she told the conference.