Bohol Tarsier Conservation Area: Eyes Bigger Than Its Brain

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Bohol Tarsier Conservation Area

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Philippines Animals

Visited: May 23, 2023
Published: October 19, 2026

A person-sized tarsier mascot with large green eyes and a fixed smile, in a black sleeveless shirt printed with a tarsier, in front of large white BOHOL letters, with a man in a white shirt walking away on the left — Waiting.

The first tarsier I met in Bohol had green eyes, a fixed smile and a shirt.

The tarsier mascot facing the camera head-on, with large green eyes, a small nose and a smiling mouth, its black shirt printed with a drawing of a tarsier and the words WORLD’S SMALLEST PRIMATE, Tarsier, BOHOL, Philippines — Nineteen seconds later.

Printed on the shirt, beside a drawing of a more realistic tarsier, were the words WORLD’S SMALLEST PRIMATE.

The shirt was wrong twice.

The tarsier wearing it was the size of a person. And the world’s smallest primate is not a tarsier at all, but Madame Berthe’s mouse lemur, from Madagascar. The Philippine tarsier is small, just not that small.

This was the Bohol Tarsier Conservation Area, in Bilar, in the interior of Bohol, where Philippine tarsiers spend the day in the trees beside a footpath. Their representative at the entrance, I suspect, stops a certain number of younger visitors from ever reaching them.

Keep it down

A narrow paved footpath through dense forest between a wooden handrail and a long green net, with a few visitors further along — The way in, between a wooden rail and a green net.

Inside, the rule was silence. Tarsiers, we were told, cope very badly with stress, so visitors were not to make a sound. Nor were they to get close. That was for the staff.

Visitors handed over their phones, and a member of staff leaned in and took the close-ups for them.

A man in a yellow shirt holding a smartphone close to a Philippine tarsier on a slanting branch, the tarsier on the phone’s screen and a second phone in his other hand, with a woman in a cap blurred behind — Work in progress. He had another phone waiting in his hand.

The real thing

Close-up of a Philippine tarsier clinging to a mossy branch with its eyes open, ears up and long fingers on the bark, with a woman’s face blurred in the background — Eyes open, ears up.

A Philippine tarsier weighs around 110 to 140 grams. It does not have a fixed smile, and it does not wear clothes. On almost every count, the mascot had exaggerated.

Except the eyes. A single tarsier eyeball is bigger than its brain.

On that point, the mascot had held back.

The day shift

Close-up of a Philippine tarsier asleep with its eyes shut and its chin on a branch, long thin fingers gripping the bark, against a large green leaf — The same tarsier, up close and from further back. In four minutes of photographs, it did not move.

A small Philippine tarsier asleep on a branch under a large green leaf, framed by narrow palm leaves, its long thin tail hanging below — The same tarsier, up close and from further back. In four minutes of photographs, it did not move.

This one kept its eyes shut. Tarsiers are nocturnal, and the afternoon is their night.

After dark, I was told, they are a different animal. In a study at Corella, elsewhere on Bohol, researchers tracked wild tarsiers through the night. On average, the males covered more than a kilometre and a half a night, and the females more than a kilometre.

A Philippine tarsier clinging to a thin upright stem with its hands and feet, its face hidden behind its fingers and its ears showing, among green leaves — Wrapped round the stem. The face is in there somewhere.

The long fingers, and the long ankle bones the tarsier is named after, are made for leaping from tree to tree.

Their voices are harder to catch. Philippine tarsiers have been recorded calling at around 70 kilohertz, far above the range of human hearing.

The visitors kept quiet. The forest, for all we could tell, may not have.

After hours

A woman in a blue cap and glasses holding a large cup of yellow-orange drink up to the camera, in front of a red car — My guide, and a mango lemonade.

My guide on this private tour had shown me round cheerfully, with jokes along the way, some of them on the dark side.

By nightfall, the visitors would be gone, and the tarsiers would be getting up for the night shift.

Presumably, the mascot went home too.

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Location

Bohol Tarsier Conservation Area

In Villa Aurora, Bilar, in the interior of Bohol

Villa Aurora, Bilar, 6317 Bohol, Philippines

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Practical Information

Visiting: Philippine tarsiers are viewed by day from a footpath through the trees. At the time of a 2023 visit, visitors were asked to keep quiet, and only staff went close to the animals.
Visitor note: Not the same place as the Philippine Tarsier Sanctuary in Corella, also on Bohol.

Information last checked: October 19, 2026 (Location checked on Google Maps. Opening hours and admission prices are not stated.)

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