Is the Philippine tarsier endangered?

The IUCN Red List (2020) lists Carlito syrichta as Near Threatened with a decreasing population trend, driven mainly by habitat loss on Bohol and across the Visayas.

Do captive tarsiers help the species survive?

Largely no. Tarsiers stress severely in confinement and rarely live past 5 years captive, versus roughly 24 years in the wild. Conservation depends on protecting forest habitat, not captivity.

Bohol · Carlito syrichta

An island losing its forest, one patch at a time.

Each green patch is woodland; each amber dot a tarsier. Drag the year and watch habitat — and the population that depends on it — recede.

Year

2025

Forest cover

— km²

Wild population

—

IUCN status

Near Threatened

Scenario

Year2025

Deforestation rate1.2 %/yr

Sanctuary expansion10 km²/decade

Forest remaining—

—

How to read it

The blob is Bohol. Green patches are forest; their count tracks the modelled forest cover. Amber dots are tarsiers, scaled to the live population estimate. As you push the year forward or raise deforestation, patches vanish and dots wink out. Sanctuary expansion claws a little forest back after 1997.

The numbers behind it

Bohol forest in 1985: ~900 km². By 2025: ~360 km² (~40% remaining). Loss accelerated 1990–2010, then slowed after sanctuary creation in 1997.

Tarsier density runs about 16 / km² in healthy forest, so population is just density × forest cover. Wild estimates sit in the 5,000–10,000 range; the Corella captive group is roughly 120.

IUCN bands here key off population: <1,000 Critically Endangered, <5,000 Endangered, <10,000 Vulnerable, otherwise Near Threatened.

Why captivity doesn't save them

Tarsiers stress-suicide in confinement — head-banging, refusing food. Captive survival is <5 years against roughly 24 in the wild. Sanctuary "viewing" tourism arguably accelerates decline by stressing the wild populations it displays. The only real lever is forest.

Citations

IUCN Red List (2020) — Carlito syrichta Near Threatened, pop. trend decreasing.
Neri-Arboleda et al. (2002) — Bohol tarsier density & habitat, J. Zool. 257, 387.
FMB-DENR (2020) — Forest Cover Statistics, Bohol & Visayas.
Brown et al. (2013) — Philippine tarsier taxonomy, PLoS ONE 8, e62519.
Philippine Tarsier Foundation — Corella sanctuary monitoring.

Built by Joshua Chua · Fable rebuild · vanilla JS + Canvas