🐾 Pets · Plants The Philippine Tarsier Tracks Prey Using Immobile, Giant Eyes

Beatriz9

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Found in the rainforests of Bohol, Leyte, and Samar, the Philippine tarsier (Carlito syrichta) possesses the largest eye-to-body-size ratio of any mammal on Earth.

Each eyeball measures roughly 16 millimeters in diameter, weighing more than the animal's entire brain combined.

Because these enormous visual organs are too large to rotate within their bony skull sockets, the tarsier evolved specialized cervical vertebrae that allow its neck to rotate a full 180 degrees in either direction.

This anatomical design lets this tiny nocturnal predator track insects in pitch-black forest canopies without moving its torso and alarming its prey.

©Philippine Biodiversity Management Bureau (DENR-BMB)
 

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