"Ya Gotta" Love a Pigmy Tarsier

Tarsiers are weird-looking primates found in Southeast Asia, and the weirdest species in the bunch is the pygmy tarsier. These critters are native to the highlands of an Indonesian island, but were thought to be extinct for decades. In 2008, researchers finally tracked live specimens of the pygmy tarsier, which looks like a living version of the Furby electronic toy.

The Pygmy Tarsier (Tarsius pumilus), also known as the Mountain Tarsier or the Lesser Spectral Tarsier, is a nocturnal primate found on central Sulawesi, Indonesia, in an area with lower vegetative species diversity than the lowland tropical forests. The Pygmy Tarsier was believed to have become extinct in the early 20th century. Then, in 2000, Indonesian scientists accidentally killed one while trapping rats. The first Pygmy Tarsiers seen alive since the 1920s were found by a research team from Texas A&M University on Mount Rore Katimbo in Lore Lindu National Park in August 2008.

The two males and single female (a fourth escaped) were captured using nets, and were radio collared to track their movements. As the first live Pygmy Tarsiers seen in 80-plus years, these captures dispelled the belief among some primatologists that the species is extinct.