Wednesday, November 26, 2008

The Pygmy Tarsier lives!


As many American news outlets have pointed out, the Pygmy Tarsier looks a lot like a Furby and/or a Mogwai from Gremlins. More important is that the Pygmy Tarsier is alive. And he is our brother.

"Tarsiers are unusual primates -- the mammalian group that includes lemurs, monkeys, apes and people," reports Reuters UK. "[Pygmy Tarsiers] are nocturnal insectivores and are unusual among primates in that they have claws rather than finger nails. They had not been seen alive by scientists since 1921."

It's nice to know that humans haven't killed off all of our ancestors yet.

Though I must admit, if a Pygmy Tarsier was anything like real Furby, well, I think the world might be better off if they'd never been found. My little sister had one when we were growing up and I spent a great deal of energy hiding her Furby under piles of clothes and blankets to make it shut the fuck up. It took a baseball bat to do the job right. Certainly not something I would ever do to a living creature.

And thank you to Emily Mahan for bringing this creature to my attention.

2 comments:

(Laura) said...

You're a monster.

sensitivepoet said...

Furbies are even creepier than these things. Fuck furbies.