Tarsier

Evening nature program.

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TV presenter:  Megane zaru.

Foreign guest: In English?

TV presenter: Tarsier. 12 centimeter monkey. Spectacle monkey, if you will.

Foreign guest: Big eyes.

TV presenter: Cranium is mostly eye socket. They leap from tree to tree and as they land they close their eyes.

Foreign guest: Understandable. Close their eyes to protect them as they sink their teeth into their prey.

TV presenter: True. But you know, their eyes are fixed in a straight-ahead direction. Can’t swivel their eyeballs like humans. Like owls.

Foreign guest: Why not?

TV presenter: And another thing. They can leap 3 meters from tree to tree.

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Voice-over

Annoying thing about presenters, who present on a different topic every night, is that they give you a surprising fact and since they can’t say why, they dart on to the next feature. It’s the nature of TV.

Tarsiers' eyes are enormous and unique, aside from their non-swivelling characteristic; some neuroscientists believe that "they arose from an early, independent primate line of evolution" (WikiP). Could be a connection there.

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