Establishing Conservation Priorities for Philippine Tarsiers (Tarsius syrichta) Using Phylogeographic Techniques to Identify Evolutionary Significant Units (National Geographic Society 8446-08; R. Brown, J. Weghorst, M. Shekelle, I. Neri-Arboleda, M. Diesmos, and L. Duya).

Primarily because of its unusual appearance and enigmatic behavior, the Philippine tarsier is now one of the country’s primary flagship species for conservation. Nevertheless, very little is known about its taxonomic diversity and conservation status. IUCN currently lists the species as "Data Defficient" or "Near Threatened," and currently all populations are considered to belong to a single species (Tarsius syrichta).

We propose a comprehensive survey of Philippine tarsiers in order to determine the true number of evolutionary lineages (species) in the country, to identify evolutionary significant units for conservation, to identify threats specific to each island population, and to properly enumerate the distributions of each genetically distinct lineage.

We have initiated a collaboration with a large number of primatologists, government and non-government biologists, protected area stakeholders, and conservation biologists with interests in the Philippines (Above: Dr. Irene Arboleda-Neri in the field with mammalogists on western Mindanao)

Results from our work will be made immediately available to the scientific and conservation communities through scientific publications, popular articles, local education campaigns, and freely served online databases.