Placeholder — replace: western tarsier clinging to a saplingWildlife of Danum · The night's big eyes
Western tarsier
Cephalopachus bancanus
A palm-sized primate with eyes bigger than its brain, clinging to a sapling in your torchlight — the night walk's most-wanted small mammal.
The animal
Field notes
The tarsier is all eyes and fingertips: a pocket primate that grips vertical stems, swivels its head like an owl and launches at insects with a precision that seems unfair. It can't move its enormous eyes in their sockets, so it moves its whole head instead — which is why a spotlit tarsier appears to be staring straight through you.
Finding one is guide-craft on the night walk: a slow sweep of the understorey until two coins of eyeshine catch, low down, unblinking. Keep torches soft and time short — those eyes are built for starlight, not your LED.
Where & when in Danum
Understorey saplings on the night walks near both forest lodges; the Study Centre's boardwalk and quiet trails are classic ground.
Best odds
Year-round on night walks. Success rides on a guide who knows current territories more than on any season.
Look for it on these
- Night safari — the guided night walk
- Bornean gibbon — the day-shift primate — its diurnal opposite
- Young Naturalists — 5D4N — children love the eyeshine hunt
Placeholder — replace: tarsier on a stem — replace with a true tarsier photo
Placeholder — replace: night-walk conditions
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Keep planning
Plan your trip
Enquire directly
Tell us the species on your list and your dates — sightings are wild and never guaranteed, but we know where the odds live.