'Furby'-like rare primate found

NEW YORK - A tiny animal some scientists thought was extinct reared its precious head in Indonesia recently, and a team of American scientists was there to make the discovery. The pygmy tarsier, a nocturnal primate, had not been seen alive in almost a century.

Sharon Gursky-Doyen, an anthropology professor at Texas A&M , led the two-month expedition to Lore Lindu National Park on the island of Sulawesi over the summer. She said her memory isn't perfect, but she thinks it was the morning of Aug. 21 when a team member saw a palm-sized pygmy tarsier bouncing around in a mist net, and of course, awoke the others as if it was Christmas.

"It was extreme euphoria," Gursky-Doyen said in a telephone interview Thursday. "I was so nervous, I didn't want to forget anything or screw it up somehow."

The animal hadn't been spotted in more than 80 years, but the trip, funded by the National Geographic Society , Conservation International and Primate Conservation Inc. , yielded a total of three catches.

Gursky-Doyen said this isn't the end of a mystery, but the beginning of a new chapter in her research.

"The next step will be to return to Sulawesi, probably next summer," she said.