The tiny creature turns its head slowly through 180 degrees and stares, boggle-eyed as another group of noisy tourists takes its picture from just inches away.

This is the Philippine tarsier, one of the smallest primates in the world..It is a remarkable animal, just 10 centimetres (four inches) tall, weighing 120 grams (four ounces), with a rat-like tail, bat-like ears, and giant eyeballs, each one as big as its brain.

Its strange appearance is obvious, but what these tourists may not realise is that their very presence is putting the animal at risk.

The tarsier is nocturnal, lives in the forest, and is highly sensitive to daylight, noise and human contact. According to conservationists, if it becomes stressed it will kill itself by bashing its head against a tree or the bars of its cage. “People go near and they’re loud, or make a picture with the flash, or they’re touching them. Most of those tarsiers, when they become stressed they commit suicide,” says Carlito Pizarras, known as The Tarsier Man.

“They don’t breathe and slowly die. If you put them in a cage they want to go out. That’s why they bump their heads on the cage, and it will crack because the cranium is so thin.”

Pizarras is the field manager at the Philippine Tarsier and Wildlife Sanctuary in Corella on the island of Bohol, one of the country’s most popular tourist destinations. Unlike other tarsier attractions on the island, visitors at the sanctuary are allowed to look, but not to get too close, and definitely not to touch.