Samal cave hosts world’s biggest colony of fruit bats
By Germelina Lacorte
Mindanao Bureau
First Posted 06:45:00 02/05/2008
Filed Under: Conservation, Animals, Biodiversity
MANILA, Philippines -- “They don’t cover the sky like a cloud,” conservationist Jim Kennedy said of the world’s biggest colony of fruit bats flying out of their roosting cave on the Island Garden City of Samal.
“Rather, they’re like a stream, undulating in a red sunset. Or, maybe, like ants. They go out of the caves one after the other -- the male bats first, followed by females and the young ones,” he said.
Kennedy is one of the scientists from the Texas-based Bat Conservation International (BCI) who came over to the Philippines to help protect the colony of fruit bats.
Inside the cave on the 24-hectare Monfort property on Samal island, more than 1.8 million bats come to roost.
Bats, the most unloved and widely misunderstood among forest creatures, play an important role in the ecosystem and their loss can bring severe damage to the environment, according to Kennedy.
“Without the bats, I wonder if your durian trees will ever bear fruits,” he said, referring to the Geoffroy’s rousette fruit bats (Rousettus amplexicaudatus).
He said no other creatures come to pollinate the durian except bats, which are flying mammals.
“Durian brings about a million dollars a year,” he told reporters. “Killing bats will result in severe losses in farmers’ incomes.”
Bat festival, misconceptions
Kennedy, a BCI cave resource specialist, was with Dr. David Waldien during the weeklong bat festival on the Monfort property to educate people about the crucial role bats play in the ecosystem.
Kennedy observed, however, that prevailing misconceptions about bats were driving people to kill them.
In the Samal village of Bandera, for instance, people eat bats because they think they harm their coffee beans.
“They kill them because they think the bats have been causing damage to their crops,” Kennedy said after his visit to the village.
“But bats do not eat coffee beans. They eat fruits that are already overripe -- fruits that no one wants to eat anymore,” he said.
Biodiversity
Bats take away the sugar (nectar) from the fruits and carry them off to spread on the floor of the forests. By spreading out those seeds, they keep biodiversity alive, Kennedy said.
The BCI, which has more than 40-member groups of scientists and academics worldwide, tries to dispel age-old misconceptions about bats.
In June 2006, the BCI signed a declaration of understanding with the Monfort Conservation Park, the local government and nongovernment groups to facilitate the long-term protection of the Monfort bat cave.
Not easy to love
BCI decided to focus on bats as a conservation issue because bats are creatures that are not very easy to love, according to Kennedy.
“It’s easy to love pandas, with their cute eyes, or eagles, but nobody is paying attention to bats,” he said. “For most people, they’re very difficult to love.”
In the Bracken cave in Texas, insect-eating bats keep the population of harmful pests, such as mosquitoes and moths under control.
“Just imagine, 20 million bats can eat 20 tons of insects a night in summer,” saving “farmers millions of dollars in pest control,” Kennedy said.
Steward of Monfort property
Norma Monfort, the trustee of the Monfort Conservation Park, said she did not regard herself as the owner but a “steward” of the property, where the bats live.
“Bats belong to nature,” she said. “I’m only here to ensure that they are protected.”
She inherited the property, which was owned by the Ińigo family for close to a hundred years. It used to cover a 150-hectare area, a huge part of which was later sold and subjected to land reform by former President Ferdinand Marcos.
Refuge during World War II
Monfort remembers the stories told to her by her mother and father, how the whole family took refuge in the cave to protect themselves against heavy bombardment and air raids during World War II.
“I was still barely a year old then,” she said. “It was inside the cave where I learned to dance.”
But recently, the cave has become a roosting place of bats, which took shelter there after being driven out of the neighboring caves on the 300-square-kilometer island.”
At least 70 caves
Samal island has at least 70 caves, Kennedy said.
Monfort said that she used to take for granted the presence of the flying mammals until she noticed the hordes of bats coming to roost in the cave.
Bad conditions in other caves on the island must have pushed the bats to take shelter in the Monfort cave, where they feel a bit safer, according to Kennedy.
Fruit trees
That there are close to two million bats taking shelter in the cave could mean that there are sufficient fruit trees around for them to feed on.
Monfort said she was planning to convert the area for eco-tourism and conservation work to protect the bats, although, some land reform beneficiaries were agitating for the land to be distributed.
The conservation group and local NGOs are seeking to convince the village people to protect the bats.
Bats whipped and eaten
Kennedy said he had been hearing so many horror stories about bats being kept away from their roosting place by “wire nettings” just to steal their guano, a rich source of fertilizer. Or bats being whipped and eaten.
During the bat festival, training workshops were held for biologists and volunteers and nongovernment organizations to assess bat caves, identify their importance, the possible threats and options to minimize the threats, said Kennedy.
In the Philippines alone, there are 75 different bat species.
People hardly know them because they are nocturnal. After a whole night’s search for food, the bats return to the caves at dawn, Kennedy said.
Sometimes, the bats can travel 25 to 30 kilometers away from their roosting place, making it possible for them to feast on overripe durian in Davao City, which is just five minutes by ferry from the island.
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