Philippine Deforestation

Philippine Tube-Nosed Fruit Bat
Nyctimene rabori

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© 2002 (Photograph by P. Heideman)

The Philippine tube-nosed fruit bat survives only in narrow bands of lowland forest on two or three islands.

There are at least 73 species of bats in the Philippines, of which 25 are fruit bats. Among the strangest bats—admittedly an odd lot, even to someone who likes them—is a species discovered in 1984 and now documented on three islands in the central Philippines. The Philippine tube-nosed fruit bat (Nyctimene rabori) is average-sized by Philippine standards, with a wingspan of about 55 centimeters (22 inches or so). But many things about its appearance are not usual. Among other oddities, it is the few striped bats in the world—in this case, one broad dark stripe down the center of its back. Even so, most people would not notice the stripe, but would focus instead on the odd yellow spots dotting its ears and wings or, more likely, the bizarre nostrils that resembles scrolls of soft leather projecting above the mouth. Its fur is soft, generally the color of honey, and the eyes are large, dark, and gentle.
Tube-nosed fruit bats live in the remaining lowland rain forests of Negros, Cebu, and Sibuyan at elevations up to about 1,250 meters. They roost in the forest, probably either in vegetation or large hollow trees, but never in caves; the limited evidence suggests that they rarely fly far from home and virtually never venture out into agricultural land. Like so many other fruit bats, they feed mostly on wild figs, and they seem to be partial to soft over-ripe fruit.
Lowland rain forest on Cebu is virtually gone; if these bats still survive there (they were seen only once, ten years ago), they do so tenuously. On Sibuyan, they have only a small population in the hills. The largest population is on Negros Island, where less than one percent of their old-growth lowland forest habitat remains. These bats, and the other species dependent on lowland forest, now live principally, perhaps entirely, in narrow ribbons of forest, usually only a few hundred meters wide, around the shoulders of two mountains in the southern part of the island and two in the north. Each year, illegal logging and clearing reduce the limited forest habitat still further; each dry season, more of the rain forest goes up in smoke.

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