DENR Regional Office XIII

Brgy. Ambago, Butuan City, 8600 Website: http://caraga.denr.gov.ph/

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Regional Public Affairs Office Tel. No.: 341-32-29

Bats in Caraga’s Biodiversity ♥ July 2015

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Eonycteris robusta

Cynopterus brachyotis

Ptenochirus jagori

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B ATS according to wikepedia “are mammals of

the ‘order Chiroptera’ whose forelimbs form webbed wings, making them the only mammals naturally capable of true and

sustained flight. Bats are the second largest order of mammals (after the rodents), representing about 20% of all classified mammal species worldwide, with about 1,240 bat species divided into two suborders: the less specialized and largely fruit-eating megabats, or flying foxes, and the highly specialized and echolocating microbats. About 70% of bat species are insectivores. Most of the rest are frugivores, or fruit eaters. A few species, such as the fish-eating bat, feed from animals other than insects, with the vampire

bats being hematophagous, or feeding on blood”.

The Crucial Role of Bats in Biological Diversity

Bats are very important contributor to Caraga’s biodiversity. Fruit and nectar feeding bats are significant pollinator to many plants and they are effective seed dispersers for many tree species specially in our tropical forests. The bats eat night-flying insects including many agricultural pests even mosquitoes; hence they play vital role in managing insect populations. A study of Bat Conservation International revealed that “A single little brown bat can eat up to 1,000 mosquito-sized insects in a single hour”.

The 2014 biological assessment of Biodiversity Partnerships Project (BPP) has identified ten (10) sample species of bats in Surigao del Norte and Agusan del Norte forest areas. The BPP identified two bats, the White-Collared Fruit Bat and Cave Nectar Bat as vulnerable species based on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species. The other bats are called Pteropodid bats such as Cynopterus brachyotis, Eonycteris robusta, Eonycteris spleae, Macroglossus minimus, Megaerops wetmorei, Ptenochirus jagori, Ptenochirus minor and Rousettus amplexicaudatus, that “play a more important role in the dispersal of later successional trees than in the dispersal of pioneer species which clearly facilitate tropical forest regeneration and help to maintain species diversity by introducing seeds from outside disturbed areas,”

according to BPP biological assessment.

Nectarivorous bats like Eonycteris robusta, Eonycteris spleae and Macroglossus minimus deliver

valuable ecosystem services as plants’ pollinators, pollen and seed dispersant, which maintain genetic diversity of flowering plants.