Distribution of the poster ‘Cave-dwelling bats of Pisan Caves, Kabacan, Cotabato, Philippines’ with the village chieftain and co-official. The local government have agreed to have a meeting and consultation on the status and conservation management plan for bat caves in the area

Despite of this noteworthy result, continuous anthropogenic activities imperils bat population in caves. Hunting and unregulated tourism and cave entry were among the pressures to cave and bats. Community discussion revealed that bats were hunted for food and trade in local households. Hunters prefer to harvest large roosting bat species such Rousettus amplexicaudatus, Eonycteris spelaea and Hipposideros diadema because they are abundant and their meat are then sold at a very low-price compared to known price in other areas. All caves were visited for tourism and other leisure activities such as spelunking and camping. Unregulated tourism in caves contributes to the pressures in cave sites. Presence of extensive vandalism in walls, damaged structures, and lighting use inside caves were evidence of bat cave mismanagement. The vulnerability of caves to encroachment is associated with the accessibility to cave where sites with large openings and near human settlements are heavily exploited. Another factor contributing to this mismanagement was the poor community understanding of the presence of cave bats and the ecological services they provide. A series of conservation education programs in the community and training of students for future cave bat studies was spearheaded in cooperation of the conservation group of the Department of Biological Sciences, University of Southern Mindanao with the hope to escalate cave bat understanding and appreciation that will lead to their protection.

With the information on hand, strengthening the started efforts and forging partnership with various stakeholders is an essential next-step forward to conserve the threatened population of cave bats in south central Mindanao. Coordination and presentation of results and conservation concerns in caves were steered among the local government unit and the environmental office of the village. Recently, with the new leadership of the village chieftain, we agreed to meet various stakeholders of the village that includes the tourism officers, ethnic indigenous groups, farmers, cavers, and communities residing near the caves to discuss the wealth (bats), conservation concerns, and management plan to create a sustainable cave system that will benefit the bats, the ecosystem and the people.

YOU CAN DOWNLOAD THE POSTER FROM OUR PHILIPPINE OUTREACH PAGE

Krizler C. Tanalgo was a grantee of the SEABCRU Small Grant for Southeast Asian Students 2012

Flying fox on Koh Trong Island on the Mekong River (copyright Gordon Congdon)

Flying fox conservation is one of the four SEABCRU priorities, and our first global action is to collate information on the current populations and distributions of flying fox species. Researchers from Cambodia  from the Institut Pastuer du Cambodge and Fauna and Flora International – Cambodia Programme (including SEABCRU steering committee member Neil Furey) recently completed a rapid assessment of flying fox colonies in the country (Pteropus vampyrus, P. lylei, P. hypomelanus), making an invaluable contribution to this global action. 12 colonies were reported, with colony size ranging from 200 individuals to c. 6000. Bats had been extirpated from one of the 12 sites, and worryingly, hunting of bats for bushmeat, trade and/or medicinal use was reported or observed at at six sites. The authors conclude that Cambodian flying foxes are heavily threatened and numbers are likely declining, and of course this has serious implications for the ecosystem services they provide. The project put together a great facebook page to facilitate information gathering and outreach https://www.facebook.com/CFFCPH/timeline.  

It would be great to see reports like this summarizing the distribution of flying fox colonies from other countries.

Ravon, S., Furey, N.M., Vibol, H. & Cappelle, J. 2014. A rapid assessment of flying fox (Pteropus spp.) colonies in Cambodia. Cambodian Journal of Natural History, 2014, 14-18.

For Download: Ravon et al. 2014. Cambodian Pteropus

Sedlock, J. L., R. P. Jose, J. M. Vogt, L. M. J. Paguntalan, and A. B. Carino. (2014) A survey of bats in a karst landscape in the central Philippines. Acta Chiropterologica 16(1): 197-211.

For a copy of this paper, please contact Jodi –sedlockj(at)lawrence(dot)edu

A fishing net inside the cave shows a common capture methods (photo: J. Sedlock

Many signs of past cave disturbance

Despite the fear-filled talk of cave-dwelling aswang, people apparently have boldly entered caves and exploited cave resources on the island for a very long time.   While many caves rarely had human visitors, evidence of past visits was obvious.  In some caves all resources worth extracting had been taken years ago—stalactites, phosphate, guano and the bats that produced the guano.  Many caves had chambers reminiscent of vast, abandoned and dust-covered mansions in horror movies—eerie and rich with untold stories of more lively days.  The wall of one cave declared: “guano discovered here in 1970.”

I give a full account of our findings in the attached report below, but overall the news was not good. For now can I just hope that there remain some undiscovered caves providing refuge for Siquijor’s bats.

Siquijor caves Sedlock

The 2nd International Southeast Asian Bat Conference held June 2011 in Bogor Indonesia presented the Southeast Asia Bat Conservation and Research Unit (SEABCRU) Cave Bat Priority group with a unique opportunity to collect and share information on the status of cave bats throughout Southeast Asia.  At the Cave Bat Priority Session, we distributed a questionnaire to assess the overall level of threat to cave bats, as well as the respondent’s knowledge on cave bats within his or her country of expertise.  The following report summarizes the results of the questionnaire, and represents our first step in a long-term effort to collate existing knowledge on Southeast Asian cave bats, identify gaps in our knowledge, and assess the status of cave bats in each of the Association of Southeast Asian (ASEAN) countries.

A total of 55 questionnaires were filled out, representing bat experts with expertise from 17 countries, including Indonesia (11 questionnaires), Malaysia (8), Thailand (5), Japan (4), Philippines (7), Taiwan (4), Vietnam (4), Cambodia (2), Laos (2), East Timor (1), India (1), Myanmar (1), Nepal (1), New Guinea (1), Pakistan (1), Papua New Guinea (1), and Singapore (1).

A major challenge to conserving cave bats in these countries is a lack of knowledge and awareness of the importance of cave bats.  Even among experts, only 5% reported having extensive knowledge on cave bats within their country of expertise (n = 55).

Ninety-four percent (n=52) of respondents reported overall moderate to high levels of threat to cave bats within their countries of expertise.  The top 5 major threats identified by respondents were deforestation (80% of questionnaires), cave tourism/caving (74%), cave bat hunting/collection (65%), limestone quarrying (56%) and guano mining (44%).

Other challenges to cave bat conservation that were identified included geographical barriers, political differences, funding, lack of public awareness on the importance of bats, problems of communication especially in countries with many languages, lack of information on cave bats, few experts on cave bats, and the limited time and lack of willingness among bat researchers to share data.

Almost half of respondents had no suggestions on conferences or venues within the country where cave bat conservation or research can be discussed.  Venues mentioned included meetings of professional societies of biologists, meetings of cavers, and multidisciplinary conferences on karst (Indonesia and Vietnam).  Groups that were identified as important to involve in cave bat research and conservation included government authorities (local- and national-level), conservation and land management agencies, Universities, non-governmental organizations especially international conservation NGOs, professional organizations of biologists, and caving groups.

Of the respondents who were aware of laws governing management of caves (n = 35) and cave bats (n = 45), more than half reported that no laws were in place in their country of expertise.  In Malaysia and Taiwan, all but one respondent from each country concurred that caves and cave bats are afforded no formal protection. On the other hand, 100% of respondents with expertise from the Philippines and Thailand indicated that governmental organizations provide protection for caves and cave bats. Respondents with expertise from Vietnam were divided as to whether such protection exists. We will explore this further to confirm which countries have laws to protect caves and cave bats.

Overall, the results of the questionnaire emphasize just how little we know about the status of cave bats in Southeast Asia.  Networking and sharing what data is available on cave bats is a necessary first step to conserve these important species.