Living in the shadow of the enchanted bubog trees and 7,000+ fruit bats
Jonathan R. Matias
Sulu Garden
Miag-ao, Iloilo Philippines 5023
www.sulugarden.com
with Katherine P. Sarabia and Coleen P. Sucgang
Photographs by Nick Foster. Aerial drone video courtesy of Essen Ferranco and Ramil Naciongayo.
Bats living inside the church belfry, inside roof of houses and under bridges used to be commonplace. But, with better housing construction, there are less and less places for bats of all kinds to roost. Recently, the town of Monster –Yes, this is the town’s real name– in the Netherlands just finished constructing a bridge over the Vlotwatering River for both pedestrians to cross and for bats to roost [1]. It is hoped that the bridge will be home to bats that will feed on tons of insects similar to the 1.5 million Mexican free-tailed bats that live under the Congress Avenue Bridge in Austin, Texas. Fruits bats suffer the same fate of a different kind. As urban sprawl and reduced forest cover starts to limit their habitats, fruit bats will soon end up in the endangered list. In the Philippines, fruit bats in Mambukal in the neighboring Negros Island have a sanctuary of their own in the forest. Other islands with roosting bats developed sanctuaries to save the population.
What makes Miag-ao’s fruit bats so different? They live within a real community of people, with an entire village practically under the bat roosting trees. And they have coexisted for the last 70 years; perhaps, longer than that according to other residents. Next to the Church of Miag-ao, one of the four UNESCO Heritage Churches in the Philippines, Miag-ao’s bat population is among the many favorite local tourist attractions.
Look at the picture above. Every tree is green except that brown patch in the center of the aerial photo of the town center. That brown patch is not because of brown leaves. It is the color of 7,000+ fruits bats that are, for lack of a better description, simply ‘hanging out,‘ waiting for dusk to fly out of the centennial bubog trees. North of that patch of brown is the Miag-ao Municipal Hall. About 10 meters in all directions from the center of the patch are homes, small restaurants, a billiard hall, and dormitories for university students. At least 500 people live around that patch of brown in two villages (barangays). What is more amazing is that practically under and around the bat trees are about 150 residents of barangay Bolho. The first article we have ever seen about the bats of Miag-ao came from the blog article written by my son, Jason, based on his 2014 visit to Miag-ao [2].
Click here to read more on the most recent updates from our partner organization, Sulu Garden Foundation.
See this video for the ‘home trees’ of Miag-ao’s fruit bats HERE.
The Bats
We have been able to confirm the species as Pteropus hypomelanus with the help of Philippine Bat Champions [3]. More information about this species can be found in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species [4]. Sulu Garden’s Conservation Project described P. hypomelanus as shown in the entry below [5].
“One of the most unusual new arrivals in Miagao is the fruit bat, Pteropus hypomelanus, also commonly known as the common island flying fox. They are the more gregarious types, normally congregating in trees with populations ranging from a few hundred to a few thousands. The Miag-ao fruit bats appeared on the scene in 2003 (some say as early as 2001) roosting in a giant hundred + year old bubog tree (also called skunk tree) 300 meters from the beach and in the midst of heavily populated area of town. Where they came from is unknown, why they stayed or chosen Miag-ao is even more a mystery. But, the population increased in numbers and became the new residents.”
We were actually wrong in our estimation of the appearance of the bats in the Miag-ao scene. As you will read below, recent interviews conducted with longtime folks living under the bat trees showed that the population had been up the tree since 1958. Perhaps the population was few in numbers back then to be noticeable by those folks like us living away from the roosting environment. The presence of the bats created some debate many years ago whether to drive them away or protect them. However, the municipality decided to pass an ordinance declaring the area around the bubog tree a bat sanctuary.
Fruit bats are relatively benign creatures of the night and adapted to feeding on the juices of fruits. I always thought that they eat the whole fruit. I was mistaken. These bats have sharp fangs to bite the fruit, but actually sip the juices that come out rather than eating the entire fruit. They do occasionally swallow the seeds and mostly pass the seeds through their digestive system. In that way, the bat poop helps in disseminating seeds to different areas. Without bats, many of our native fruit trees will have little chance of having their seeds dispersed.
I know you are so excited to know more about these fruit bats. So, here are few more fruit bat trivia for you [6].
They have the best overall vision of all the world’s bats.
They have unusually long tongues that unroll during feeding and roll back into the rib cage when not eating.
In each roosting trees are sub-colonies that comprise one male and typically eight females (Male fruit
bats must be among the sexually exhausted organism in the planet)
They typically roost in high trees to avoid predators, such as cats, snakes and other large mammals.
They have only one young at a time. Typical gestation period is six weeks. Until they are able to fly on their own, the babies cling on the underfur of the mother during flight.
Last and most kinky – fruit bats like oral sex [7]. I am not kidding! They do it before, during and after sex. Scientists are still confused as to whether fruit bats do it for fun or do it for “stimulation, lubrication or sanitation.” Maybe they just simply enjoy it?