RARE ANIMALS AND ENDANGERED SPECIES IN THE PHILIPPINES

RARE SPECIES AND ENDANGERED ANIMALS IN THE PHILIPPINES

The nations with the most threatened species include: 1) Indonesia (128 mammal and 104 bird species); 2) Brazil (71 mammal and 103 bird species); 3) China (75 mammal and 90 bird species); 4) India (75 mammal and 73 bird species); 5) The Philippines (49 mammal and 86 bird species); 6) Peru (46 mammal and 64 bird species); 7) Mexico (64 mammal species); 8) Columbia (64 bird species); 9) Australia (58 mammal species); 10) Papua New Guinea (57 mammal species); 11) Ecuador (53 bird species); 12) Madagascar (46 mammal species); 13) the U.S. (50 bird species); 14) Vietnam (47 bird species).

Half the endemic species of mammal and bird in the Philippines are endangered. Between 1961 and 1998, more than 40 percent of the bird species from Mt. Isarog lowland forest on Luzon vanished, even though the mountain is a national park. Fifteen of the 18 unique fish in Lake Lanao in the Philippines and half the 14 birds on Cebu are extinct. Species hunter Lawrence Heaney of the Field Museum in Chicago who has worked extensively on the archipelago told National Geographic, “Acre for acre. the Philippines may have the most seriously threatened flora and fauna on Earth,”

The cloud rat of the Philippines is on the brink of extinction. Tender, meaty and size of a house cat, it has been hunted to the point of extinction throghout the Visayas. The dwarf water buffalo was once found throughout the Philippines but now is found only on the island of Mindoro. The Isarog shrew-rat has only been observed twice. Found in the mossy rain forests around Mount Isarog in southern Luzon, it survives almost exclusively on earth worms and resembles a miniature kangaroo. In 1997 two new species were discovered in the Philippines: the Panay cloudrunner, a nocturnal squirrel-like mammal, and Lina's sunbird, a species first collected in 1965 but misidentified as a known species.

Gray's Monitor lizard sell for up to $20,000 on the black market. Rarely seen in the wild, they reside in the canopy forests of the Philippines. In 2001, a new species of monitor lizard was found on the island of Panay.

Fifteen Carp Species Have Disappeared from a Single Philippine Lake

Yasmin Tayag wrote in The Guardian: It was a celebrated clan: a group of 17 carp species found nowhere else in the world except for an ancient freshwater lake in the Philippines. One so fat it could be fried without oil, another sought after for its delectable egg-filled ovaries, a third known, oddly enough, for its endearing overbite. Yet in recent years 15 of them have been declared extinct, victims of mismanaged fish farming efforts that accidentally introduced predatory fish into their home. In all likelihood, these invaders will continue to menace the native carp until none of them are left. [Source: Yasmin Tayag, The Guardian, June 29, 2022]

It’s unclear how the carp ended up in Lake Lanao, on the island of Mindanao, in the first place. Probably they swam up a waterway on a primeval land bridge to the now-separate island of Borneo, which itself teems with carp. Once in the lake, they began to evolve in ways that have been called “explosive” — and are a little bit funny.

The fish known as the bitungu (Barbodes truncatulus), for instance, was notable for its remarkably short lower jaw, which came up barely halfway to its upper counterpart. The result was a conspicuous overhang, like a diving board over a pool. Whiskers framing its lips drooped like foam noodles. Its “mouth seems to be open even when closed”, wrote one biologist. Indigenous locals called the Maranao, which means “the people of the lake”, were not overly concerned with its looks. Having built their traditions, culture and cuisine around Lake Lanao since at least the 13th century, this Muslim community knew the bitungu in another form: food. Though individuals were appetizer-sized — about the length of an iPhone mini, at best — they could become the centerpiece of a fine meal when fried, grilled or stewed en masse.

In the mid-20th century, major changes occurred around the lake. The Philippines, which declared independence from the US in 1946, had formed a Bureau of Fisheries that began to stock the country’s lakes with non-native species like milkfish and tilapia in the early 1960s and 70s, according to marine biologist Armi Torres. Unfortunately, these budding aquaculture efforts were conducive to stowaways. Bigger omnivores like the snakehead gudgeon and the tank goby, which spawned year-round and had a taste for carp, hitched a ride with the stock fish and gained a foothold in Lake Lanao.

“The Bureau of Fisheries meant well because their objective was to try and feed Filipinos, but they had no idea how quickly biodiversity could collapse,” said Gregg Yan, director of Best Alternatives, a Philippines-based group that works to mitigate damage caused by invasive fish. The construction of hydroelectric dams near the lake, the adoption of dynamite fishing, and increasing pollution only sped up the ecosystem’s demise.

From the early 1970s to 1991, surveys of local fish markets near Lake Lanao showed more of the invasive species for sale — and far fewer native fish. The bitungu was last observed in 1973. The International Union for Conservation of Nature declared it extinct in 2020, along with other members of the clan.

Memory of the bitungu is fading fast, and relics anchoring its existence to this world have dwindled. “Sad to say that the name bitungu is only known to a few [elderly] locals,” says Onaya Labe, an assistant professor of biology at Mindanao State University, “and they don’t know its meaning.” A collection of preserved fish from Lake Lanao, including the bitungu, was largely destroyed in 1945, when Japanese troops bombed the country’s Bureau of Science.

The only remaining image of the bitungu is a black-and-white illustration of a male fish from a 1924 manuscript. He might have been the glinting color of topaz, or perhaps a warmer shade of amber, with a pale belly and fins. His kind might have spawned once a year, or many. Though it’s assumed he preferred the warm shallows of the lake, some quirk of evolution may have prompted him to venture into the depths. We will probably never know.

Tamaraws

Tamaraws (Bubalus mindorensis) are also known as Mindoro dwarf buffalos. One of the world’s most endangered animals, with at most 200 of them left in the wild, They are found only on the 9,375-square-kilometer island of Mindoro in the Philippines. Fossil evidence suggests that they may also have occupied the island of Luzon. On Mindoro, they are restricted to three game refuges covering about 200,000 hectares. The refuges were created in 1969 by the Philippine Parks and Wildlife Office. [Source: Peter Gesch, Animal Diversity Web (ADW) /=]

Tamaraws was initially described independently by Heude and Steere in 1888 and 1889. Contrary to common belief and past classification, the tamaraw is not a subspecies of the water buffalo, nor is it a subspecies of the slightly larger carabao, which is classified as a subspecies of the water buffalo. There are some significant differences between carabao and tamaraw. The latter is slightly hairier, has light markings on its face, is not gregarious, and has shorter horns that are somewhat V-shaped. It is the second-largest native terrestrial mammal in the Philippines next only to the carabao.

Before 1900, tamaraws were widely distributed throughout Mindoro, inhabiting all elevations up to 2000 meters (6562 feet) and all habitat types — forests, wetlands, grasslands, riparian areas (wetlands adjacent to rivers) and bamboo thickets. Human settlement in the early 20th century led to large-scale deforestation and the conversion of forests to agricultural land. Currently, tamaraws inhabit Mindoro's abundant grasslands and secondary successional forests and can be found at 300 to 1000 meters (984 to 3281 feet) in elevation. Some researchers speculate that their preferred habitat is forest edge, providing access to forage, water, and cover.

Philippine Pangolins

Philippine pangolins (Manis culionensis) are arboreal and endemic to Palawan and nearby Philippine islands. Hunters sometimes use dogs to track these pangolins. They were considered to be a subspecies of Manis javanicus until fairly recently. The taxonomic discussion of Philippine pangolin began in 1998 and its classification as a separate species became largely accepted as a result of a study by Gaubert et. al. in 2005. The species is little studied. Only nine specimens of Philippine pangolin, all of them from museum collections, were used by Gaubert in his definitive study. Because of their reclusive, nocturnal and arboreal behavior they are rarely observed in the wild.[Source: Andrew Helmsworth, Animal Diversity Web (ADW) /=]

Philippine pangolins are endemic to four Phillippine islands: Palawan, Busuanga, Culion, and Calauit. They have also been introduced to the island of Apulit. They are found in lowland forests, grasslands, agricultural areas. Habitat destruction has also forced them into more developed areas.

On the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List Philippine pangolins are listed as Near Threatened. In CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild) they are in Appendix II, which lists species not necessarily threatened with extinction now but that may become so unless trade is closely controlled. /=\

Hunting and habitat destruction are the main threats to Philippine pangolins. Deforestation in the Philippine islands has led to a smaller range, especially in the lowland forests. Assessing the population size of Philippine pangolins is difficult because of animals’ nocturnal and solitary nature. Philippine pangolins, like many Asian pangolins, are hunted for their meat and scales The species is protected in the province of Palawan, and government agencies across Asia are enforcing restriction of the trade of pangolin and their scales.

Visayan Spotted Deer

Visayan spotted deer (Rusa alfredi) are found only on the Visayan Islands in the central Philippines. Among the rarest, least known, and most narrowly disributed species of deer in the world, they formerly inhabited the larger Visayan Islands of Panay, Negros, Cebu, Guimaras, Leyte, and Samar but now are are only thought to be found in three to four remaining fragments of forest on the islands of Panay and Negros. These deer were previously included in the genus Cervus as Cervus alfredi. They have also been considered subspecies of either Philippine deer (Cervus mariannus) or sambar deer (Cervus unicolor). The lifespan of the Visayan spotted deer is not known. Related deer species live a maximum of 12 to 17 years. [Source: Nathan Key, Animal Diversity Web (ADW) /=]

Visayan spotted deer when seen are most common in the dense interior of the islands they live. At one time they could be found in larger numbers from sea level to the tops of the mountains throughout the islands. The interiors of the islands are composed of thick rugged tropical forests that range from 750 to 1,000 meters (2460 to 3281 feet) in elevation. The mountains are drained by a series of short violent streams. Visayan spotted deer prefer areas that have undergone a natural disturbance such as fires or landslides. This opens up the canopy allowing the growth of tender plants close to the ground. /=\

There are thought to be only a few hundred wild Visayan spotted deer still in existence. On the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List Visayan spotted deer are listed as Endangered. The deer have a rating of B1 2c on the IUCN categories for critically endangered species. The rating B1 stands for area of occupancy of less than 10 square kilometers and found in severely fragmented groups. The rating 2c stands for the continuing decline in the quality of habitat. On the US Federal List they are classified as Endangered. In CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild) they have no special status.

According to Animal Diversity Web: The fate of Visayan spotted deer does not look good. If accelerated rates of forest destruction and hunting continue there will be no more deer on the islands in 10 to 15 years. Peasant’s alone account for 50,000 hectares of destructed forest land annually. Visayan spotted deer are a source of food for the native people of the Visayan Islands. Even though it is illegal to kill this species, it doesn’t stop them, A captive-breeding program was started in 1990 between the Mulhouse Zoo, France and the Philippine Department of Environmental and Natural Resources. The program has grown to three local breeding centers and a number of zoos’s worldwide. The program started with 13 Visayan Deer registered in the international studbook and had grown to almost 80 registered deer in the 2010s.

A survey in 1991 found that Visayan spotted deer had been extirpated over 95 percent of its range. The forests are cleared at an excruciating pace by landless peasants and families that were forced into the forest by the collapsing sugar and logging industry. The land that Visayan spotted deer once wandered is now used for farming then abandoned, causing the need for more forest to be cleared. The abandoned agricultural plots are slow to regenerate a secondary forest because of lack of nutrients available in the soil. /=\

Visayan Spotted Deer Characteristics, Behavior and Reproduction

Visayan spotted deer are relatively small. Adults stand 75 to 80 centimeters (30 to 31.5 inches) at the shoulder and range in weight from 36 to 59 kilograms (79.3 to 130 pounds). They have a fine, dense, and soft dark-brown coat on their upper body. They have spots on their backs and flanks, which they retain throughout their life. They have pale white fur on the underside as well as on the chin and lower lip. The ears and tail are relatively short. Sexual Dimorphism (differences between males and females) is present: Females are much smaller than the males. Ornamentation is different.

Visayan spotted deer are primarily herbivores (primarily eat plants or plants parts), and are also classified as folivores (eat mainly leaves). Among the plant foods they eat are leaves, wood, bark, stems and a wide variety of vegetation. They deer prefer the succulent vegetation that emerges after fires, landslides and other natural disasters.

Visayan spotted deer are cursorial (with limbs adapted to running), terricolous (live on the ground), crepuscular (active at dawn and dusk), motile (move around as opposed to being stationary), nomadic (move from place to place, generally within a well-defined range), social (associates with others of its species; forms social groups), and have dominance hierarchies (ranking systems or pecking orders among members of a long-term social group, where dominance status affects access to resources or mates). /=\ are social animals and are generally found in small groups with fewer than eight individuals. Sightings are very rare because of the high hunting pressure and dwindling population. /=\

Visayan spotted deer sense and communicate with vision, touch, sound and chemicals usually detected by smelling. During the rutting season stag deer will roar. Males are likely to have some physical interactions during the competition associated with rut, if these deer are like other cervids. There are likely some visual and chemical communications from females to males, indicating their estrous status. /=\

Visayan spotted deer are polygynous (males have more than one female as a mate at one time). They engage in seasonal breeding and breed once a year. Breeding occurs in November and December. The number of offspring ranges from one to two, with the average number of offspring being one. The average gestation period is eight months. The breeding season (rut) of Visayan spotted deer takes place from November to December. Following the breeding season there is a 240 day gestation period, with births in May and June. The period of nursing lasts from a few weeks to a few months. Young may stay with their mothers past the time of weaning. /=\

Dragon-sized, Tree-Dwelling Lizard in the Philippines: a New Species

In April 2010, scientists reported the discovery that a dragon-sized, fruit-eating lizard that lives in the trees on the northern Philippines island of Luzon had been confirmed as a new species. Deborah Zabarenko of Reuters wrote: “Hunted for its tasty flesh, the brightly colored forest monitor lizard can grow to more than six feet in length but weighs only about 22 pounds (10 kg), said Rafe Brown of the University of Kansas, whose team confirmed the find. "It lives up in trees, so it can't get as massive as the Komodo dragon, a huge thing that eats large amounts of fresh meat," Brown said by telephone. "This thing is a fruit-eater and it's only the third fruit-eating lizard in the world." [Source: Deborah Zabarenko, Reuters, April 6, 2010 ==]

“Discovering such a large vertebrate species is extremely rare, Brown said. The lizard, a new species of the genus Varanus, is skittish and able to hide from humans, its primary predators, which could explain why it has gone undetected by scientists for so long. Biologists first saw photographs of the big, skinny lizard in 2001, when those surveying the area passed hunters carrying the lizards' colorful carcasses, but the species at that point had never been given a scientific identification. In the next few years, Brown said, ethnobiologists kept hearing stories "about these two kinds of lizard that everyone liked to eat because their flesh tasted better than the ones that lived on the ground; this thing was described as bigger and more brightly colored." The two kinds of lizard described by the local people were two names for the same animal, Brown said. ==

“In 2009, graduate students at the end of a two-month expedition kept seeing signs of the big lizard. There were claw-scratches on trees and clumps of pandanus trees, whose fruit the lizard prefers. The clumps indicated that the lizards had eaten pandanus fruit and then excreted the seeds in clusters. "It was literally in the last couple days of the expedition, we were running out of money and food and this was the payoff: they finally got this gigantic animal," Brown said. Hunters who had heard of the team's interest brought a barely-alive adult male lizard to their camp. The team euthanized the animal and did genetic tests that confirmed it as a unique species, Brown said. ==

“DNA analysis showed there was a deep genetic divergence between the new lizard and its closest relative, Gray's monitor lizard, which is also a fruit-eater but lives on the southern end of Luzon, rather than the northern end where the forest monitor lizard lives. "They are extremely secretive," Brown said of the new species. "I think that centuries of humans hunting them have made the existing populations ... very skittish and wary and we never see them. They see and hear us before we have a chance to see them, they scamper up trees before we have a chance to come around." These findings were published in the Royal Society Journal Biology Letters, with additional work by scientists in the Philippines and the Netherlands. =

New Species of Beetle Discovered in Manila

Dominic Rowland of mongabay wrote: “When imagining the discovery of a new species, most people conjure thoughts of intrepid explorers, battling the odds in remote rainforests. But this needn't be the case, at least according to a new study published in Zookeys. The study reports the discovery of a new species of water beetle in the heart of the 10th largest megacity in the world: Manila, Philippines. [Source: Dominic Rowland, mongabay, October 30, 2013, Freitag H (2013) Hydraena (Hydraenopsis) ateneo, new species (Coleoptera, Hydraenidae) and other aquatic Polyphaga from a small habitat patch in a highly urbanized landscape of Metro Manila, Philippines ZooKeys 329: 9. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.329.5955, +++]

“During a routine training exercise for undergraduate biology students, scientists from Ateneo de Manila University discovered the unknown beetle hidden in the leaf litter of a small creek within the university's campus. The new species, Hydraena ateneo, named after the University in which it was found, is a tiny freshwater invertebrate measuring only 1-1.5 mm (0.04-0.06 in) in length. It is distinguished from similar species by its small size and by a characteristic straight section on its leg known as a metatibia. It belongs to the genus Hydraena, which are commonly known as long-palped water beetles. These are endemic to the Philippines, i.e. found no-where else. +++

“New species are discovered every year in the Philippines, but they are mostly uncovered in natural forests and remote mountain ranges. The discovery of a new species in the heart of a city with a population of nearly 12 million proved astonishing to the researchers and students involved . "I was so amazed that there are new species even in the Ateneo Campus in the middle of Manila," said Arielle Vidal, a student enrolled in the training. Although remarkable to discover a new insect in the middle of a city, the authors were not surprised to find a new species of the Hydraena genus. "The long-palped water beetles are in fact one of the most overlooked and diverse genera of aquatic beetles. Only 14 species of this genus—all endemic—are known from the country by now, but many more wait to be named and described," explained the paper's author, Associate Professor Hendrik Freitag. +++

“The new species was found in several other locations during the same workshop, leading the authors to hypothesize that the species had recolonized the area following extensive reforestation over the last 50 years. Such studies provide encouragement that reforested semi-natural landscapes within urban areas can still support significant biodiversity. However, the authors were keen to note that such encouragement should not be used to undermine existing conservation efforts. "This should not lead to the illusion that the ongoing dramatic loss of biodiversity in the Philippines can be reversed," cautioned Freitag. "A large proportion of endemic organisms are closely associated with primary forests. Therefore, it should remain a priority for nature conservation to protect the last remaining rainforests in the country." +++

Image Sources:

Text Sources: New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Times of London, Lonely Planet Guides, Library of Congress, Philippines Department of Tourism, Compton’s Encyclopedia, The Guardian, National Geographic, Smithsonian magazine, The New Yorker, Time, Newsweek, Reuters, AP, AFP, Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic Monthly, The Economist, Foreign Policy, Wikipedia, BBC, CNN, and various books, websites and other publications.

Last updated January 2025