The Tabuk Marine Park and Wildlife Sanctuary is a mangrove, fish and bird sanctuary located at Tabuk Island, just a short distance (about 10 minutes pumpboat ride) from the shores of the town of Palompon in the province of Leyte.
At the northwest side of the mangrove forest, at the section dubbed by locals as the “Bat Kingdom,” one would find thousands of sleeping giant fruit bats hanging upside down atop the mangrove trees.
Authorities have identified five different species of fruit-eating bats inhabiting the island. This includes the Giant Golden-Crowned Flying Fox (Acerodon jubatus) – a rare fruit bat considered the largest known bat in the world. The species is endangered and is currently facing the possibility of extinction due to poachers and food hunters. They are endemic to the Philippines.
Just before sunset, one can witness hordes of bats taking off from the island, flying out to far distant places to begin their nocturnal hunt for food. They would return to the island shortly after daybreak the following day.
These giant fruit bats have been cited for their major role in rainforest conservation and fruit trees propagation, thus earning the monicker, “The Silent Planters.” This they do via their natural droppings of seeds as they fly and cover long distances.
I cannot say for certain, however, that the photos here are those of the Giant Golden-Crowned Flying Fox.
But these, for sure, are huge bats!
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The Municipality of Palompon is in the province of Leyte, Philippines. It is 124 kilometers from Tacloban City, the Leyte provincial capital, and 66 kilometers from Ormoc City, Leyte. There are regular boat trips from Cebu City, 72 nautical miles away.
Source: Wikipedia & http://pinoyecotraveler.com
I hope our government will do something to prevent their eventual extinction.
I hope too that the LGU, the Province of Leyte and the government will help about this problem. These “Silent Planters” are big helpers of nature – they are planting trees. While people are sleeping (while people are just being lazy…), these giant bats are already doing it, so I would say to those poachers: just stop hunting them! Raise pigs instead of hunting bats! Then you have meat for food and at the same time earn money and I’m pretty sure those fruits which the giant bats are eating are also edible for the pigs… (You see, poachers, the bats were already planting food for your pigs!)
Also, having trees everywhere is a big help in alleviating global warming.
Thank you, Gerry Ruiz, your pictures are not only beautiful and magnificent but they also send messages… the intelligent people will understand what messages you are presenting in your pictures. I thank you very much for your site, thank you for being the eye of Leyte. I hope more people will see your site and your interesting pictures and understand them like I understand it.
Thank you, Delia for your insightful comment.
It is feedback like this which forms part of what I call my “psychic income” – basically my main returns from my blogging and photography endeavors. They are priceless and constitute what becomes my main source of inspiration. Keeps me going!
Hi! My family and I just visited Tabuk Island last week. But we weren’t able to take photos of the bats. Good job on this!