Surveys of Fruit Bats in Miagao
2022
Sulu Garden Foundation (SGF) has been regularly conducting bat population counts since September 2021. For the 2nd trimester of 2022, the count was conducted last May 19, 2022, with the Community Environment and Natural Resources Office (CENRO-Guimbal) and the Municipal Environment and Natural Resources Office (MENRO-Miagao).
The same visual method was used and based on the count last September 2021, there were forty-six (46) individual trees recorded, with fourteen (14) species. This year, there are only twenty-seven (27) individual trees left being roosted by the island flying foxes, with only eleven (11) species left. There was a 41.30% decline in the number of their roosting sites and a 21.43% decrease in the number of species recorded, compared to last year’s data.