Bats of Miagao
SGF conducts annual bat counts for long-term monitoring to provide crucial baseline data for understanding bat populations and developing effective conservation strategies.
Background & History
The annual bat count is the pioneering project of SGF in the community of Miagao prior to its establishment. Throughout the years, the SGF collaborates with government agencies such as the Muncipal Environment and Natural Resources Office of Miagao and the Communinty Environment and Natural Resources Office-Guimbal.
According to the townspeople of Miagao, bats have been coexisting with the people for more than 70 years. In the year 2014 (Matias), the bat population was counted to about 5,000 individuals and more than 7,000 (Matias, 2016) individuals before they transferred from the Bubog tree (Sterculia foetida) that they used to roost last 2018. They abandoned the tree after it “died”, but the tree now seems to recover three years later. As part of its conservation efforts, SGF continues to conduct its bat count efforts to provide baseline information to promote further studies on the bats and their associated environment.


Miagao is a first class municipality in the Province of Iloilo with 119 barangays and a total population of 68,115 with very rich historical stories to tell.
The most famous of course, is the Miagao’s Santo Tomas de Villanueva Church. constructed through forced labour from 1787 to 1797 during the Spanish period. Because of the artistic native motif sculptural relief carved on its façade, it was declared as a UNESCO World Heritage Church in 1993.
Another spectacular architecture that can be found in Miagao is the Britanico Bridge, formerly Sapa Bridge. The locals claimed that the bridge is home to mythical creatures like the White Lady and many more. But those stories only made the bridge more fascinating and authentic. It was built during the Spanish era and is located beside Sulu Garden, which was a bakery before the restaurant was constructed.
These and more old structures will capture your attention when you get to the municipality of Miagao. But nothing is more amazing than the tourist attractions brought about by nature…
Just after you arrive at the centre of the municipality, you will notice the strong smell of bat urine, not to mention the screeching sounds these bats make. But give it at least ten minutes, and you’ll just get used to the smell, like what the locals have become after decades of coexisting with bats in Miagao. You will see that most of the Agoho (Casuarina. Equisetifolia) trees and one Narra (Pterocarpus indicus) tree at the right side of Miagao Church have become the roosting sites of Common Island Flying Fox (Pteropus hypomelanus), the smallest species of its genus. That and more trees within the Poblacion area. They belong to the Old World Fruit Bats, the kind of bats that have the ability to see clearly and do not rely on echolocation to hunt for food.
P. Hypomelanus is geographically found in the Indo-Australian region, including the Philippines, Solomon Islands, and Papua New Guinea. Their body is fully furred and a noticeable golden dorsal part makes it easy to identify the Common Island Flying Fox from other species of bats, according to Ouilette (2006). This species is included in Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), which according to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources Administrative Order (DAO) 2019-09 is considered to be an Endangered species.



These bats have been coexisting with the people of Miagao for more than 70 years, according to the residents living within the area. In the year 2014 (Matias), the bat population was counted to about 5,000 individuals and more than 7,000 (Matias, 2016) individuals before they transferred from the Bubog tree (Sterculia foetida) that they used to roost last 2018. They abandoned the tree after it “died”, but the tree now seems to recover three years later.
Summary
The bar graph below shows the summarized result of the Bat population for 4 years based on the field work of the Sulu Garden Foundation and its collaborators.

The 2021 bat population resulted in a total average of seven thousand three hundred ninety-two (7,392) individuals. It was followed by the year 2022 with three thousand five hundred ninety-three (3,593) in January, thereby having a 51.39% decrease. During May of the same year, it increased to five thousand nine hundred eighty-nine (5,989) and subsequently decreased to five thousand three hundred fifty-five (5,355) in September. Hence, the year had a 66.69% increase and a 10.59% decrease respectively, reflecting changes relative to the previous data.
The following year, 2023, the bat population increased to six thousand five hundred thirty-one (6,531) on the January count with a 21.96% increase and it went down a bit in May to six thousand one hundred one (6,101) having a 6.58% decrease. After seventeen months, the November 2024 count, the bat population decreased to four thousand two hundred twenty (4,220). The latest data has a 30.83% decrease from the May 2023 count and a 42.91% decrease from the first bat count last August 2021.
Results
November
January
May
January
May
September
The dates of the survey for 2022 were January 16-18, May 19 and September 29. The SGF staff conducted it together with MENRO-Miag-ao and CENRO-Guimbal.
There were a total of 46 individual trees recorded as the bats’ roosting sites and it consists of twenty (20) species.
The 20 species of trees are: Acacia (Samanea saman), Agoho (Casuarina equisetifolia), Bubog (Sterculia foetida), Caimito (Chrysophyllum cainito), Coconut (Cocos nucifera), Duldol (Ceiba pentandra), Gmelina (Gmelina arborea), Mango (Mangifera indica), Kamansi (Artocarpus camansi), Lanete (Wrightia pubescens), Lunok (Ficus sp.), Mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla), Narra (Pterocarpus indicus), Neem (Azidirachta indica), Payhod, Rain Tree, Sambag (Tamarindus indica), Santol (Sandoricum koetjape), Talisay and Tipolo (Artocarpus blancoi). And there was also one Bamboo grass.
The Common Island Flying Foxes’ average total population in the town of Miag-ao for 2022 is four thousand nine hundred seventy-nine (4,979) individuals. The highest average count in a tree was from the Acacia tree with eight hundred fifty-two (852) individuals and the least was from a Neem tree with only seven (7) counts.
Figure 1. the total number of bats per trimester that the count was conducted.

September
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