Blog Owner and Post Author: Lainybelle

After attending a Strategic Planning Seminar at Samal Island in 2010, the Boss decided to take us to the world’s largest bat sanctuary.

The Monfort cave is protected and supported by the Philippine Bat Conservation to house millions of fruit-eating bats. The Monfort Cave was awarded by the Guiness World Records for having the largest colony of Geoffrey’s Rousette Fruit Bat. In 2006, there were approximately 1.8 million fruit-eating bats. But recently, they were estimated to be at 2.4 Million. That’s a helluva lottttttttt!

You may ask: Why the need to protect and conserve the bat colony at Monfort Cave?

Here’s some of the reasons, to wit:

1. Bats are insect controllers. One bat can capture 1, 200 mosquitoes in just one (1) hour! Amazing, ain’t right? One large bat colony can eat half a million pounds of insect pests each night making them the most effective natural insect controller . WITHOUT bats, insect pests population would increase. Without bats, we will have to rely on pesticides for insect control.
2. Bats are our essential allies. They are our major agents of forest regeneration, pollinating flowers and dispersing large quantity of seeds. Bats are also the most important pollinators of Durian, contributing to Mindanao’s fruit industry.
3. Bats are the renewers of rainforests. 40% of tree species depend on bats for seed dispersal and pollination. 90% of all terrestrial plants and animals live in rainforests. WITHOUT bats, rainforests regeneration will fail, threatening our biodiversity and stability of world climates.

These are only but a few good reasons why we need to help maintain our biodiversity. Monfort Cave is a treasure trove of fruit bats. We need to help protect a crucial cave in the Philippines.

These were the things we’ve learned during the bat visit. There was actually a trained tour guide that informed us of these very important things about bats. During the tour at the cave sanctuary, of course, we can’t help but pose for posterity sake