The Philippine Naked-backed Fruit Bat or Philippine bare-backed fruit bat (Dobsomia chapmani) is a megabat that lives on Negros Island and two small populations live on Cebu Island in the Philippines. Like other bare-backed fruit bats, its wings meet along the midline of their bodies, making it a very agile flier. It roosted in caves, in areas where little light penetrated the gloom. It was so abundant once that it left piles of guano, which were used by miners as fertilizer.

By the mid-1980s, the lowland forest was replaced by sugar cane plantations and the bat vanished. In 1996 the species was declared extinct by the IUCN as none had been sighted since 1964 but the bat was rediscovered in 2000. The species now survives in very small numbers. The bat lives in caves but comes out at night to eat fruit from local rainforests. After the forests were cut down to make way for sugar plantations, the bat population dropped drastically, and the few remaining ones are still hunted for their meat. Now the bats reside in the few areas of forest left and if these are cut down, the species is likely to go extinct. The forest where the bats live in Cebu is slightly protected in that it cannot be cut down but on Negros there are no conservation measures in place. Unless more is done about the situation, the species is likely to become extinct again.

 

Physical Description

The Philippines Naked-Backed Fruit Bat “Dobsonia chapmani” is a large fruit bat that lives in Southeastern Asia in the Philippines and the surrounding islands. From nose to tail, “D. chapmani” measures 218-221 mm and weighs 125-143 g. The wings of this bat connect to the midline of the back, giving it a naked/furless appearance.

 

Group Size

The density of this species as of today is unknown; though historically the size of the colonies would rarely exceed 300 individuals.

 

Habitat

The Philippines Naked-Backed fruit bat prefers limestone caves in the forest. The forest habitats, consist of naturally open and shrubby native vegetation such as: batino (Alstonia macrophylla), hindunganon (Macaranga sp.), tubug (Ficus septica), and matamban (Mallotus sp.), which grow on steep slopes. For food, the bat also utilizes the surrounding agricultural clearings that are planted with abacá (Musa textiles), gabi (Colocasia esculenta), and coconuts (Cocos nucifera). As of today only about 60 ha. remain of forested land for this species; all of which is outside of the protected Central Cebu National Park.

 

Diet

As the name implies, this species eats many kinds of fruit, so they act as an important species for seed dispersal.

 

Major Threats

Until only a few years ago this species of bat was thought to be extinct due to three common threats. The first is over harvesting of these bats for meat due to their large size. They once had moderate numbers but they were fairly easy to kill; that is why hunting has decreased for this species. The second and most devastating threat is deforestation which is inevitable because of the growing human population. The last, being the fact that no true measurements have been taken into effect to protect the habitat that is required for this species excluding a few minor areas in the Carmen municipality.

 

Secondary Threats

White Nose Syndrome possess a possible threat to all bat species including this fruit bat. Climate change, the change in weather, may disrupt breeding seasons and may cause changes to their limited habitat. Genetic diversity is threatened due to the population bottleneck that occurs when there is a low population density.

 

Conservation Efforts

On the Cebu Island, Carmen, the local government has organized a group of environmental protection coordinators who patrol and report violations in the habitat of the Philippines naked backed fruit bat. The duty of these coordinators is to survey cave "sanctuaries" as named by the municipal government and report changes in the habitat and hunting of bats. A reforestation project is underway as well. Thankfully many other towns are following in Carmen’s footsteps by becoming proactive in saving this bat. There is also a law that applies to both of the islands, which is the Republic Act 9147 or the Wildlife Resources Conservation and Protection Act. This Act, among other objectives, conserves and protects wildlife and their habitat. This species is also known as a flagship species in many areas in which it lives.