Izah Morales
INQUIRER.net

A NEW rodent species discovered in May 2006 in Mt. Hamiguitan in Davao Oriental needs a wider area of habitat, researchers said.

Currently, the Batomys hamiguitan or the Hamiguitan hairy-tailed rat lives in the Mt. Hamiguitan Range Wildlife Sanctuary, which is 6,834 hectares in total surface area. However, this sanctuary is adjacent to seven Mineral Production Sharing Agreements (MPSA) also in Mt. Hamiguitan which cover 17,572 hectares, which is half of the mountain’s cover.

Leonilo Rivera, DENR Protected Area and Wildlife Division Chief of Region XI, said that expanding the protected area will take some time.

However, Edwin Domingo, assistant director of DENR Mines and Geosciences Bureau, clarified that there is no mining activity yet in Mt. Hamiguitan.

“We don’t have any conflict with [the] protected area. Normally, pinag-aaway kami [they let us fight]. Any and all protected and critical areas proclaimed as watershed are closed to mining applications, so if by chance, nagsubmit ka sa amin ng [you submit an] application, and we find out when we double check that you’re encroaching in this, we have to tell you that you have to [take] that out,” said Domingo.

Domingo said the mining applications have already existed prior to the proposal to make the area a protected area.

“It is not up to us in the DENR to make that categorical statement because in the NIPAS [National Integrated Protected Areas System] law, there is a procedural guideline. There is a process for consultation. We are not in the position to say, yes or no,” said Domingo when asked on their action on the requested expansion of the protected area.

Republic Act 7586 or the National Integrated Protected Areas System NIPAS law protects “outstandingly remarkable areas and biologically important public lands that are habitats of rare and endangered species of plants and animals representative of bio-geographic zones and related ecosystems.”

Through Republic Act 9303, Mt. Hamiguitan was declared as a protected area under the category of wildlife sanctuary in July 2004.

According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List, Mt. Hamiguitan includes at least 11 endangered vertebrate species.

“We are requesting the Protected Area Management Board to consider expanding the current protected to cover the majority of the habitat of the rare and restricted Hamiguitan hairy-tailed rat,” said Jayson Ibañez, coordinator of the field research program of the Philippine Eagle Foundation (PEF).

Researchers from the US-based Field Museum of Natural History discovered the Hamiguitan hairy-tailed rat during an expedition in the Davao region.

Researchers along with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and the PEF collected specimens from Mt. Hamiguitan and conducted a biodiversity survey that led to the discovery of the new species.

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We recently got this feedback from Mr. Romeo Ybanes.

Why haven’t your reporter and editor realized until this Feb. 12 issue that the ‘dolphins’ that were stranded in Bataan were in fact melon-headed whales. He could have asked the animal experts that checked the whales for the correct identity of the species. I’m sick and tired of reading wrong information in prestigious newspapers like PDI. This is the result of reporters who don’t check the facts before reporting.

This article written by INQUIRER.net reporter Alex Villafania identifies these animals stranded off the coast of Bataan as Melon-headed whales.

MANILA, Philippines – Tuesday’s stranding of an unusual number of melon-headed whales in the coast of Pilar, Bataan should spur the government to pursue more studies on the country’s marine mammals, an expert said Wednesday.

The story further quotes an expert that says that the melon-headed whales (Peponocephala electra) are listed under the family Delphinidae, commonly known as dolphins.

Also, check out this slideshow of actual photos of the stranded melon-headed whales:

On Tuesday morning, news of hundreds of dolphins stucked in the shallow waters in Bataan baffled scientists from the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR). What could have driven these animals to shore at the risk of drowning.

According to one Filipino scientist, the dolphins could be reacting to a “heat wave or disturbance at sea” such as a possible major underwater earthquake.

Some interesting details from the Izah Morales’ story on INQUIRER.net:

Dolphins, which are mammals, have ears that are sensitive to large changes in pressure underwater, he said.

“If their eardrums are damaged they become disorientated and they float up to the surface.”

…smaller schools of dolphins numbering “in the tens and twenties” had beached themselves elsewhere in the Philippines previously, but this was the first time so many had done so at the same time and place.

This story was eventually picked up by foreign media, including the Daily Mail, which collated photos of the phenomenon.

What drove those animals to swim to shallow waters?

(Photo courtesy of AFP)

Agence France-Presse

CHICAGO–Tickle a locust’s hind legs and two hours later it will be transformed into an insect ready to form a crop-devastating swarm.

While researchers know why — the tickling simulates the jostling that usually solitary locusts experience when limited food suppliers force them to crowd — they have puzzled for decades over how the radical biological transformation occurs.

A study released Thursday by the journal Science found that the brain chemical serotonin triggers the switch from aversion to attraction.

“Serotonin profoundly influences how we humans behave and interact, so to find that the same chemical in the brain is what causes a normally shy antisocial insect to gang up in huge groups is amazing,” said study co-author Swidbert Ott of Cambridge University.

The researchers discovered that locusts in swarm mode — called gregarious locusts — had serotonin levels three times higher than those in a solitary behavior phase.

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CHECK out this cool clip from National Geographic.