BIOL 181: Introduction to Philippine Wildlife

• BIOL 181 is an introduction to Philippine Wildlife by Eve V. Fernandez-Gamalinda, PhD.
• Unit 1 introduces Philippine Wildlife.

Unit 1 Topics

• Definition, Importance and Status
• People Behind the Philippine Wildlife
• Philippine Biogeography and Biodiversity
• Forest Habitats in the Philippines

What is Wildlife?

• Game species are wild animals hunted for products, recreation, or trophies.
• Wild animals are terrestrial vertebrates monitored and managed for exploitation or conservation per Sinclair et al. 2006.
• Animals and plants that grow independently of people, typically in natural conditions. (Cambridge Dictionary)
• Living things, especially mammals, birds and fishes that are neither human nor domesticated (Merriam-Webster).
• Undomesticated animal species also include organisms that grow or live wild in an area without being introduced by humans (Usher 1986).

Wildlife Definition

• Wildlife includes plants and animals in nature.
• Undomesticated species grow or live in an area without human intervention.
• Plants and animals occur naturally in ecosystems: terrestrial, freshwater, and marine.

Biodiversity

• Biodiversity includes variety of life in all its forms.
• It is a broad unifying concept, encompassing all forms, levels, and combinations of natural variation at all levels of biological organization.
• The international Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) formally defines biodiversity.
• Biodiversity includes variability among living organisms from all sources like terrestrial, marine, and other aquatic ecosystems and the ecological complexes of which they are part.
• Biodiversity includes diversity within species, between species, and of ecosystems.

Biodiversity vs. Wildlife

• Biodiversity encompasses all life forms at all levels in the biological hierarchy.
• Wildlife includes species (plants and animals) occurring naturally without human intervention.
• Biodiversity includes wild and domesticated species.
• Wildlife includes undomesticated species that occur naturally.

1.1 Definition, Importance and Status

• Wildlife includes wild fauna and flora, invertebrates, plants, algae, fungi, etc., in their natural habitats relatively undisturbed by humans.
• The definition of wildlife is confined to amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals in their natural habitats.
• "Buhay Ilang" is the Filipino term for plants and animals defined as wildlife.

1.1 Definition, Importance and Status

• Wildlife is an important natural resource for ethical, cultural, commercial, recreational and environmental uses.
• Wild animals are intimately connected with society, tradition, culture, education, economy, recreation, and ecology.
• The animals have made the planet a place of joy, harmony, peace and prosperity.

1.1 Definition, Importance and Status: Values

• Positive values of wildlife are ethical, cultural, ecological, scientific, aesthetic, recreational, commercial, economic, and game values.
• Negative values of wildlife include damage to agriculture, competition, diseases, and conflict with humans.

Ethical Values

• Humans proclaim themselves superior to wild animals, even though they are more ferocious, powerful, swift and adaptable.
• Three distinguished features of human beings are the basis: capacity to distinguish between right and wrong, sense of reasoning, and love and appreciation of beauty.
• Ethical values compel humans have no right to kill or destroy living parts of nature that includes wildlife.
• Ancient books, sculptures, religion, rules and philosophers have contributed to protection, conservation and control of wildlife and spreading the sense of love and co-existence to wild creatures.

Ethical values: An animal rights perspective

• Animal rights theorists maintain that humans and some animals share critical similarities (feel pain, have desires).
• Such shared capacities underpin the possession of moral rights.
• Wild animals shouldn't be killed, confined, or interfered in their lives.
• Humans have no right, nor duty to cull or manage, wild animals.
• Humans cannot take away land that the wild animals need to live.
• Habitats could be managed, provided animals continue to live the kinds of lives they have evolved to live and a wildlife policy suggests leaving wild animals alone.

Ethical values: Respect for nature perspectives

• "Respect for nature" refers to views concerned with protecting the value of naturalness itself and views focused on preserving whole species, on protecting the "integrity" of species, or on biodiversity.
• Native ecological communities, or ecosystems, are also of moral importance in themselves and should be preserved.
• The moral importance of individual animals depends on how far they promote or threaten the key environmental values at stake.
• Keystone species in an ecosystem will be particularly important, while members of an invasive species that threatens either native species, or ecosystem health, should be removed or killed.

Cultural values

• Wild animals have a relationship with human religion, culture and tradition.
• Examples of bravery and ferocity are cited with respect to the lion and tiger.
• The peacock has always been a source of inspiration and grace.

Cultural values

• Killing of insects is forbidden in religions like Budhism and Jainism.
• Wild animals should be preserved because the knowledge humans have about these animals is part of culture.
• Animals have been a source of inspiration for mankind and contributed towards art, architecture, literature and mythology.

Cultural values

• The ultrasonic technique used by bats might be inspiration for human to invent the radar.
• Echolocation is seeing with sound.
• Bats use sound waves and echoes to determine where objects are in space.
• Animals are inspiration for humans for many inventions and designs.

Ecological values

• Wild animals occupy the position of consumer in the ecosystem.
• Birds and mammals' seasonal migration helps seed dispersal.
• Birds and insects increase the diversity of genetic recombination and viability of the plant vegetation.
• Wild animals and birds are scavengers that help to keep the environment clean and hygienic.
• Wild animals and insects also act as a biological controlling agent.

Scientific Values

• Research workers conduct scientific studies to achieve different scientific goals.
• Before medicines are used by humans they are tested on animals.
• Knowledge of body functions of different animals, their interaction, and evolutionary relationships would be incomplete without animals who are dissected.
• The Rh factor in human blood was discovered after studying the rhesus monkey.
• Chimpanzes have helped human beings in conducting serological protein tests.

Scientific Values

• The common long nosed Armadillo has been used for leprosy research, black bears for kidney diseases, and African elephants as model for research on thrombosis.
• Studies on animal behaviors have helped psychiatrist understand the nature of human mind.
• Some of wild animals have medicinal values like musk pod of musk deer is valued as scent, fat of tiger or hornbill is believed to cure rheumatism, snake venom is used for anti-venom for snakebite and eggs of wild pigeon, jungle fowl and ducks are helpful in curing common cold.
• Wild animals have an immense scientific and medicinal value and with proper awareness can help in earning good will of humanity towards wildlife.

Aesthetic & Recreational Values

• Value which pertain to inborn natural beauty and artistic appreciation.
• The sheer beauty of wildlife has direct appeal to humans.
• The beauty of the wildlife has inspired humans to take pleasure in viewing them.

Aesthetic & Recreational Values

• Wildlife provides recreation to the general public.
• Sanctuaries, national parks, zoos are where public go for recreation.
• Integration of wildlife contributes tremendous economic gain to the tourism industry.

Commercial or Economical values

• Wildlife as a natural resource has great commercial value.
• Many industries such as fishing are as large as any other modern industry in terms of employment generation, output and income.

Commercial & Economical Values

• Along with fishing, fur and skin trade has also developed into a industry.
• Trade in certain items like musk, ivory, rhinoceros horn, crocodile skin, fur from monkey, and rabbit has threatened these animals and caused them to be on the verge of extinction.

Positive and negative values of wildlife

• Ecological and ethical are intangible value, while economic, scientific are tangible values.
• These tangible values benefit humans in the form of food, money and enjoyment.
• Wildlife can impact resources and human lives negatively.

Negative Values

• Wildlife has negative values like destruction of properties, predation, potential role as reservoirs or carriers of various diseases.
• Carnivores sometimes lift domestic animals impacting population.
• Loss of human life has been due to man-eaters carnivores.
• Some wild animals act as carriers or reservoirs of certain diseases.
• The positive values of wildlife, are far greater than its negative values.

1.1 Definition, Importance and Status

• The Philippines contains two-thirds of the earth's biodiversity and between 70% and 80% of the world's plant and animal species.
• Ranks fifth in number of plant species and has 5% of flora.
• Species endemism is very high and covers 25 genera of plants and 49% of terrestrial wildlife, and the country ranks fourth in bird endemism.
• The national list of threatened faunal species includes 42 land mammals, 127 birds, 24 reptiles and 14 amphibians.
• The Philippines counts 3,214 fish species with 121 endemic and 76 threatened.
• An administrative order issued a national list of threatened plant species where 99 were critically endangered, 187 were endangered, 176 vulnerable and 64 other threatened species.

The CITES Appendices

• Appendix I lists the most endangered CITES-listed animals and plants that are threatened with extinction.
• CITES prohibits international trade in these species except for non-commercial purposes, like to allow scientific research to occur.
• Trade may take place in exceptional cases if authorized by both an import permit and an export permit (or re-export certificate).

The CITES Appendices

• Appendix II lists the species that are not threatened with extinction, but may become so unless the trade is closely controlled.
• Includes "look-alike species" where specimens in trade resembles species listed for conservation reasons.
• International trade may be authorized by granting an export permit or re-export certificate which certifies trade does not affect the survival of the species in the wild.

The CITES Appendices

• Appendix III lists species at the request of a Party which already regulates trade in this species and seek cooperation to prevent unsustainable or illegal exploitation.
• International trade in species listed in this Appendix requires appropriate permits or certificates.

Need for Education

• Greater awareness of natural heritage
• Conservation education at primary and secondary level
• Laws protecting wildlife and marine life: Bioprospecting law (EO 247), Animal Welfare Act; Dolphin Protection (AO 185), Wildlife Resources Conservation and Protection Act (RA 9147).

Some Species of the Philippines

• Threatened Mollusks include giant clams, and Philippine Kuhol.
• Threatened insects include stick insects, and butterflies and moths.
• Endangered Species are rated as facing a very high risk of extinction.
• There are species native to the the country.

Some Species of the Philippines

• Threatened Fishes include Barbs of Lake Lanao, Sinarapan, and Asian Arowana.
• Marine Turtles and crocodile species are all endangered.
• Threatened Amphibians & reptiles include Phillppine Giant Frog, green sea turtle, and Negros Forest Frog.

Some Species of the Philippines

• Threatened Herpetofauna include Philippine crocodile and Gray's Monitor Lizard.
• Protected species are facing "a very high risk of extinction in the wild in the near future".

Some Species of the Philippines

• Threatened birds are pigeons and doves that include Pink-bellied Imperial-Pigeon, Nicobar Pigeon, Yellow-breasted Fruit-dove, Luzon Bleedingheart.
• Raptor species include Philippine Falconet, Philippine Hawk-Eagle, and Philippine Eagle,.

Some Species of the Philippines

• Threatened Mammals include Philippine Brown Deer, Isarog Striped Shrew Rat, and Oriental Small-clawed Otter.

Some Species of the Philippines

• Threatened Marine Mammals are species of Whales & Dolphins-Cetaceans, Dugong or Sea Cow-Sirenians and Seals & Sea Lions-Pinnipeds.
• Blue Whale are unconfirmed in Philippines.

People Behind the Philippine Wildlife

• Dean Conant Worcester (1866-1924) was an American explorer and ornithologist.
• He went to the Philippines in 1887 and built a controversial career in the early American colonial government.

Walter Goodfellow (1866-1953)

• Walter Goodfellow was a British zoological collector and ornithologist that discovered birds in Mt. Apo.
• Goodfellow collected specimens for museums but later concentrated on capturing live birds for private aviaries

Lt. Col. Edgar Alexander Mearns (1856-1916)

• Edgar Alexander Mearns was an American ornithologist that co-founded American Ornithologists' Union in 1883.
• He described the Bagobo Babbler, Leonardina woodi in honor of Major General Leonard Wood and the Apo Sunbird, Aethopyga boltoni which was named in honor of 1Lt. Edward C. Bolton.

Richard McGregor (1871-1936)

• Richard McGregor was an American ornithologist published the Manual on Philippine Birds. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/47757/47757-h/47757-h.htm

Masauji Hachisuka (1903-1953)

• Masauji Hachisuka was a Japanese ornithologist that published the Birds of the Philippine Islands.

John Eleuthere DuPont (1938-2010)

• John Eleuthere DuPont was an American ornithologist, that led significant expeditions in the Philippines in 1958.
• And Published his book Philippine Birds in 1971 by Delaware Museum of Natural History.

Dr. Dioscoro Siarot Rabor (1911-1996)

• Dr. Dioscoro Siarot Rabor was a Filipino Ornithologist and Conservationist who was known as Father of Philippine Wildlife Conservation
• Dr. Dioscoro Rabor led more than 50 wildlife expeditions and authored 87 scientific papers

Dr. Colin Rees

• Dr. Colin Rees is a British biologist who was Head of Environmental Unit of Asian Development Bank.
• Colin Rees published Birds of the Philippines and described 129 species of birds in the Philippines

Edward Dickinson

• Was a British ornithologist that focused on Southeast Asian birds.
• Dickinson Worked 5 years in Philippines working for Nestle and Co-authored "A Field Guide to the Birds of Southeast Asia"

Edward Harrison Taylor (1889-1978)

• Edward Harrison Taylor was an American herpetologist who post attending completing his bachelor's degree, he went to the Philippines and held a teacher's post in a village in central Mindanao.

Kenneth C. Parkes (1922-2007)

• Kenneth C. Parkes was an American ornithologist.
• He was the author of numerous articles on the biology and systematics of birds.

Dr. Lawrence R. Heaney

• Lawrence R. Heaney is an American biologist - that focused on biogeography, conservation and evolution

Dr. Robert S. Kennedy

Dr. Robert S. Kennedy is an American ornithologist that began work in the Philippine s in 1972.

• As a Peace Corps volunteer, he helped study and develop a conservation program for the Philippine Eagle.
• Kennedy Authored more than 75 papers and co-authored many scientific papers

Tim Fisher (1947-2010)

• Tim Fisher was a bird expert and birdwatcher.
• Tim Fisher Authored several papers documenting bird distribution.

Dr. Angel C. Alcala

• Dr. Angel C. Alcala is an Academician, Filipino Scientist was involved in biological science fields like such as herpetology, marine biogeography, and marine conservation biology

History of Philippine Wildlife Studies

• During the Spanish period - not much official interest in natural sciences and ornithology - An American Ornithology conducted expeditions During the American period - golden age of wildlife expeditions specifically on birds.
• During Japanese period - ornithology books were written in Nihonggo Post-World War II - Filipinos conducted expeditions with or without foreign collaborations

1.2 Philippine Biogeography and Biodiversity

• The Philippines is the World's 17 Megadiverse Countries.
• One of the 25 Biodiversity hotspot

1.2 Philippine Biogeography and Biodiversity

• Philippines is among the 17 megadiverse countries and has greatest concentration of unique species per area.
• Contains 60%-70% of the Worlds Biodiversity, with 52,177 Endemic species.
• Top 10 in terms of Endemism.

1.3 Forest Habitats in the Philippin

• Forests are valuable sources of resources due to environmental and socio-economic aspects
• Forests are disappearing because of continued deforestation
• Forest lands is a way to manage and protect
• 30 million is legally classified as forestland and 14.2 M ha (47.3%) is alienable and disposable land.
• Of the 30m, 50.2% is classified forestland and 2.5% is unclassified.