Philippine bare-backed fruit bat
Also known as: Dobsonia chapmani · Cebu bare-backed fruit bat · Negros bare-backed fruit bat
Definition
The Philippine bare-backed fruit bat (Dobsonia chapmani) is a cave-dwelling fruit bat that once occurred on Cebu and Negros in the central Philippines. It takes its name from its wings, which attach along the middle of its back so that the fur appears absent on the spine. Long feared extinct after mid-twentieth-century records ceased, it was rediscovered in 2000 and is now classified as Critically Endangered.
Identities
| Database | Identifier |
|---|---|
| Wikipedia | Philippine bare-backed fruit bat |
| Wikidata | Q301434 |
| DBpedia | N/A |
Also Known As
- Dobsonia chapmani
- Cebu bare-backed fruit bat
- Negros bare-backed fruit bat
Examples and Analogies
Where most bats wear their wings like cloaks draped over the shoulders, the bare-backed fruit bat wears one a size too small: the membranes meet along the center of the back, exposing a naked midline that gives the species its name.
Usage Scenarios
The bat is cited in conservation science as a cautionary case of “rediscovered” species after being treated as possibly extinct, used in cave-management planning in the Visayas, and employed in environmental education on Cebu and Negros to show that forest and cave protection can bring species back from the brink of written-off extinction.
Strategies
Recovery strategies focus on protecting known roost caves from disturbance and guano extraction, restoring native forest around cave sites to secure food supply, enforcing wildlife laws against hunting and caving in nursery caves, and conducting targeted acoustic and capture surveys to locate additional colonies.
Security and Safety Measures
Cave visitors are restricted around roost sites because disturbing nursery colonies can cause young bats to fall and die. Researchers handling bats use gloves and rabies-precaution protocols, and bat meat consumption is prohibited both for conservation reasons and as a disease-risk safeguard.
Historical Context
The species was described in the early twentieth century from specimens collected on Cebu and Negros. As lowland forests on both islands were cleared and caves were heavily hunted and mined for guano, sightings dwindled; by the 1990s no individual had been recorded for decades and international assessors considered the species extinct. Its rediscovery in 2000 forced a reclassification to Critically Endangered and made it a symbol of hope for Philippine cave conservation.
Challenges and Controversies
Surviving colonies are tiny and scattered, and their exact locations are often kept quiet by researchers to deter collectors and poachers. Continued deforestation, limestone quarrying, and unregulated cave use for tourism and guano keep the species on the edge, and some conservationists debate whether habitat restoration can outpace the pressures on the remaining karst landscapes.