It is not just about the birds, the bees, the flowers and the trees. Mount Sicapoo, the highest peak in Apayao province in the Cordillera Administrative Region, is also about bats and wild pigs, deers and the environment-friendly mountain forest mice.
In a province which boasts of rich biological diversity, Mount Sicapoo is home to a diverse species of mountain forest mice that provide tremendous benefits to people and the environment.
The mountain is in Kabugao and Calanasan, Apayao province, although a portion is in Ilocos Norte, which is the more famous trail to its peak.
Mammals of Mount Sicapoo
A report on surveys of the mammals of Mount Sicapoo suggested that the mountain is home to mammal species that live only high on the mountain and might be genetically isolated from their nearest relatives further south of the province.
The report was written by Lawrence R. Heaney, Anna L. Petrosky of the Field Museum of Natural History based in Chicago, Illinois, and Eric A. Rickart of the Natural History Museum of Utah, Salt Lake City.
Started in February last year, the study aimed to conduct comprehensive surveys of the fauna and flora of Apayao.
The result of the study boosts the bid of Apayao province to earn the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization Biosphere Reserve title.
The study was the first published scientific account of the mammals of Apayao.
It was a collaborative project of the Philippine Eagle Foundation, the Apayao province, Department of Environment and Natural Resources, and Apayao State College.
Responding to a BusinessMirror interview via e-mail on May 18, Heaney, who has conducted extensive studies on the mammals of Luzon, said a manuscript on the study on the mammals of Mount Sicapoo has been submitted to a peer-reviewed scientific journal and expressed hope to see it published by the end of the year.
Mountain forest mice
During the almost three week the surveys were conducted, the group camped out in the woods near the peak of the mountain where they collected live specimen in three different sampling areas and elevations.
Small and large mammals, bats and bird species were gathered by the team.
Among those recorded were various species of, but closely related to, forest mice that are native to Luzon, four of which live on high elevation areas in the Central Cordillera.
The species were the Luzon shrew, Cordillera forest mouse, small Luzon forest mouse, the least Luzon forest mouse, the large Luzon forest rat, the silver earth-mouse, the Cordillera striped earth-mouse, the common Philippine forest rat, the Kalinga shrew-mouse and the Cordillera rhynchomys.
They were all basically mice that can be found in Luzon.
The report described the different species’s way of life, basically their hunting or feeding habits and diet.
Heaney, asked about their diet, said the small mammals, which were the focus of the report, feed on a wide range of foods.
“Some eat mostly tender young grass and some seeds; some eat only earthworms; one eats mostly crickets, small frogs and earthworms; one eats insects and any other small animals,” he said.
Completing the food chain
The mountain forest mice complete the food chain in Apayao ensuring ecological balance as they feed on worms, insects, and later on become prey to other animals themselves—some to snakes, lizards or birds of prey.
For one, the giant cloud rat, which eats bamboo shoots and tender leaves and bark, in turn, are eaten by the Philippine eagle.
The giant cloud rat, the largest of the species the group studied, weighed up to about 2.7 kilograms.
“The small species of mice are eaten by owls and by the small civets that live in the area, which in turn are also eaten by the eagles,” he said.
Healthy population, tremendous benefits
There’s a thriving population of mountain forest mice on Mount Sicapoo, Heaney said, largely because the natural forest is not disturbed by human activity.
He said the healthy population of the mice on the mountain has tremendous benefits to both the environment and people of Apayao.
“First, the forest of which they are a crucial part of provides the watershed for the people of Apayao and nearby provinces. Rainfall is highest up high on the mountain; when the forest is in good condition, the rainfall is absorbed into the ground and slowly released during the dry season, providing water for home use, agriculture, and industry. Second, the mice and other native small mammals provide the food base for Philippine eagles and other birds that are forming the basis for the ecotourism industry that is developing in Apayao,” he said.
Source of pride, no adverse impact
Moreover, Heaney said the presence of the unique species is the source of national pride adding that “very few other countries have such unusual and interesting animals.”
Finally, he said the native mice prevent the non-native pest rats that live around people from moving into the forest; that helps to prevent the pest rats from becoming even more common.
He added that the native mammals that live in the forest very rarely cause any adverse impacts to people.
“They avoid people actively, and are not known to carry any diseases to people. The damage that is done to agricultural crops and to stored food, and the diseases carried to people are not [caused by] native animals,” he said.
Pest rats, he said, are unable to survive in the forest.
“The non-native rats, the ones that people see, live only with people and the places where people are active,” he said.
Ecologically ‘very healthy’
Heaney said they observed that Mount Sicapoo is “ecologically very healthy and teeming with native trees,” including some that have survived generations and had lived over a hundred years.
“The natural forest is in very good condition and appears to be very stable. Many of the trees high on the mountain, though they are short and twisted, are probably more than 100 years old,” he noted.
One important factor linked to the forest’s health is the protection provided by the people
“This ecological stability is the result of protection of the forest and watershed by the people of Apayao. When a natural forest is allowed to maintain itself—when it is simply left alone—it is able to maintain its natural functions and require very little active management,” he said.
Unique forest, better state
According to Jayson Ibañez, director for Research and Conservation of the Philippine Eagle Foundation, being the highest point in Apayao, Mount Sicapoo is unique as it consists mostly of mid-to-high elevation (montane to mossy) forests.
“The surrounding forest across Apayao, on the other hand, is mostly lowland dipterocarp forests. There are dipterocarp forests in Apayao which is not as pristine as the unique montane and mossy forests of Sicapoo, but there are also spots where dipterocarps are pristine, and primary,’” he said, citing Marag Valley in Pudtol, Apayao, in an e-mail interview with the BusinessMirror on May 20.
However, he said, comparing the montane and mossy forests of Mount Sicapoo to Mount Pulag of Benguet, also in Cordillera, where farms have caused much deforestation and degradation even up to the peak, Mount Sicapoo is in a better state.
Local conservation area
Ibañez underscored the benefits of Apayao’s Lapat, a natural resource traditional management practice of indigenous people in the province, wherein an area is declared a sacred ground and becomes “off-limits” to disruptive human activities
“And since the entry into the Lapat areas is prohibited, they become accidental wildlife sanctuaries where animals reproduce and replenish any deer or wild pig mortalities due to hunting,” he said.
The DENR supports local conservation areas, such as the Lapat system.
DENR Assistant Secretary Ricardo Calderon, concurrent director of the Biodiversity Management Bureau, said more importantly, the department respects the way of life, including the cultural practices of indigenous peoples in protecting and conserving the environment and natural resources.
“We recognize local conservation areas like the Muyong of Ifugao, and Lapat in Apayao. These are traditional conservation practices and we have partnerships with Indigenous People’s in these areas,” Calderon told the BusinessMirror in an interview late last month.
In Apayao, he said the protection and conservation of the environment and natural resources, in a way, can be attributed to such practices by local folks.
Sustainable food source
Ibañez said maintaining the current pristine state of Apayao’s forest and watersheds ensure the survival not only of animal wildlife but also of the people dependent on nature’s bounty for food and water.
“Habitat is an important factor. Because there are adequate and quality food sources, shelter and breeding places and wildlife could thrive. Because people do not also overkill them, [animal] populations thrive,” he said.
“In places where deer and wild pig have been lost, its this evil tandem of habitat loss and overhunting which drive species to extirpation [extinction in some places]. Of the two, overhunting is even more disastrous because the population can be lost [even] when good habitats are available,” he added.
For Apayao, he believes its healthy forest also ensures the survival of the indigenous Isnag culture into the future.
“If you look at it closely, a forest ecosystem is the foundation of the knowledge systems and practices of the Isnag, as well as almost all Philippine indigenous peoples in the uplands. Healthy forests, therefore, allow the flourishing of cultural diversity,” he explained.
Image credits: Jayson Ibañez
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