ISLAND GARDEN CITY OF SAMAL, Davao del Norte (MindaNews / 28 September) — Even without their “Mama Bat,” the bats here are assured of their stay, and even for them to grow in number, in the Monfort Bat Cave as their sanctuary.

The late Norma Monfort, also known as “Mama Bat,” took care of the bat sanctuary for decades until her passing in 2022.

Without “Mama Bat,” it is now her daughter, Diana Monfort—a member of the Philippine Bats for Peace Foundation—who has taken over.

The bat sanctuary holds the title in the Guinness World Records as the largest single colony of Geoffroy’s Rousette Fruit Bats. When the title was conferred in 2010, the award-giving body mentioned that the Bat Conservation International estimated the bat population in the cave at 1.8 million.

The 75-meter-long cave has four openings, labeled as maternity area/mating area, training ground (for baby bats), male bats ward, and senior bats ward.

In a phone interview, Diana emphasized that it is important to retain the bats’ home, more so because the cave is a bit “overpopulated.”

MindaNews visited the bat sanctuary a few months back, where its staff informed guests about rules while in the area and a bit of its history.

The cave remains off-limits to the public due to safety concerns as it houses not only bats but also predators like pythons, scorpions, and hunter lizards—species that help maintain ecological balance in the sanctuary.

Night pollinators

According to Grace Carisosa, the lead guide at the sanctuary during MindaNews’ visit, the bats’ role is especially critical for night-blooming flora such as durian, dragon fruit, and dama de noche, all of which rely on bats for pollination during their brief flowering periods.

She described the bats’ ecological contributions as akin to a form of unpaid national service, from planting trees through seed dispersal to sustaining native fruit production.

“[Bats] do pollination and are our seed dispersal agents. However, they do all of that during nighttime. While we are soundly sleeping at night, they are the ones working to continue the cycle of our ecosystem,” Carisosa said.

“In other words, there are bees, butterflies, and birds during the daytime. They are the ones who start the cycle of our environment,” she said. “At night, the bees take over,” she added.

Overpopulation

As early as 2019, there have been plans to start the construction of a “chiroptorium,” or a man-made bat cave, to decongest the Monfort Bat Cave.

MindaNews reported in 2019 when the late “Mama Bat” said she used to seek donations from companies to support her conservation work. She asked for two to three recycled container vans to be donated to her foundation, which she hoped scientists could use to replicate the cave environment. Diana said it was never pushed through.

“It’s tough to maintain because there’s no income,” she said. “All I have to this day are the ticket sales, but these bats are very sacred to me,” Diana said.

She said that bats roosting near the cave’s entrances face threats from crows, while those that fall to the ground are at risk of being preyed on by lizards, snakes, rats, stray dogs, and cats.

But still, the population has grown because “they mate, and they give birth to pups… It’s normal because of the efforts done in the cave,” Diana said.

LGU helps out

The Monfort Bat Sanctuary Area is receiving new conservation support through a bamboo-based development initiative led by the local government unit and its partners.

The city government of Samal, in partnership with the Philippine Bats for Peace Foundation and Mapua Malayan Colleges Mindanao, officially launched March last year the Lunsod Lunsad Project: Creative Bamboo Hub for Innovation, Research, and Development. The initiative is backed by a ₱1.

8-million grant from the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) under its Malikhaing Pinoy Program.

Rosabel Jusguan, city tourism and investment officer, said planting bamboos near the bat cave was selected due to its ecological compatibility with Samal Island and its role in protecting the bat sanctuary.

Jusguan said the island’s environment is ideal for bamboo growth, and bats prefer living in such vegetation. Beyond ecology, she said bamboo aligns with the island’s tourism identity.

“Bats like to live in these kinds of plants,” she said. Jusguan added that planting bamboo is “not just to highlight our city as a perfect bamboo place for tourism, but to also help the bats and even our constituents in the long run in terms of business.”

For Mark Samante, interim head of Ecoteneo (the environmental arm of the Ateneo de Davao University), the bat cave is serving a vital role in maintaining the ecological balance of the island.

He explained that bats are helpful in containing the insect population. While the bats of the Monfort cave mainly eat fruits, insects are part of their diet, too.

Samante emphasized the need for more studies to establish why bats exist in the area and to better understand their role in the ecosystem.

He admits that the academe is currently not focused enough in studying species like bats and their role in the environment. But once studies are established, Samante adds, these can determine how the academe “can further help and preserve [the bats] as a species here, not as a threat, but something that is beneficial to the people” in the community.

“Such studies will make it clearer how their species can be preserved while maintaining ecological balance,” he said.

He added that students, teachers, and the community must be informed of the importance of the coexistence between humans and bats. “Aside from the fruit bats, the very ecosystem here balances the ecological set-up of Samal,” he added.

“Those concepts are very important for the community and us, to help preserve the cave that Mama Bat Monfort had initiated,” he said.

Samante acknowledged that local communities already carry some awareness of the bats’ importance, partly due to the advocacy of the late Norma Monfort.

But he said there is still a need to educate people outside Samal about the ecological value of these bats.

The academe, Samante pointed out, could help out in educating students about bats, to remove the fear associated with the flying mammals and instead foster recognition of their role in the environment.

Samante also pointed out that the concern for coexistence should extend beyond bats, stressing the need to be conscious of how humans coexist with all forms of life, including animals and plants.

He warned that many of today’s environmental calamities stem from human actions, and issued an invitation to reflect on how people truly coexist with nature. (Ian Carl Espinosa / MindaNews)

This story is published with the support of Canal France International under the Media for One Health program.