Philippine Tube Nosed Fruit Bat

The striking physical features from which this animal gets its name are its tubular nostrils, which are separate and are about 6mm long. Body coloration is sexually dimorphic, with females being a light golden brown or buff color, and males a darker, more chocolatey brown. Both sexes have a dark stripe extending from the shoulders to the tail and light spots on their ears and wings. The bats measure about 142 mm in total length, with tail 25 mm, ear 20 mm and forearm 76 mm.

Other Physical Features: endothermic ; bilateral symmetry

Nyctimene rabori is found only in tropical, forested areas, and probably mainly utilizes the high canopy.

Habitat Regions: tropical ; terrestrial

Terrestrial Biomes: rainforest

Nyctimene rabori is found on Negros, Cebu, and Sibuyan Islands, in the central Philippines.

Biogeographic Regions: oriental (Native )

Other Geographic Terms: island endemic

Little is yet known about the habits of this recently (1984) described species, but, like other Nyctimene species, it probably eats a variety of local fruits and perhaps some insects as well.

The discovery of N. rabori is of particular interest because, like three other genera of fruit bats, Nyctimene occurs on Celebes and in the Philippines but not on Borneo. This group therefore transcends Wallace's line, the zoogeographic boundary of the Oriental faunal region that follows the edge of Asia's continental shelf. This pattern of species distributions is very different from the pattern for other mammals, and is probably due to the vastly increased dispersal abilities of flying mammals.

Perception Channels: tactile ; chemical

Human activities have resulted in the loss of much of this tube-nosed fruit bat's forest habitat. If the forest fragments where it still lives are adequately protected, the species may survive.

IUCN Red List of Threatened Species: endangered

Tube-nosed fruit bats are dispersers of fruit tree seeds, and may help control pest insect populations.

Reproduction is known to occur in May and June, based on a small number of specimens that were collected while lactating (females) or in breeding condition (males). The duration of the breeding season and other details of the species' reproductive behavior have not yet been studied by researchers.

Key Reproductive Features: gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate); sexual

The Philippine tube-nosed bat breeds seasonally, with females giving birth to one young each year between April and May. Young females first become pregnant at around seven to eight months old, producing their first young four and a half to five months later, at about one year of age. By contrast, males are thought to reach sexual maturity a little later than females, at approximately one year of age. Lactation lasts three to four months, but little else is known about parental behaviour in raising the young (3). This forest bat is known to feed on wild figs, and thought to rarely forage far from its roost (3). Like many fruit bats, this species is also suspected to feed on a variety of other local fruits and possibly insects as well (2).

Both Mount Canlaon and a part of the mountainous southern fragment where this bat is thought to occur on Negros Island are designated by the national government as protected areas. Nevertheless, deforestation continues to pose a serious threat, including in the beautiful Twin Lakes Region that falls within the southern 'protected area' (6). If the remaining forest fragments were adequately protected, this rare and intriguing species may have a chance of survival (2), but if current rates of habitat loss continue, the future for this bat looks pretty bleak.

First described in 1984, the peculiar features of this species make it one of the strangest and intriguing of all known bats (4). One of the most bizarre and distinctive features is its separate tubular nostrils, which are about 6 mm long and project outwards above the mouth, and give this bat its common name (2) (3) (4). This species is also one of the few striped bats in the world, bearing one broad dark stripe down the centre of its back. There are also unusual yellow spots on the ears and wings (2) (4). The fur is soft and a pale golden brown to buff colour in females, and a darker, more chocolaty brown in males (2).

This bat is almost always found in primary, preferably lowland forest, but has also been recorded in lightly disturbed secondary forest (5). Known breeding populations tend to occur in only very narrow bands of forest near the tops of ridges and on the sides of tall mountains (3). Although recorded from 200 to 1,300 m on Negros Island (5), the lower limit is probably now about 800 – 900 m and rising as deforestation continues (3), but the species is found near sea level on Sibuyan (5). This bat roosts either in vegetation or large hollow trees in the forest, but never in caves (3).

As its common name suggests, the Philippine tube-nosed bat is endemic to the Philippines, where it is recorded only from the islands of Cebu, Negros and Sibuyan (4). The species has an extremely restricted range on these islands, having only once been seen on Cebu over 10 years ago, and with only a small population surviving in the hills of Sibuyan. The largest population exists on Negros Island, but is now limited to the relatively narrow strips of forest on the mountainside (3).

Classified as Endangered (EN) on the IUCN Red List (1).

Populations of this unusual-looking bat have declined dramatically since 1950 due to extensive habitat destruction, and the threat of extinction now lingers dangerously close (5). Habitat has been destroyed by clearing and illegal logging, leaving less than just 1 % of original old-growth lowland forest remaining on Negros Island, where the largest population of this species is found (3). Lowland rainforest on Cebu Island is virtually gone altogether, and it is not known if this species still survives there, as it has not been seen for over 10 years. Thus, the Philippine tube-nosed bat now clings to a precarious existence, edging slowly closer to extinction as illegal logging and clearing continue to reduce vital habitat ever further (4).

The Philippine tube-nosed fruit bat (Nyctimene rabori) locally known in Tagalog as Bayakan is a species of bat in the family Pteropodidae. It is endemic to the Philippines and known from the islands of Cebu, Negros and Sibuyan. It occurs in and near primary and secondary subtropical or tropical dry forests. It is often found near water. The species is named for Dioscoro S. Rabor who, with several others, first collected the species.

Other common names of the species include Visayan tube-nosed fruit bat and Rabor's tube-nosed fruit bat.