#biodiversityph

Say hi to Binturong for World Binturong Day!

Also known as the Palawan Bearcat, it is neither a bear, or a cat! They are more closely related to civets, and can be found in Southeast Asia. In the Philippines they can only be found in Palawan (though one was found in Sulu) (G Veron 2019). They spend most of their lives in the trees (aka they are arboreal), and eat small insects and fruits.

In a study by Myka Allam et al in 2022, Binturong in a certain area in Palawan seemed to love figs. Since Binturongs are also known to speed up germination of fig seeds after pooping them, Palawan Binturong might also be important to fig or ficus seed dispersal!

Follow the groups below to learn more about them!

Palawan Council for Sustainable Development (Facebook) Palawan Wildlife Rescue and Conservation Center (Facebook) ABConservation - Arctictis binturong Conservation (Facebook)

Climb a tree with a Brown-tailed dwarf cloud rat! It can be found in the Central Cordillera, where it is likely active at night or nocturnal, and lives most of its life in the trees (Heaney, Balete, et al. 2016).

It also has an extinct larger cousin, whose remains were found in the infamous Callao Cave complex (J Ochoa et al., 2021), where fossils of ancient humans were previously found.

Economic services give you a home. Ecosystem services give you life!

DON'T TOUCH! If you see any #Rafflesia species, leave them alone.

Isolated by a sea of time, mountains of the Philippines were once islands themselves. These are called Sky Islands.

They rose over millions of years as sea levels fell, and fault lines shook. Today, living evidence of these "islands of biodiversity" still exists: The Cloud Rats!

Met some of these mammals on my website:

The different shapes and sizes of Montipora setosa!

It is one of 300 coral species described and cataloged by Filipino scientist Francisco Nemenzo Sr.

Meet the Large-toothed batomys!

It is called “large-toothed” because when compared to its Batomys cousins on other mountains, it has the biggest molars.

All batomys can only be found in the Philippines.