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Long-tailed macaques in the Philippines are understudied in terms of ecology and behavior, which includes their sexual behaviors, in their natural habitats. Masturbation is a natural, auto-erotic behavior rarely observed in the wild in most non-human primates. In this paper, we report an act of masturbation by a free-ranging male long-tailed macaque in a beach forest at an eco-tourism site in Tagum City, Mindanao Island, Philippines. The masturbation was performed by a sub-adult male resting on the handrail of a wooden staircase. A few seconds after masturbation, ejaculation was achieved. Although more detailed observations are needed, it is likely that limited access to female mates contributed to the male’s self-stimulation. This further calls for more scientific explorations on reproductive and non-reproductive sexual behaviors of long-tailed macaques in the wild. Moreover, this can be crucial for conservation purposes such as its application to the non-invasive collection of semen samples in wild populations.

Spiders are among the most ubiquitous arthropods that can dwell on diverse habitats, which include small-scale urban green spaces (UGS). To promote urban diversity, we assessed the awareness of a local community situated within UGS in Davao, Philippines about the ecological roles of spiders. Data were obtained by administering survey questionnaires to 80 households using convenience sampling. The survey revealed that the local community is knowledgeable on the occurrence of spiders in their area (97.5%), in which they are mostly acquainted with spiders of Pisauridae (25%) and Araneidae (20.3%). Also, the community has recognized the important ecological roles of spiders, in which they mostly acknowledged the role of spiders as a significant source of food for other organisms (71.62%). However, a high proportion of respondents also recognized the socio-economic benefits of spiders through spider wrestling (60.81%). Henceforth, the ecological roles of spiders could be subjugated as spider wrestling is practiced in the local community, which could be a possible threat to the spider population. Thus, we highly suggest to involve concerned local communities in urban biodiversity management for the conservation of spiders in the Philippines, which is highly at risk due to its perceived socio-economic benefits.

The community structure of avifauna along the urbanization gradient in Mintal, Davao Citywas surveyed and analyzed. A total of 4,210 individuals from 34 species belonging to 23 fam-ilies were recorded. Seven species are Philippine endemics and five are introduced species.Correlation and regression analysis showed a positive relationship between increasing vegeta-tion cover with species richness and a negative relationship with abundance. Oppositely, in-creasing urbanization (increase built-up cover, pedestrian and traffic rate) were observed tohave positive relationship to abundance but negative relationship to species richness. Thus, the avian community in the urbanization gradient of Mintal, Davao City follows the general ac-cepted trend that in heavily disturbed areas, species richness is at its lowest while total birdabundance is at its peak. This study also suggests the importance of green spaces with lessertraffic rate in urban landscapes that could support higher avian diversity which includes Philip-pine endemic species.

The Philippines is considered a megadiverse country. However, there are few published studies on its nonhuman primate (NHP) species (Carlito syrichta, Macaca fascicularis, and Nycticebus menagensis). Understanding the nature and extent of existing NHP research in the Philippines would help us to determine research gaps and opportunities. Thus, studies on NHPs of Philippine origin were retrieved from online databases including Google Scholar, ResearchGate, Primate Lit, the Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS), and relevant authors. Of a total of 107 studies on Philippine NHP from 1989 to 2019, most focused on Philippine long-tailed macaque (52.78%), and Philippine tarsier (42.59%), with far fewer on Philippine slow loris (4.63%). Fewer studies were based on fieldwork (26.17%); more were based on research on captive animals or that undertaken in the laboratory (34.58%), or used only existing specimens or data (33.64%). Studies on wild NHPs were mostly conducted in Bohol Island. In terms of the type of research, studies on diseases (38.60%) were the most prevalent for macaques; ecological studies (23.91%) for tarsiers; evolutionary, taxonomic, and systematic studies (40%), and ecological and natural history studies (40%) for lorises. Philippine researchers and collaborations with foreign researchers contributed fewer studies (43.93%) than foreign-only researchers (56.07%). In conclusion, although research on Philippine NHPs is increasing, there is a bias with regards to the species studied, the type of research, and study location. Conservation-driven studies are also lacking. These gaps offer opportunities for further research to identify threats to the survival of NHPs in the Philippines, and for the development of plans and effective strategies for their conservation.

This article presents the anuran species in urbanized areas, diet overlaps between native and invasive alien anuran species, and its implications on conservation and ecological health in urban environment. Visual encounter technique following the road as a transect was done to determine the diversity of anurans, and stomach content extraction was employed to analyze its diet composition. Results revealed a very low anuran diversity (Shannon-Weiner; 1.165), which is dominated by invasive alien anuran species. Jackknife 1 species richness estimator indicated that 77-100% of the anuran species in the area were already detected which includes three invasive; Rhinella marina (Linnaeus, 1758), Kaloula pulchra Gray, 1831, Hoplobatrachus rugulosus (Wiegmann, 1834), and two natives; Polypedates leucomystax (Gravenhorst, 1829), Limnonectes leytensis (Boettger, 1893). Additionally, assessing the diet of 33 randomly selected anuran samples revealed that Formicidae dominated their food item. Invasive anurans also showed more diverse diet composition compared to native frogs, in which diet overlaps were observed. In conclusion, the study supports the idea that urbanization decreases anuran diversity and supports the dominance of invasive anurans which compete for food with their native and endemic counterparts. Additionally, it is important to manage invasive anurans that dominates urban ecosystem which might affect the native and endemic species in the area and possibly in nearby pristine environment.

Long-tailed macaques are omnivores feeding on plants and animal matter. They are known to feed on meat occasionally, and it represents a very small portion of their diet. This paper reports a predation event by long-tailed macaques on a parachute gecko in Mt. Apo Natural Park, Philippines. Two macaques were involved in the predation: a juvenile macaque responsible for catching the gecko and a subadult female macaque that consumed the prey. There is no published comprehensive list of dietary composition of the species in the Philippines, so this report adds to the existing literature on meat-eating behaviors of long-tailed macaques. The most probable explanation for the observed predation in the area is that meat provides micronutrients for the macaques, although further studies are necessary to confirm this. In this paper, we provide evidence of their unrecorded animal-based food resource that is crucial to understanding their feeding behaviors that can be used for their successful management.

The technical limitations of capillary sequencing in providing insights on phylogeny have been greatly aided in recent years by the implementation of next generation sequencing platforms which can generate whole mitochondrial genome (mitogenome) sequences. In this study, enriched mitochondrial DNA of Cynopterus brachyotis from Mindanao, Philippines was sequenced using the Illumina MiSeq platform. A total of 653,967 clean paired-end reads was assembled using a MIRA-MITObim pipeline, resulting to a consensus mitogenome sequence length of 17,382 bases and a GC content of 41.48%, which is consistent with other published mitogenomes in fruit bats. The assembled C. brachyotis mitogenome was annotated using the MITOS online server and was able to resolve all mitochondrial genes, except for one transfer RNA gene (trnT) which may be further resolved by additional capillary sequencing of the region. Sequence analysis showed that the Philippine C. brachyotis is only 90%-91% homologous with other Cynopterus spp. based on its full mitogenome sequence. Phylogenetic analysis of fruit bat mitogenomes deposited in online repositories revealed that the Philippine C. brachyotis in this study has diverged from Asian Cynopterus, namely Cynopterus brachyotis and Cynopterus sphinx from other parts of Asia (100% bootstrap support) with the latter two forming a separate clade. This divergence at the species level was consistent with phylogentic inference using cytochrome oxidase 1 (CO1) and cytochrome B (cytb) gene markers. Our results strengthen the previously reported hypothesis that the C. brachyotis in the Philippines is distinct from its Asian counterparts and should be therefore elevated to a new species.

The “Species from Feces” DNA barcoding offers new opportunities to study the challenging taxonomy and systematics of Philippine bats using a minimally-invasive strategy that employs a short 200- bp mitochondrial encoded cytochrome c oxidase I (mt COI) sequence. A pilot application of the technique to five species of fruit bats collected from Davao City, Philippines revealed accurate species identification and the extended ability to assess genetic diversity and evolutionary relationships. The 95–100% sequence identity matched with the field identification of bats, including the endemic Ptenochirus jagori, although only 62% of the samples could be sequenced. A decreasing trend in genetic diversity was noted from widespread bat species such as Rousettus amplexicaudatus, Cynopterus brachyotis, and Macroglossus minimus to species with limited geographic distribution (e.g. P. jagori) or possible recent colonization (e.g. Eonycteris spelaea). Genetic diversity, principal coordinate analysis (PCoA), and phylogenetic analysis also showed distinct genetic lineages of C. brachyotis, R. amplexicaudatus, and M. minimus from their conspecifics outside the Philippines, while E. spelaea and the endemic P. jagori exhibited genetic homogeneity. The findings on genetic diversity and relationships were consistent with previous studies using longer COI segment or other biomarkers. In conclusion, the Species from Feces DNA barcoding presents a minimally invasive and pragmatic approach to explore bat assemblages with the additional utility to examine genetic structures and relationships, which may be used to support studies on diversity, evolution, and biogeography, thereby rapidly facilitate conservation initiatives.

Different nuisance behaviors of macaques have been reported in different parts of the world where humans and macaques have been living in the same habitats and sharing the same resources. In this study, nuisance behaviors of Long-tailed Macaques were documented in Puerto Princesa Subterranean River National Park using direct observation, survey questionnaire and by visiting the complaint section database. The attitudes and practices of the locals towards the macaques were also investigated. From the result of the study, it was observed that the most common nuisance behavior of macaques in Central Park Station was littering, while according to the locals, eating of crops was the most common nuisance behavior. There was no existing tourist complaint about the macaques in the area, however, park personnel reported that aggressive tourist-macaque encounters sometimes happened. These nuisance behaviors were observed to be linked to food security of the animals which results in negative interaction. Meanwhile, it was also observed that the practices of most people towards macaques in the area are still relatively positive despite the nuisance behaviors of the macaques. Only a small percentage of respondents hunted macaques, experienced keeping macaques as pets or experienced eating macaque meat. The direct observations revealed that the degree of human-macaque interaction in the park was relatively mild compared to the reports in other countries, partly because of the positive human attitudes towards the animals and the effective management practices in the area.

Jabon KJD, Gamalo LED, Responte MA, Abad RG, Gementiza GDC, Achondo MJMM. 2019. Density and diet of invasive alien anuran species in a disturbed landscape: A case in the University of the Philippines Mindanao, Davao City, Philippines. Biodiversitas 20: 2554-2560. The population density and diet composition of three invasive alien anuran species (IAS) (Kaloula pulchra, Hoplobatrachus rugulosus, and Rhinella marina), recorded from a disturbed landscape in the University of the Philippines Mindanao campus, were determined in this study. With the total area of 18 km2 covered, R. marina (3.89 ind/km2) showed to have the highest density followed by K. pulchra (0.83 ind/km2) then H. rugulosus (0.056 ind/km2). Furthermore, 20 samples of R. marina and 10 samples of K. pulchra were used for gut analysis in which all have stomach contents. Thirteen prey orders were identified in both species with different degrees of prey digestion. The Frequency of Occurrence (FOO) showed orders Spirobolida, Coleoptera, and Hymenoptera were constantly occurring in R. marina while only Hymenoptera for K. pulchra. On the other hand, Degree of Food Preference showed similarities with Hymenoptera as the most preferred prey in both species, especially for K. pulchra (2.8) as compared to R. marina (1.8). Accidental occurrence and occasionally preferred food items such as organic and inorganic matter were also present in both species. A notable record of a skink (Reptilia, Scincidae) as prey item was found in R. marina, indicative of its generalist and carnivorous diet and its potential impact on the native vertebrate fauna in the area. This study proposes that the occurrence of IAS with regards to their high density and variable prey preferences can be a factor disturbing biological diversity in an altered landscape.