Tree Hopping Bats!

The Subic bats on trees along the Naval Magazine Highway

The sleeping giants

I last saw the Subic fruit bats in dipterocarp trees over at Cubi Point in the early 1990's. I was told that since then they have transferred to trees near the old Fedex area and some other places.  Now they cling onto several kupang tree specimens (Parkia timoriana) at the Naval Magazine near Triboa. The population is not as impressive as I could remember when I first saw it in Cubi Point.

On the kupang tree branch

I would assume that the bats I saw some 20 years ago are already gone.  New generations would have already taken over and they seem to be migrating to different trees in the vicinity. I wonder what it is which makes them transfer. I checked sources from the net for the species name of the Naval Mag bats. Lists say that there are a number of species like bamboo bats, flying foxes and the largest Philippine bat, Pteropus vampyrus lanensis.  Not sure which are they. 

Our guides also told us that the bats disappeared days before the last strong typhoon which made the Subic people worried.  They discovered the bats moved to some trees to the deeper parts of the Subic forest.  But after the typhoon, they went back again to their usual kupang trees. Bats move in mysterious ways!