While tending to the garden under an “umbrella tree” or talisay, I saw a pile of raisin-looking black objects on the ground. This was quite unusual because the talisay didn’t have fruits that size and shape. Naturally, I looked up to see where the pile came from and two little critters greeted me and stared at me with their marble eyes:
Known as kabag in the local language (use short ‘a’. not to be confused with ‘gas’ in Tagalog), these rodents come out and fly at dusk and feed on insects and fruits in the neighborhood. It was quite unusual for me to see them in a relatively well-lit area. I see them more often inside the parish church because it is cavernous and resembles a cave — dark and slightly damp.
After some quick armchair research, I still couldn’t find the exact species of these little buggers I documented. According to the descriptions on this website, I think they are more likely to be Cynopterus brachyotis or the Common Short-nosed Bat because another one that resembles this bat, the Philippine Pygmy Fruit Bat (Haplonycteris fischeri) is “absent in entirely agricultural areas.” However, another website does not list the Short-nosed Bat as a common species of Order Chiroptera in the province.
Maybe I could leave that to more learned taxonomists of the town or even visitors of the website.
balen santo tomas 