The True Field Trip

        Biology is a field science. To truly learn its fundamentals, one has to go out and be in the field for a moment of time. To appreciate its beauty, one has to be in the wild. This is particularly the reason why I love Biology, especially Wildlife. Incorporated in the syllabus of few subject courses in BS Biology or Zoology program of MSU Main are educational field trips to various parts of Mindanao and Visayas.

       This semester, the Zoogeography and Biogeography class under Dr. Sherwin Nacua and Prof. Nonillon Aspe sailed off to Bohol Island, September 8. Bohol Island is known to have the smallest primate, the Philippine Tarsier, and a hundred plus of caves. Through our classroom discussions on Philippine Biogeography, I learned that Bohol Island was once connected to the Mindanao Island by a narrow land bridge during the Middle Pleistocene period, roughly about 160,000 years ago, the time when the sea level was 160 m below its current level. The Mammalian fauna of the two islands – Bohol and Mindanao – have close resemblance, as far as the theory of Island Biogeography is considered here.

      I anticipated the trip as the usual trip… But then I was wrong. It offered me something new.

     We met Reizl Jose, a professor of the Bohol State University, along with her students and an American Ph.D candidate to whom she render her help. This young researcher was a student of Sir Nacua, who once entered the Biology department with hope of becoming a medical doctor. But there she was, doing field researches! She interests me because I see in her myself. I entered Biology department in hope that’s the best preparatory course for medicine. But as my stay in the department progresses, I somehow developed the interest in pursuing further studies involving field researches.

      Ma’am Reizl has conducted several researches on anurans, birds, and now bats. As to my research, her Masteral thesis is entitled “The Volant Mammals of Mount Gabunan Range, Mindanao Island, Philippines.” Thanks to the power of the Internet. Sir Nacua told us that Ma’am Reizl has several published articles. And amazingly, she is a friend of Arvin Diesmos whose name is so familiar. Diesmos has several published articles as well about amphibians and I read them for my undergraduate thesis. More than that, she is a living proof of how field research could be so much exciting!

       That was afternoon, second day in Bohol. Sir Nacua told us that he’s meeting a former student and he needed 8 male students to accompany him. Ten expressed their willingness, but Sir Nacua made it very clear that only 8 can come with him. With no choice, two have to leave the group. None of us wanted to, so nagpapel-gunting-bato  na lang. Say goodbye to RC and Leo, the two unfortunate species. Sir Nacua testified that it won’t be easy, we’ll be entering a dense forest. We’ll get muddy along the way. And that is exactly I’ve been longing for. The true field trip!

       The jeep stopped at the middle of the road, I don’t know where was that. We have to trek going down. And I should say, it was so steep. No wonder, Sir Nacua never invited the girls to come with him. They would surely turn their backs and go home. Adventurous as ever, I felt a distinct kind of excitement and joy within me. I just don’t know, but I just simply like being in a dense forest. I feel it has so many undiscovered treasures, which most fail to notice. The way isn’t so really that long, in about hundreds of meters, we saw the cave. The sampling area of the Ph.D candidate.

      The mouth of the cave is relatively large with spectacular stalagmites and stalactites formations inside. We were not the first people to visit the cave. In fact, we saw a bottle of brandy. Inside is dark and slippery. With flashlights, we penetrated into the inside until we reach the dead-end.    

      Inside the cave are bats, hundreds of them! FYI: the special adaptation of bats in dark places is echolocation.

 

What made that experience so special is learning the actual standard methods in sampling bats. Ma’am Reizl showed to us their research methodology from the instruments they have to the data to be gathered. She even made us do the actual data gathering! She taught as how to properly handle bats without being bitten, as well. It is necessary to learn the technique of proper handling to minimize the stress and to ensure the safety of the handlers. The group is supposed to stay there up to 12 midnight, depending on the number of captured bats to be recorded. She shared that on a cave they sampled before, they stayed there up to 4am because they caught 200+ bats.    

Weighing the bat inside the bat pouch.

 After several attempts, I finally handled the bats! Their body is so soft and the hardest part, controlling your hand not to apply too much force unless you’ll kill them. 

No matter how I love to stay there, I can’t. We have to leave them. By 8am, we went to our lodging place. L

A souvenir picture. Form L-R: Jeff, Carl, Doi, Chan, Adonis, Raul, the Ph.D. candidate, Ishaq, Ma’am Reizl, ME, and Sir Nacua. Sitting is a forestry student of BSU.

This is the kind of field trip I’ve been longing for. Given other chance again, I would certainly accompany anyone else doing research of similar nature.