Mt Pangasugan

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Mt Pangasugan is a mountain in the Province of Leyte in the Philippines. It is approximately 1,150 meters tall, and located to the north of the town of Baybay City. The mountain is densely vegetated, very steep, and home to a remarkable number of plant and animal species. It has been called "the last forest frontier in Eastern Visayas."

[edit] Ecological diversity

A study by Visayas State University (VSU) in Baybay City, Leyte [1] found many animal species listed by the World Conservation Union in the Red List of Threatened Animals (IUCN Red List), including the Philippine tarsier, Philippine flying fox, Fischer’s pygmy fruit bat. New records of the microbat (Hypposideros obscurus), a type of skink (Tropidophorus grayh), and two new species of the fish Goblidae (Stiphodon olivaceous and Stiphodon surrufus) were also found by the VSU survey.

VSU’s Natural History Museum collected 43,000 arthropod specimens from 377 families and 500 genera on Mt Pangasugan. New speies of orchid, Dendrobium (milaniae Fessel), Lueckel, and tiger bettle (Thopeutica milaniae), were named in honor of incumbent VSU president Dr. Paciencia Po-Milan, a renowned ecologist.

Other endemic species include the eagle-owl, Philippine hawk-eagle, Rufous Lord kingfisher, Philippine leafbird and miniature tit-babbler and flying lemur.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Abs-Cbn Interactive, Leyte mountain harbors endangered species in world list

[edit] External sources

Milan, et al. 1993. "Anthropod Abundance and Diversity in Ecosystems of Mt. Pangasugan, Baybay Leyte with Special Reference to the Coleoptera and Hymenoptera Fauna" PLITS 1995/13(3)

Lawrence R. Heaney et al. 1989. "Elevational Zonation of Mammals in the Central Philippines". Journal of Tropical Ecology