Bewitched by bats at the Bat Highway in Subic

I am not a fan of Batman or any bats for that matter. But seeing the bats in flight at the Bat Highway in Subic, Olongapo changed how I felt about these direful little creatures. 

The Subic Bay Protected Area’s virgin forest is inhabited by the largest and the smallest fruit bats in the world. At the Bat Kingdom forest reserve, tourists can observe fruit bats hanging upside down from trees waiting for the full moon to rise before turning into vampires.

The largest bats in the world; the Philippine Giant Fruit Bat (Pteropus vampyrus lanensis) and Golden Crowned Flying Fox (Acerodon jubatus)  can be found only in the Philippines. Its wings span up to two meters.

The colonies of flying foxes in Subic are one of the few large bat colonies left in the planet. These bats play an important role in maintaining and restoring forests by dispersing seeds of fruits and pollen between flowers.

Subic is fortunate to have not only the biggest but also the smallest bat in the planet, the Bamboo Bats (Tylonycteris sp.). Weighing approximately 1.5 grams and measuring about four centimeters in length, the Bamboo Bats inhabiting Subic Bay’s bamboo forests can enter the holes of a bamboo because of their flat skulls. These bats fed on insects and come out to look for food before sunset and returns by dawn to their bamboo homes.

Sadly, the number of bats in Subic is decreasing due to human activities in the area and the pitiless hunting of man for fruit bats. I just hope that people will realize the importance of bats in maintaining balance in a forest ecosystem. Like what Batman said: it's not who we are underneath, but what we do that defines us.