The animal without a Scientific name (yet)!

Palawan White Squirrel

I find this squirrel to be very fascinating. This squirrel has an unusual white fur apart from the fact that this species of squirrel can only be found in a small island in the Philippines. It is also fascinating because there are only a few squirrels found on the archipelago yet there is no research being done about this new animal. The squirrel has currently little documentations and another fascinating fact about is that it still have not been given any scientific name to date. It's also intriguing that despite all of this, the squirrel is already poached by many local hunters. It saddens me to know such beautiful animal being extirpated even before it has been given a scientific name.

The glum future of Cavite's biodiversity

     With a mere existing forest area of approximately 86km2out of of the total land area of 1,512.41km of Cavite, the wildlife and the environment on this providence is surely in danger in the next few years. This approximate range gives us 5.6% forest cover. This means that the forest land area in Cavite is only 6% out of the total area of the province. This measurement was done on 2007 which means that the numbers could have declined further.

      This is very much alarming considering the rapid industrialization and urbanization of the province. The less than 6% forest area means so many things. One meaning of this is that the local government of Cavite is not giving any priority to its forest resources if these numbers are indeed correct. If deforestation continues on the province, the less than 6% forest area of the province would surely be extirpated in the next upcoming years if the government would not take measures for these forest areas.

      Cavite Province lies in the western monsoon forest zone which is ideal and suitable for the formation of tropical rainforest. The biodiversity of Cavite is thus very rich. Although there are less than 6% forest area on Cavite, it is very much apparent that there are considerable numbers of groves on the province. An example would be in the municipality of General Trias where abundant animals can be found. Reptiles and birds and a few mammals abound on the town although there are no protected forest area on the said location. The reptiles include geckos, monitor lizards, skinks, and snakes such as pythons and colubrids. The bird biodiversity in the region is by far the most fascinating which includes Kingfishers, herons, barn and typical owls, frogmouths, crakes, canaries, swallows, bitterns and a few more. There are also a few frogs. There were once shrews and civets on the town but they could have been extirpated too because of poaching and destruction of their natural habitat.

      The wild animals survives through the few groves which can be found on the area but the problem is that these few groves are slowly decreasing because of industrialization and urbanization. One example would be the cutting of many old-aged trees on General Trias because of the commercialization of the area. A large portion of a town in General Trias is underdevelopment as a subdivision under the name of Antel which had resulted to the loss of many old-aged trees.

       With overpopulation, urbanization, pollution, and government neglect on the wildlife of Cavite, it would not be surprising for the wildlife of Cavite to get extirpated in no time.

       We all know that our forest is very much important to our environment. There are myriad reasons why we should save our forest areas and we should act now before it is too late.