Philippines takes a giant leap forward

Tours launched at Mt. Iglit Baco Reservation where tourists can view the animal from 50 metres

Kali, a four-year old tamaraw, was cuddled like a precious baby when he was born on June 24, 1999, in south Luzon. There was even a local contest to name him. The winner, Nova Embanecido, a student, said the baby tamaraw which belongs to a species of endangered water buffalos known for their ferocity, should be called Kalikasang Bagong Sibol (environment's first born), or Kali, for short.

Kali was an instant celebrity because he was the first tamaraw to be born to captive parents since the Tamaraw Conservation Programme (TCP) established a 280-hectare gene-pool farm in Canturoy, Manoot village in Mindoro in 1980. The tamaraws are found only in the Philippines, and in only one of the country's 7,000 islands – Mindoro.

Kali's mother Mimi, 18, his father Charlie, 20, and Dabu, another 20-year-old tamaraw, were captured by the TCP in 1992 for natural breeding. Earlier, from 1982 to 1990, the TCP had captured 21 tamaraws from nearby Aruyan Valley in Sablayan town. Of the first batch, only nine had survived, but they all eventually died of a mysterious infectious disease.

Right now, Kali's family, including Dabu, have an 800-square-metre cage each at the gene-pool farm located at the foothills of the 100,000-hectare Mount Iglit-Baco National Park. They are pampered and fed napier and para grass, grown by tamaraw rangers from the upper part of the mountain range. The farm's water supply comes through pipes that are connected to the natural springs at nearby Mount Takao.

The dark 1.5-metre tall and 2.5-metre long tamaraw (Bubalus mindorensis) has a V-shaped horn. It is the largest mammal in the Philippines. It belongs to the genus Babalus and to the species Mindorensis, in the order of Artiodactyla.

Many Filipinos are more familiar with the tamaraw's cousin, the carabao, a domesticated water buffalo, which helps farmers plough agricultural land. The tamaraws are different.

Stories say they can sense a man's presence a mile away, making them difficult to catch. They are hardly seen because they are wild, fierce, rare, endangered and almost extinct.

"The tamaraw is globally recognised by scientists as native to the Philippines. It is found only in Mindoro. In that sense, it is globally extinct, that is why the Philippine government is doing its best for the animal's protection," explained Josie de Leon, TCP's co-ordinator in Mindoro.

As chief of the environment department's wildlife programmes, she holds office in Quezon City, but goes to Mindoro several times a year to oversee the government's programme for the endangered tamaraws.

"Propagating the tamaraw is undertaken by those who believe that people should be conscious of the need to take care of endangered animals," said Anson Tagtag, an ecosystem management official.

In 1996, the TCP has changed its approach to the management of the Tamaraw population. "Instead of focusing primarily on the breeding of captured tamaraws, we decided to enhance their natural habitat where they have a 100 per cent chance of reproducing," said de Leon.

Gene-pool farm

In time, the TCP expanded its operation outside the 280-hectare gene-pool farm, and extended the management of the tamaraws at the entire 100,000-hectare Mt. Iglit-Baco National Park, in the Calintanaan municipality. The mountain was declared a tamaraw reservation and sanctuary in 1972.

In the 1900s, Mindoro had 10,000 tamaraws. In 1930, an outbreak of the rinderpest, which attacked the tamaraws' intestines, almost wiped out the rare animal. Hunters also often sought the tamaraws for illicit trade, trophy, recreation and food.

Illegal loggers, including farmers who practiced slash-and-burn agriculture (kaingin) have destroyed the wilderness where the tamaraws are known to roam.

In 1965, scientists called for the protection of the tamaraws at the Conference of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (now the World Conservation Union) in Bangkok. In 1979, Manila's environment department decided to breed tamaraws in captivity, and later, to conserve various wild habitats for the endangered animal.

In 1992, a law was passed banning the hunting of tamaraws and the consumption of their flesh. In 2001, another law called for the expansion of tamaraw reservations in almost all wild areas of Oriental and Occidental Mindoro.

The TCP and Mindoro's local government now believe they have succeeded in their efforts to save the tamaraw. A headcount, done every April in the wilderness, has shown a slow but sure progress in the propagation of the endangered tamaraw.

There were 180 of them in 2000; 187 in 2001; 253 in 2002; and 261 in 2003. "We should not rest on our laurels. The aim is to soon have 500 tamaraws in Mindoro," said De Leon.

Recently, the TCP has launched guided tours at Mt Iglit Baco Reservation, declared an Asean (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) Heritage Park in 1980. It has 16 sighting areas with 30 rangers and several volunteers.

Tourists can view the tamaraws at a distance of 50 metres. The tamaraws can be seen from 5.00 to 7.00am and from 5.00 to 7.00pm, when they feed on the patches of cogon and talahib grass.

In the lower part of Mt. Iglit, at the gene-pool farm, there is a multipurpose area for 70 people and a clearing where tents can be pitched. "With our guided tours, we have educated a lot of people about the tamaraws," boasted Danilo Roca, TCP's field operator based in San Jose, Mindoro.