On November 27, 2022, after decades of taking the cause of the bats of Samal against
man’s impunity, conservationist Norma Inigo Monfort, fondly dubbed as the ‘Bat Mama,’ passed
away naturally, leaving behind the Monfort Bat Cave and Conservation Foundation, Inc., a
testament to her dedication to protect the endangered chiropteras.
To further protect the mammals from any form of incursion, distraction, and intrusion,
especially hunting, the foundation has gone to the extent of engaging a 24-hour security service.
It was in 2010 that her effort to conserve and protect bats from hunting was finally honored.
The prestigious Guinness World Records (GWR) bestowed her the recognition by honoring her
colony of bats, now with a population of 2.5 million, as the world’s largest congregation of
Geoffroy's Rousette fruit bats (Rousetteus amplexicaudatus), at times known as the megabats.
In 2011, the Disney Worldwide Conservation Fund honored her as hero.
The record, unknown to most Davaoeños, was the first ever and only official GWR award
the region got. Two other tries were launched later to join the world register but both fell short.
When it was honored in 2010, the 257-square-foot cave, situated at a three-hectare land in
Tambo, Babak, Island Garden City of Samal, was already home to a collective community of 1.8
million bats at an average of 60 bats per square foot. Today, the population has grown
tremendously to 2.5 million with approximately 640 bats per square meter.
Given the expanding population, Monfort first broached the idea of building artificial bat
cave, informally dubbed as the ‘chiroptorium,’ in Samal in 2014 which, at the time, cost only P2
million for building. The project, copied after a similar project in Texas, USA, failed to raise the
desired amount. Five years later, the idea, led by her foundation, still remained grounded.
Under her alternative plan, she would ask for donations from firms for recycled container
vans and tap the scientists from the Virginia University to replicate the cave conditions, including
the installation of a technology to collect guano (bat droppings) without disturbing the mammals.
In a 2020 interview, just as the pandemic started to wreak havoc globally, she related; ‘The
collection of the guano—we will do it—and I can have a livelihood project, so that the
community can benefit from packaging of this guano or any other thing.’
‘The guano in caves,’ according to Bat Conservation International, ‘support whole
ecosystems of unique organisms, including bacteria useful in detoxifying wastes, improving
detergents, and producing alcohol and antibiotics.’
The man-made caves have been planned to rise at the back of a mango orchard in the
family’s 21-hectare land but a little bit farther from the colony so as not to distract the sleeping
bats. Construction of the project would be done in the evening when bats go on nocturnal hunt
for food.
The chiropterologists (people who study bats) place the number of bat species in the
country at seventy-nine, a dozen of them is classified as threatened. Seventeen of the species
are considered endemic while twenty-six are classified as member of the Pteropodidae family
known as fruit bats or flying foxes. Among the most populous class is the Philippine naked-
backed fruit bat or Philippine bare-backed fruit bat (Dobsonia chapmani) found in Negros Island.
In Davao, the megabats play a significant role as pollinators, major agents of forest
regeneration, and drivers of a healthy ecosystem. As fruit bats, they fertilize flowers and help
broadcast seeds. The food they take, when processed into manure, are disposed as guano,
which are regarded as a very effective fertilizer given its high nitrogen, phosphate, and
potassium contents, which are all important nutrients essential for the growth of plants.
