“Resonance” - Golden-Crowned Flying Fox
Acrylic on Canvas, 20” x 40” x 1.5”
Original Painting: $5,000.00
Limited Edition Archival Metal Print on Floating Frame: $1,000.00
Time to Completion: 183.5 Hours
Ounces of Paint: 71
Custom sizes and materials available for prints. Inquire here.
Human Impacts Resulting in Protected Status:
Logging, Mining, & Urban Development:
The Golden-Crowned Flying Fox is an enormous bat that weighs about 2.6 pounds and has a wingspan of about 5.6 feet. The Golden-Crowned Flying Fox is endemic to old-growth Philippine forests, which bear copious amounts of fruit for the bats. About 90% of Philippines' original old-growth forest cover has been destroyed, due to logging and various types of mining. If this trend continues, it is thought that no old-growth forests within the Golden-Crowned Flying Fox natural habitat range will remain by 2030. There is also direct competition for fruit as a food source between the Golden-Crowned Flying Fox and humans.
Open-pit mining is a technique for extracting rocks or minerals from the earth by digging enormous holes. Open-cast mining is the main reason for the Golden-Crowned Flying Foxes’ habitat destruction on the island of Samar and the Pangasinan area of Luzon island. In the southwestern Negros island, copper and gold mining have encroached on the Golden-Crowned Flying Foxes’ habitat.
Expanding housing, tourist and commercial developments have impacted the forests of Boracay, Polillo Island, and the Subic Bay Watershed Reserve area of Luzon island.
Photo of Open Pit Mining: The Guardian, Edward Burtynsky, 2016
Hunting & Roost Site Disturbance:
Hunting of the Golden-Crowned Flying Fox is an important part of Filipino heritage and their meat is valued as a delicacy and as a medicinal resource. It is also thought that the Golden-Crowned Flying Fox is an opportunistic food source for people working in the Philippine forests.
The Golden-Crowned Flying Fox is a valued target for sport hunters and as pulutan - a snack eaten while consuming alcohol.
Seasonal demands affect local markets for Golden-Crowned Flying Foxes. In most provinces, local bat buyers and hunters consider the Golden-Crowned Flying Foxes as more odorous than similar species, therefore they are typically considered less valuable. In the island of Negros, individuals can be sold for 15-30 pesos ($0.30-0.60).
Occasionally, hunters will attack roost sites of the Golden-Crowned Flying Fox, which leads to a high risk of mortality across the colony due to stress. If a roost is disturbed, the Golden-Crowned Flying Fox populations exhibit a 12-fold reduction in population density.
General roost disturbances by by tourists and guides include clapping hands or tapping on trees to make the Golden-Crowned Flying Foxes fly. These disturbances cause sleep deprivation for the Golden-Crowned Flying Fox, and sometimes pup separation or abandonment.
Conservation Efforts:
Official Protection:
The Golden-Crowned Flying Fox has been protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora [CITES] since 1995, and by the Philippine Wildlife Act since. 2001, Golden-Crowned Flying Fox was added to the Philippine Wildlife Act. There are many designated sanctuary areas for the Golden-Crowned Flying Fox throughout the Philippines, and there has been a logging moratorium in place for 20 years. Unfortunately, there is very little enforcement in place for these formal designations.
Profits:
Profits will go to Save Our Species [SOS], which works with local communities throughout the Philippines in establishing protected roosting sanctuaries. SOS educates local communities in the benefits of having healthy Golden-Crowned Flying Fox populations, as well as effective protection protocols. Local communities benefit from ecosystem services provided by conservation efforts, such as freshwater from protected forests and crop pollinations done by the Golden-Crowned Flying Fox.
Source[s]:
International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, 2016
Wikipedia, 2014
The Guardian, 2016
BioExpedition, 2018
Philippines Biodiversity Conservation Foundation, 2018
Save Our Species, 2018