ZamboTimes.com, 30 Sep 13;
MANILA, Sept. 30 (PNA) --The environment department's count for the tamaraw (scientific name Bubalus mindorensis) further rose this year, elevating prospects to save from extinction this critically endangered mammal that's endemic to the Philippines' Mindoro Island.
Latest available environment department data show the April 2013 tamaraw count in Mindoro's Mts. Iglit-Baco National Park (MIBNP) reached 374 heads, up from 327 heads reported there during the same period last year.
Data also show the 2013 count exceeded tamaraw monitoring results in 2011 (274 heads), 2010 (314 heads), 2009 (274 heads), 2008 (263 heads), 2007 (239 heads), 2006 (263 heads), 2005 (269 heads), 2004 (232 heads), 2003 (261 heads), 2002 (253 heads) and 2001 (187 heads).
The country observes Tamaraw Month every October, pursuant to Presidential Proclamation 273 which government issued in 2002, to help promote protection and conservation of the tamaraw.
Authorities decided conducting the tamaraw count annually every April to monitor the mammal’s number and population trend.
They've conducted the count since 2001 through the Tamaraw Conservation Program government commenced in 1979.
Government continues spearheading protection and management of tamaraws in the wild and these animals’ habitat particularly as data show population of this mammal is still below 500 heads - the threshold International Union for Conservation of Nature set for critically endangered species.
Citing a 1969 study, the environment department said the country had about 10,000 tamaraws in 1900.
Outbreak of rinderpest in the 1930s, hunting and decades of habitat degradation and destruction reduced the tamaraw's population, the agency said.
"The tamaraw can be considered a sentinel specie - if we conserve this animal, we also conserve its natural habitat and generate a multitude of benefits, however," said wildlife chief Director Theresa Mundita Lim.
Last year, the environment department partnered with Far Eastern University (FEU) and World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) to undertake the "Tams 2" program.
"Tams 2" aims doubling the tamaraw population to around 600 heads by 2020.
FEU's late founder and first president Dr. Nicanor Reyes chose the tamaraw as the school's mascot, impressed with this mammal which he saw during his visits to Mindoro before the war.(PNA)
