On the Philippine island of Mindoro is home to a unique resident, the tamaraw, a species of dwarf buffalo
Bubalus mindorensis. It was once found all over the island and perhaps on neighboring Luzon too, but because of human habitation and introduced disease it is restricted to a few grassy areas, numbering about 500. Considered critically endangered by the IUCN, conservationists are rushing to try and save the feisty little buffalo from extinction in the wild in a rare show of consensus. Filipinos hold the buffalo in high regard in the same way Americans regard the bald eagle. The species is synonymous with rugged tenacity, a character trait with which Filipinos, given their colonial past, can readily identify. Several athletic teams have adopted the buffalo, which only stands a meter high at the shoulder, as their mascot. It is the emblem of Mindoro island and has been proposed as the Philippine terrestrial animal.
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| a ranger patrols the park |
After a well attended workshop about how to save the buffalo, the feeling was widely held that the indigenous people, the
Tau-Buid, Buhid, and Alangan, living near the animal are in the best position to save it. How this goal is to be achieved is still being worked out. Two priorities seem clear already: protecting tamaraw from bush meat hunters, and protecting their dwindling habitat. Logging is the human activity that impacts the buffalo the most, but removing an invasive species, the Christmas bush,
Chromolaena odorata, which is taking over the grasslands where the last tamaraw live may be equally important. It grows rampant to over three stories tall and tamaraw do not eat it. Back in 1996 when conservationists last met there were only two hundred buffaloes in
Mounts Iglit-Baco park, [photo,left] now there are 400 after conservation action plan wase put into place. So there is some hope for growing the existing herd so that relocation to former ranges can take place. Protecting the tamaraw is protecting the Phillipines' future.
