Drivers of extinction risks and shortfalls across terrestrial vertebrates in the Philippine global biodiversity hotspot.

The Philippines is a biodiversity hotspot with a rich variety of terrestrial vertebrate species, many of which are endemic and threatened by environmental changes and unsustainable human activities. Effective conservation actions are urgently needed; however, progress towards it is often hampered by persistent knowledge shortfalls and uneven research efforts for many species and habitats. Using standardised data from the IUCN Red List and GBIF, we assessed extinction risks, threats, and knowledge shortfalls of 1, 294 extant terrestrial vertebrate species in the Philippines.

Reply to Pitogo et al.: No single silver bullet to simply understand war-biodiversity conflict in the Philippines.

Sociopolitical conflicts have significant but often overlooked impacts on biodiversity. In our reply, we reaffirm key findings from our previous work and directly address the Matters Arising raised by Pitogo and colleagues. Additionally, we present fine-scale analyses that further support our original conclusions.

Caught in the crossfire: biodiversity conservation paradox of sociopolitical conflict.

The current state of global biodiversity is confronted with escalating threats arising from human-induced environmental changes and a growing array of unpredictable challenges. However, effective conservation efforts are often hindered by limited knowledge, especially in developing economies such as the Philippines. The limitations imposed by these shortfalls in biodiversity knowledge hamper the capacity to protect biodiversity in light of the continuing extinction crisis.

The behavioural costs of overcrowding for gregarious cave-dwelling bats.

Bats are known for their gregarious social behaviour, often congregating in caves and underground habitats, where they play a pivotal role in providing various ecosystem services. Studying bat behaviour remains an underexplored aspect of bat ecology and conservation despite its ecological importance. We explored the costs and impacts of overcrowding on bat social behaviour.

Important underground roosts for bats in Bulgaria: current state and priorities for conservation.

Bulgaria has a very rich bat fauna and large colonies of bats can be found in caves, mines and other underground roosts. Respectively, there are more than 107 underground roosts that are listed as important bat sites, most of which are protected by statutory laws and are of national or international importance. Despite the existence of formal protection, many roosts face anthropogenic disturbances due to the popularity of outdoor activities, such as caving and the lack of actual regulation.

The MOBIOS: A FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable) database for Mindanao's terrestrial biodiversity.

Background: Due to its complex geological history and the emergence of various biogeographic regions, the Philippines boasts an extraordinary array of flora and fauna. This unique combination has contributed to the country's exceptional density of terrestrial species, making it amongst the highest in the world. Mindanao, in the southern part of the Philippines, is the second largest group of islands and supports high levels of endemism and proportion of threatened species.

Groundwater is a hidden global keystone ecosystem.

Groundwater is a vital ecosystem of the global water cycle, hosting unique biodiversity and providing essential services to societies. Despite being the largest unfrozen freshwater resource, in a period of depletion by extraction and pollution, groundwater environments have been repeatedly overlooked in global biodiversity conservation agendas. Disregarding the importance of groundwater as an ecosystem ignores its critical role in preserving surface biomes.

Uncovering the Effects of COVID-19 Mask Wearing on Bird Flight Initiation Distance in Urbanized Areas in the Southern Philippines.

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused significant changes in public and human activities worldwide, including using masks and reducing human interaction. These changes have also affected wildlife behavior, especially in urban areas. However, there is limited understanding of the impact of COVID-19-related human activities, mainly mask wearing, on the behavior of urban bird species.

Mapping global conservation priorities and habitat vulnerabilities for cave-dwelling bats in a changing world.

Research and media attention is disproportionately focused on taxa and ecosystems perceived as charismatic, while other equally diverse systems such as caves and subterranean ecosystems are often neglected in biodiversity assessments and prioritisations. Highlighting the urgent need for protection, an especially large fraction of cave endemic species may be undescribed. Yet these more challenging systems are also vulnerable, with karsts for example losing a considerable proportion of their area each year.

DarkCideS 1.0, a global database for bats in karsts and caves.

Understanding biodiversity patterns as well as drivers of population declines, and range losses provides crucial baselines for monitoring and conservation. However, the information needed to evaluate such trends remains unstandardised and sparsely available for many taxonomic groups and habitats, including the cave-dwelling bats and cave ecosystems. We developed the DarkCideS 1.

Bird Diversity and Structure in Different Land-use Types in Lowland South-Central Mindanao, Philippines.

Birds are crucial to maintaining the balance of many ecosystems by providing various ecological services. The diversity of birds and their feeding guilds in different land-use types were investigated in south-central Mindanao to elucidate the effect of disturbance and habitat modification on bird communities. Point count method was employed to identify birds in three habitat types: i) agroforests; ii) ricefields; iii) roads and heavily disturbed areas.