J. Bio. &Env. Sci.

2015

Journal of Biodiversity and Environmental Sciences (JBES)

ISSN: 2220-6663 (Print) 2222-3045 (Online)
Vol. 1, No. 1, p. 1-11, 2015

RESEARCH PAPER OPEN ACCESS

Comparative Diversity and Composition of Small Non-

volant Mammals in Areas found on SOCCSKSARGEN
Region, Philippines

Mary Celman P. Guaza1, Sunshine Gay T. Singson1, Kristine Mae L. Yap1,

Shahida P. Nor1, Relaine L. Amado1, Maria Luisa Non-Cabrera2,Mark Anthony J.
Torres2, Elani A. Requieron2

Science Department, College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, Mindanao State University,
General Santos City 9500, Philippines

Key words: Rodents, Morphological Attributes, Data Analysis, Biodiversity, Mindanao

Abstract
Philippines contain unique small non-volant fauna, particularly rodents, which can be
seen in greater Mindanao that has not yet been studied that much and still lacks
information. This study was conducted from October to December 2015 to determine
the different species found in three sampling sites in agricultural landscapes in
SOCCSKSARGEN. Baited trap cages were set through the sites. Seven species
belonging to one family were documented. Species diversity was in low elevation.
Species Rattus everetti was the dominant and most abundant group along the three
sites. There is no much significant difference in species evenness was observed.
However, the study provides vital information about the current diversity of small
non-volant mammals residing on certain parts of SOCCSKSARGEN region,
specifically on South Cotabato, General Santos City, and Sarangani Province.

*Main Author: Mary Celman Guazamaryguaza@gmail.com

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 J. Bio. &Env. Sci. 2015

Introduction monitor in recognition of the abundant

Philippines support one of the world’s and varied ecological functions in
most distinctive faunas (Heaney et al., ecosystems (Marcot and Aubrey
1998) due to remarkable series of 2003).As consumers, small mammals
small mammals found on its mountains may influence the nutrient dynamics of
(Thomas, 1898). The rich ecosystems or distributions of plant
concentration of diversity and high populations that’s why others are
level of endemism of terrestrial considered as pests.
mammals in the country is associated The pattern of distribution of mammals
to the geological setting of the is not solely a function of elevation but
archipelago (Balete et al. 2009). also affected by the habitat type and
In the latest account, there are at least other factors such as temperature,
103 species of small non-volant precipitation, competition and
mammal species and 93 (90%) are predation (Heaney, 2001).
found to be endemic in the Philippines Furthermore, small non-volant
(Heaney et al. 2010) and about 80% mammals are not given attention
are found on greater Mindanao, the because they usually occur in complex
second largest island in the country, communities with high species
are nowhere else found in the world. richness (Wells et al., 2004).
Foremost among those in diversity are This study was conducted across
the murid rodents which make up the noncontiguous habitats with varying
largest order of mammals and as of levels of disturbances, namely, Klaja,
2014, 86 native species occurs in the General Santos City, Polomolok and
Philippines. The murid rats, comprising Malungon, Sarangani Province located
22 genera and 56 species native to the in Southern Mindanao, Philippines to
Philippines, are the most speciose and determine if there are some small non-
most diverse in terms of morphology volant mammals that are endemic in
and ecology (Salibay et al., 2008). each area and to assess the
The ecological relationships of small mammalian composition of the species
non-volant mammals have been with the recent studies. This provides
shaped by their dependence on additional records on geographic
natural habitats (Ricart et al., 2007) distributions of small mammals known
and are identified as species group to to be indigenous across different

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 J. Bio. &Env. Sci. 2015

sampling sites in this area of the 006.25912° N, 125.16706°E and is

Philippines. surrounded by towers of karsts
formation made millions of years ago.
Materials and Methods
Study sites Opposite to this area were
the camping rounds of Nopol Hills
The 27-noncontinuous day sampling
which borders Conel and Barangay
was conducted in the 30th of October
Mabuhay. Sampling was done on 30th
to 17th of December 2015, in
of October to 7th of November 2015.
SOCCSKSARGEN. This region is
Sampling was done in a lowland
located between mountain ranges and
tropical forest that is in middle
valleys that approximately gets an
elevation. The forest layer is littered
annual mean of 216.1 mm rainfall and
with thin layer of wet leaf litter with a
has a high agricultural rate that
thin sheet of humus substrate
supports diverse flora and fauna. The
underneath. A large area of corn
actual location was determined
plantation dominates the area.
through Global Positioning System
(GPS).
Site Two
Guaza Village, Polomolok is located
24.4 km away from General Santos
City, South Cotabato with 6°18’36.4”
N, 125°08’49.1 E coordinates. The
sampling was done on the 15th to 23rd
of November 2015.The sampling was
conducted on a high elevated sloping
terrain.Vegetation was dominated by
coconut plantation and banana
plantation.
Figure 1.Philippine Map (A) showing the
different sampling areas, South Cotabato,
Site Three
Sarangani and General Santos City (B)
Considered the most disturbed habitat
out of all the three sites, Brgy.Upper
Site One
Biangan, Malungon, Sarangani
Klaja karst is located 15 km at the
Province is located 6°26'16"N,
Northeast side of General Santos City,
125°14'24"E from General Santos City,
Barangay Conel. Its coordinates are

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 J. Bio. &Env. Sci. 2015

South Cotabato. Sampling was done non-volant mammals infested areas:

on the 11thto 17th of December 2015 corn plantation, tropical forest patch
and was conducted on highly elevated and rice plantation.
area. Several settlements could be
With the help of local guides, the traps
seen and the sampling site of the area
were baited and set on each of
is limited. Vegetation is dominated by
trapping session, checked the
rice plantation. Some habitants report
following morning to record captures,
of the huge increase of Muridae
adjusted treadle sensitivity, and
(rodents) in the area due to the
cleaned and rebaited traps as needed.
construction of rice and corn mill.
Traps were left active 24 hours a day
Capture, Processing and Identification during each trapping session.
of Small Non-volant Mammals Captured animals are collected twice
The traps used to capture small non- each day, once in the morning (6:00
volant mammals were limited to live am to 7:00 am) and once in the
Sherman traps. A 500-m transect line afternoon (5:00 pm to 6:00 pm). The
was used in the trapping procedure animals are properly handled
where 15m intervals are established according to their sizes and species.
that varied in length according to the
All captured individuals were collected
slope of the terrain (with 15-35 capture
and measured based on its external
stations). Each capture station was
measurements, mainly its tail, head,
composed of 1 live-capture trap
hind foot length and other external
(Sherman® 7.6 × 8.9 × 22.9 cm; H.B.
metrics, including total body length,
Sherman® Folding Traps,
snout, ears, front legs, weight, color
Tallahassee, FL.) placed in between
and texture of the fur, and the position
corners of corn mills and coconut
of the pads in the soles of their feet.
trees.
The identification is from the sampling
Baits used were a mixture of peanut guide of Lawrence Heaney and many
butter with coconut shredding, banana, others, entitled non-flying mammals of
rice and corn and the other bait is just Mindanao Island, Philippines.
corn. They were positioned in areas Specimens that were captured,
where rats may be present. The traps identified and measured were released
were placed strategically on 3 possible on the site of capture.

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Polynesian rats (Rattus exulans) were

Results and Discussion the most limited in capture locations.
The study found the presence of small
A total of 65 individuals of small non-
non-volant mammals in these areas
volant mammals belonging to one
caused by the vegetation type of the
family and four genera were recorded
areas (Jalique et al., 2015) which is
in all sampling sites after 27 trap nights
coconut and corn plantations and rice
(Table 1). There were seven species
mills and the level of disturbance
documented, Mindanao montane
within the community. The presence
forest mouse (Apomys insignis), house
and abundance of mammals is
mouse (Mus musculus), common
influenced mainly by forest productivity
Philippine forest rat (Rattus everetti),
at the capture site and the productivity
Polynesian rat (Rattus exulans), rice
of the whole woodland
field rat (Rattus argentiventer), Asian
(Niedziałkowska et al. 2010).
rat (Rattus tanezumi) and long-footed
rat (Tarsomys apoensis). There were only two individuals of Mus
musculus, three Tarsomys apoensis
Of the seven species, the greatest
and four RattusTanezumi that were
number of small non-volant mammals
recorded in the study. This low count
was captured on Polomolok that had
of capture can be noted by the
the highest trap success yielding 38
inadequate number of live traps used,
individuals representing five species,
the ineffective bait made and the
followed by Klaja Karst, General
interruption within the insufficient
Santos City yielding eight individuals
sampling nights with outpour of
with four species and lowest trapping
rain.Rodents are primarily nut and
success in Malungon, Sarangani
seed-eaters, and the bait used was
Province with nineteen individuals but
peanut butter which is rich in calories,
only 3 species. Of all distributed non-
but it turned out to be
volant mammals, only common
counterproductive. This result
Philippine forest rat (Rattus everetti)
coincides that native Philippine
was distributed most widely because
mammals are closely associated with,
this species is generally known in
and dependent upon their natural
Luzon especially in Mindanao and
forest habitat (Heaney et al., 1998),
and this may be the reason that they

5 | Guaza et al.

are not lured because they are used to
eating foods that can be found in their
area.In addition, mammalian species
richness decreases with rainfall (Start
et al., 2011) because climate is one of
the most important predictor variables
explaining mammalian species
richness and abundance patterns
(Novillo, et al., 2014).Moreover, Rattus
everetti was found on all sampling
areas because they can tolerate a
range of habitat modifications
(Heaney, et al., 2008).
The three endemic species, of which
two are Philippine endemic, Apomys
insignis and Tarsomys apoensis that
were captured in Polomolok and Klaja
Karst and Rattus everetti which is
endemic in Mindanao Faunal Region
that were captured in all sampling
areas. The presence of these species
in these sampling sites can be
ascribed to the dense vegetation
(Heaney et al., 1995). These sites
were at an elevation that is adjacent to
fields of Zea mays (corn) and Oryza
sativa (rice) which are known to aid in
the foraging activities of the rodents
(Anaeto, 2000).
The result coincides with the findings
that R. everetti is found on agro-forest
ecosystem and can tolerate areas that
have been disturbed, either by natural
6 | Guaza et al.
J. Bio. &Env. Sci. 2015
forces or by humans and T. apoensis
which occurs in montane and mossy
forest (Heaney, et al., 1998) while A.
Insignis reaches its largest abundance
in montane but also occurring in
disturbed forest (e.g., by low-level
logging and natural disturbances such
as landslides) and probably does not
occur in human dominated areas such
as agricultural areas and grasslands
(Heaney, 2002). Moreover, the
availability of food affects the diversity
of mammals in tropical habitats (Miller,
1977).
Of the seven species recorded, two
are Philippine endemic and one
Mindanao Faunal Region endemic.
Having knowledge of the distribution of
each species is important when
dealing with continued fragmentation
of primary forest habitats, population
explosion, and forfeiture of ecosystem
benefits (Bradshaw, 2008).
The four non-endemic species, Mus
musculus, commonly called a house
mice that tend not to be found in
forests and deserts and is only found
in a very wide range of man-made
habitats including houses, farm
outbuildings, maintains wild
populations in outdoor habitats such
as arable land and pastures(Musser,
et al., 1998) like that in Malungon,
 J. Bio. &Env. Sci. 2015

Rattus exulans commonly called Rattus argentiventer commonly called

Polynesian rats are opportunistic ricefield rat are found in habitats
species and exploit a variety of abundant in rice fields, grasslands,
habitats including Polomolok and Klaja and plantations (Payne et al. 1985) like
which has grassland, scrub and forests Klaja and is broadly commensal with
and other habitats (Dwyer, 1978) humans and lastly, Rattus tanezumi
involving those created by humans, commonly called an Asian rat and is
such as houses, granaries, and commonly found in around villages
cultivated lands, provided that it has and agricultural areas like Polomolok.
adequate food supplies and These species are common in
shelter,and are species that are able to disturbed lowland and montane forest
climb trees for food. These rats usually up to 1,800 m (Heaney et al. 2008).
live below 1,000 m in elevation, where
there is good ground cover and well-
drained soil (Masaharu, et al., 2001),

Habitat
Scientific English Polomolok, Klaja Karst, Malungon,
name name South Conel, Sarangani Total
Cotabato General Province
Santos City
Apomys Mindanao
insignis Montane 10 2 - 12
Forest (18.49%)
Mouse

Mus musculus House - - 2 2

mouse (3.08%)

Rattus everetti Common 19 3 6 28

Philippine (43.08%)
forest rat

Rattus Polynesian 4 1 - 5
exulans rat (7.7%)

Rattus Ricefield rat - - 11 11

argentiventer (16.9%)

Rattus Asian rat 4 - - 4

tanezumi (6.15%)

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 J. Bio. &Env. Sci. 2015

Tarsomys Long-footed 1 2 - 3
apoensis rat (4.6%)

Over-all trap 38 8 19 65
captures (58.46%) (12.31%) (29.23%)

No. of trap 9 9 9 48
nights

Table 1. Small non-volant mammals recorded in three different locations. The table
shows the comparison of the type of species found in Polomolok, Klaja Karst,
General Santos City and Malungon, Sarangani Province.

CONCLUSION

Seven species of small non-volant mammals. Finally, Malungon,

mammals were recorded, species Sarangani Province has the lowest
diversity is moderate but endemism is species diversity having three different
low.Elevation does not directly individuals due to disturbed habitat,
influence the distribution of species but retaining human in dominated areas
rather, it is the condition of the habitat like agriculture, but has moderately
on which they are dependent to, over-all trap captures because
whether it may be pristine or sampling days are even.
disturbed,that has affected the rat
This study examined the species
species present. Sampling area in
diversity and composition of small non-
Polomolok, South Cotabato has five
volant mammals in different habitats.
different species and has also the
The presence of four non-endemic and
highest over-all trap captures due to
three endemic species indicates that
low disturbance in its ecosystem.
SOCCSKSARGEN is important for the
Followed by Klaja Karst, General
protection of plants and natural
Santos City with four different species
resources because it’s where animals
due to its montane forests but very low
are dependent of to survive especially
in over-all trap captures through the
endemic species. But there are also
interruption of the sampling days with
observed cases where these small
outpour rain, thus having cooler
non-volant mammals threat the
climate which affect the captivity of
environment that was mainly

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 J. Bio. &Env. Sci. 2015

damaging the crops and plantations List of Threatened Species 2008:

due to fast reproduction of these e.T13972A4374382.
rodents. Results indicate the call to Anaeto, SG. 2000. Management of
keep an eye on these endemic species ricefield rats. Rice Technology Bulletin
and try to find facts about them, since No. 28. Maligaya Philippines:
small mammals are excellent Philippine Rice Research Institute.
bioindicators of forest condition
Balete DS, Heaney, Veluz MJ,
according to Salibay and Luyon.
Rickart EA. 2009.Diversity Patterns of
Sampling in adjacent areas of
Small Mammals in the Zambales Mts.,
SOCCSKSARGEN and other parts of
Luzon, Philippines.MammBiol, p74,
Mindanao may result in more number
456-466.
of species since it contains almost
80% that are not found in some parts Bradshaw, CJA, Sodhi NS, Brook
of the world. BW. 2008. Tropical turmoil:
biodiversity tragedy in progress.
Acknowledgement Frontiers in Ecology and the
The researchers would like to express Environment, 7(2): 79-87.
their special thanks of gratitude to
Dwyer, P. 1978. A study of Rattus
Mindanao State University, for
exulans in the New Guinea highlands.
supplying the essential data needed
Australian Wildlife Research, 5/2: 221-
for the preparation of this paper. They
248.
would also like to thank the community
people in Klaja, General Santos City, Heaney LR. 2002. A decade of

Malungon, Sarangani Province and research on the Philippine mammals;

Polomolok who helped them a lot in progress and challenges. Siliman

their field works within the limited time Journal, p42 (1):88- 108.

frame. Heaney LR. 2001. Small mammal

diversity along elevational gradients in

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2015

Polomolok, South Cotabato

Apomys insignis Mus musculus

Rattus everetti Rattus exulans
Rattus argentiventer Rattus tanezumi
Tarsomys apoensis Paradoxurus hermaphroditus

Fig.2 Pie chart of the collected specimens in Polomolok, South Cotabato

Klaja Karst, Conel, General Santos City

Apomys insignis Mus musculus

Rattus everetti Rattus exulans
Rattus argentiventer Rattus tanezumi
Tarsomys apoensis Paradoxurus hermaphroditus

Fig.3 Pie chart of the collected specimen in Klaja Karst, General Santos City

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 J. Bio. &Env. Sci.
2015
Malungon, Sarangani Province

Apomys insignis Mus musculus

Rattus everetti Rattus exulans
Rattus argentiventer Rattus tanezumi
Tarsomys apoensis Paradoxurus hermaphroditus

Fig.4 Pie Chart of the collected species from Upper Biangan, Sarangani
Province

Species Collected on Three Sampling

Sites
19
20
15 10 11
10 6 4 4 4
2 0 3
5 0 0 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 0 0 0
0

Polomolok, South Cotabato Klaja Karst, Conel, General Santos City

Malungon, Sarangani Province

where:

S = the number of species with an abundance of n

x = a positive constant (0 < x < 1) which is derived from the sample data set
and generally approaches 1 in value

The number of species with 1, 2, 3,…, n individuals are therefore:

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 J. Bio. &Env. Sci.
2015

Fig. 5 Total Species Collected from the three sampling starting from most
species collected site to the least species collected site and logseries (fisher,
et al 1943) for formula

18

16

14

12
Y

10

0
Mus_muscu

Rattus_ta

Tarsomys_
Rattus_ar

Paradoxur
Rattus_ev

Rattus_ex
Apomys_in

Fig. 6 Comparative analysis of the frequency of specific non-volant mammals

found on South Cotabato, General Santos and Sarangani Province

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 J. Bio. &Env. Sci.
2015

Scientific name English name

Apomys insignis Mindanao Montane

Forest
Mouse

Mus musculus House mouse

Rattus everetti Common Philippine forest rat

Rattus exulans Polynesian rat

Rattus tanezumi Asian rat

Tarsomys apoensis
Long-footed rat

Fig.7 List of common and Latin names of small mammal species identified in
South Cotabato, General Santos City and Sarangani Province

15 | Guaza et al.