Conservation efforts for Mindoro
Far Eastern University (FEU) researchers and graduate students are exploring Mindoro’s biodiversity through five studies within the Mindoro Priority Impact Research Initiative: Biodiversity Cluster focused on Tamaraws, fireflies, ants, and gingers. Through fieldwork and laboratory analysis, the team aims to build critical knowledge that can support conservation efforts and help protect the island’s wildlife.
Supporting this work is a three-year Memorandum of Agreement signed by FEU and the Mindoro Biodiversity Conservation Foundation, Inc. (MBCFI) last April 29. The partnership brings together researchers and students for field and laboratory studies focused on Mindoro’s biodiversity.
Senior vice president for Academic Affairs Dr. Maria Teresa Trinidad P. Tinio and MBCFI chairperson Sebastian C. Quiniones Jr. signed the agreement. Attendees included MBCFI executive director Kathy Lene S. Cielo, FEU Herbarium researchers Dr. Sandra L. Yap and Dr. Rudolph Valentino A. Docot, and graduate student researchers Jaime Kristien A. Oxales, Katrina Denise T. Ordoño, Jared P. Quilang and Justin Joe R. Abalos.
The cluster’s projects run from August 2025 to July 2027. Under Dr. Yap’s supervision, Oxales studies Tamaraws behavior, Ordoño examines the genetic diversity of the remaining Tamaraw subpopulations, Abalos investigates firefly diversity and distribution, and Quilang documents ant species. Dr. Docot’s project, “Assessment of Mindoro Gingers,” focuses on identifying the island’s gingers. Together, these studies aim to deepen our understanding of Mindoro’s biodiversity and thus, better inform conservation management plans.
Observing Tamaraws
For Oxales, studying Tamaraws means looking beyond the open grasslands where the animals are commonly observed during surveys. His research takes him into the forested areas of Mounts Iglit-Baco Natural Park, where camera traps allow the team to record Tamaraw behavior without approaching or disturbing the animals.
“Tamaraws are often portrayed as aggressive and solitary, but our camera traps have captured glimpses of a more playful and complex side of their lives. From calves chasing their mothers to young Tamaraws engaging in what looks like play-fighting, these moments remind us that we're not just protecting a threatened species, we're protecting animals with lives and behaviors that we're still learning to understand,” Oxales said.
The motion-activated camera traps have also recorded other wildlife, including wild pigs, monkeys, deer, birds, and other wildlife. These animals are active at different times, yielding footage of their activities both day and night.
Maintaining the cameras requires repeated trips to replace batteries and retrieve memory cards. Guides, porters, and rangers from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources accompany Oxales, particularly because close encounters with Tamaraws can pose safety risks in the forest. Each return visit brings more footage to review and another opportunity to understand the animals’ lives beyond the grasslands.
Understanding genetic diversity
While Oxales observes Tamaraw behavior in the field, Ordoño examines another aspect of the species’ survival: the genetic diversity of its remaining subpopulations.
Dr. Yap said a healthy level of genetic diversity is important to a population’s survival. When individuals are too genetically similar, they may share the same susceptibility to an environmental threat, putting the entire population at risk. Documenting the level of genetic diversity is therefore an important step toward understanding the risks the remaining Tamaraws face.
Ordoño’s study aims to document and compare genetic diversity across subpopulations. The team currently has data from samples collected from two subpopulations and hopes to identify some genetic differentiation within and between subpopulations.
Taking tissue directly from Tamaraws was not an option for the project. Instead, the team turned to MBCFI which had previously collected fecal samples from Mts. Iglit-Baco Natural Park and Mt. Gimparay. MBCFI provided FEU with DNA extracted from these samples, allowing Ordoño to work without handling a Tamaraw.
Her initial task is to amplify the Tamaraw DNA and examine selected genetic markers. This relatively low-cost molecular study will lay the groundwork for more detailed analyses using advanced tools in the future.
Following fireflies
As evening falls, Abalos heads into the field with local guides to study Mindoro’s fireflies. His observations begin around 6 p.m. and continue until 9 or 10 p.m. Spotting and collecting specimens requires patience, a keen eye, and quick movements once a firefly comes into view.
For Dr. Yap, the study addresses a gap in knowledge about Philippine fireflies. She pointed to the limited local expertise in firefly taxonomy and noted that specimens at the National Museum have yet to be identified and labeled. The work offers an opportunity to better understand Mindoro’s firefly diversity, including the possibility of discovering a new species.
After each field collection, Abalos brings the specimens to the FEU Herbarium for morphological assessment and molecular analysis. Male and female specimens are dissected and photographed to document their physical features. When a species is represented by several individuals, a specimen is selected for DNA extraction, amplification and sequencing, adding genetic data to the team’s taxonomic study of fireflies.
Interpreting the findings brings another set of challenges. With few studies and publications on Philippine fireflies, limited access to specialists, and deep unresolved issues in firefly systematics, this work requires painstaking effort to establish a sound foundation for understanding Philippine fireflies.
Ants of Puerto Galera
While Abalos followed fireflies after dark, Quilang focused on the ants of Puerto Galera. He conducted fieldwork within the vicinity of the Mindoro Biodiversity Conservation Center. There, he laid out a line transect stretching approximately 100 meters and studied the ants he encountered along it.
As Quilang worked through the field site, he used four methods to find ants: low vegetation beating, setting pitfall traps, searching through leaf litter, and opportunistic collecting of ants along the way. Each method gave him the opportunity to capture different species occupying the various microhabitats sampled.
With around 600 ant species known in the Philippines, Quilang faces the demanding task of learning to identify the specimens he collected in Mindoro. Much of the morphological study involves examining minute anatomical features under a microscope. Thankfully, specimen identifications are verified in consultation with Dr. David Emmanuel M. General, renowned Filipino entomologist and Research Associate at the Philippine National Museum of Natural History.
Assessment of gingers
Dr. Docot’s journey with gingers began during his undergraduate research. He continued studying them through his master’s degree, when he developed a particular interest in taxonomy—the work of identifying and classifying species. That curiosity carried him through to his doctoral studies focused on the systematics of the second largest ginger genus, Alpinia.
Over the years, as he studied Philippine species, he learned to recognize key details that distinguished one from another. That growing familiarity helped him discover and describe more than 20 new ginger species. What began as an undergraduate research topic became a lasting pursuit of plants still waiting to be documented.
Dr. Docot’s exploration of the Puerto Galera area has led him to discover two new ginger species so far. He hopes to continue his search around Mount Halcon and the southern parts of Mindoro, where other gingers could be uncovered.
For Dr. Docot, documenting the flora is a step toward protecting the places where they grow. Especially when species are determined to be endemic, the findings can support the recognition of their habitats as critical areas for conservation. Each discovery adds to the knowledge needed to guide future protection efforts.
Drive to discover, hope to preserve
Behind the team’s efforts is a hope that extends beyond the Tamaraw. Dr. Yap envisions the project as a starting point for understanding Mindoro’s understudied species. Each observation, specimen, and finding adds to a growing body of knowledge that can inform conservation efforts and help prevent extinction.
“The overall idea is not just to concentrate our efforts on conserving the Tamaraw. We also have to support the whole island of Mindoro, its people, and its biodiversity,” Dr. Yap said.
For her, protecting biodiversity also means safeguarding species whose identities and ecological roles remain unknown.
“We don't get to decide what is important in nature, so we have to protect everything. Including these species that currently we don't know,” she said.
Losing a species, she emphasized, would be a loss not only to the Philippines but to the world.
The researchers also draw motivation from their encounters in the field. Oxales described feeling tenderness toward the animals he observed, seeing in them an innocence that shaped the care he brought to his research. For Abalos, watching fireflies offered moments of calm amid the demands of fieldwork. For Dr. Docot, each research trip remained an adventure, sustained by the possibility of discovery.
Dr. Yap expressed gratitude to FEU for supporting the studies and providing space for the team’s work. Since she joined the university, the researchers have had access to a molecular laboratory and a small room for storing their collections.
FEU’s close association with the Tamaraw offers a compelling reason for the university to sustain its commitment to research on Mindoro’s biodiversity.
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