The Dog Bats

Finally, the lowly Philippine fruit bat is getting some attention.

My first close encounter with the creature was way back when I was around ten or eleven (I think). I was with my cousins playing around in the sprawling front yard of one of our cousin's grandparent's house in Bulacan. We all noticed some bats perched upside down a tree. We all took a closer look of the critters when suddenly one bat started to stretch out its rubbery wings as if aroused from deep slumber. The bat looked nothing like the frightening vampire bats (pug nose and fangs) most are used to seeing in horror movies. This one resembles a dog - a hairy unshaven dog with dark circular eyes and a pointy snout. Hmmm. I believe that's why these are technically named as dog-faced fruit bats.

I vaguely remember the rest of that fateful day as all I could recall was one of these bats fell down from the tree (I don't remember my cousins throwing stones at these creatures). A cruel fate awaits the bat though as some dogs inside the house were already waiting patiently below the tree–the dogs suddenly pounced at the screeching bat, trashing it on the dusty pavement. We all frantically stopped the dogs from tearing up the poor bat.

Luckily, the bat survived the onslaught. The bat lay struggling on the pavement. One of us picked up the creature and slowly perched it on a lowly branch of a tree. Instinctively it attached itself upside down; its bloodshot eyes showed pain while it silently whimpered (as if it's saying "What the f$%* did you do that for?"). I can't stand the scene; I left the vicinity without a word but with a heavy heart.

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I could still see these species of bats down south of the city. I would see them flying low during the late afternoon, at dusk, while I walk to the gym in Westgate area, Alabang. Before I even arrive at our house, I would sometimes catch them whiz by from one tree to another in our subdivision (evening).

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Some trivia: I remember this old comedic horror movie Saturday the 14th which I watched as a kid (with my two hands covering my eyes but sometimes curiously peeking out in between my fingers). In one scene in an attic, a man and a woman were looking at a bat. The woman asked her companion: "Oh, look. Isn't that that boy Bavarian from Budapest?". The man answered back: "No, that's a fruit bat from the Philippines." Quote here.