Upper Montane Forest

Mindanao Upper Montane Forest

Ecoregion category: Indo-Malayan Size: 7,000 square miles Status: Critical/Endangered

Description

The dominant forest type in Mindanao and the rest of the Philippines was dipterocarp forest.

Vegetation types in the montane forests of Mindanao consist of hill dipterocarp forests, lower and upper montane forest, elfin woodland (mossy forest), and summit grasslands (Davis et al. 1995)

The climate of the ecoregion is tropical wet (National Geographic Society 1999), with temperature and rainfall modified by the elevation, which reaches up to 2,700 m.

Biodiversity Features

80 percent of Greater Mindanao's nonvolant mammal species are found nowhere else in the world.

On Mt. Apo, montane forest occurs above approximately 2,000 m. Dominant genera include Lithocarpus, Cinnamomum, Melastoma, Caryota, Calamus, Ficus, Agathis, and numerous Lauraceae (Davis et al. 1995).

More than 30 percent of nonvolant mammals in the ecoregion are endemic to Mindanao only, but the other islands share their species with Mindanao.

An endemic subspecies of Philippine deer (Cervus mariannus nigricans) is limited to Mindanao. The Philippine tree shrew (Urogale everetti), which is found on Mindanao, Dinagat, and Siargao islands, represents an endemic, monotypic genus.

Montane Mindanao is also home to the endangered Greater Mindanao shrew (Crocidura grandis) and the widespread (within the Philippines) but endangered golden-crowned fruit bat (Acerodon jubatus) (Heaney et al. 1998).