Am I Worth Saving?
The golden-capped fruit bat is a majestic animal that helps the tropical vegetation of the Filipino environment to maintain its beauty. These bats do an incredible amount of work for their ecosystem, and without them, a vast amount of land in the Philippines will severely suffer in producing beautiful and healthy plants. The delicious fruits, the beautiful tropical flowers, and the naturally bright colored green vegetation that makes the Philippine Islands attractive towards tourists, would look drastically different without the golden-capped fruit bat.
Keep the Forests Flourishing!
The golden-capped fruit bat does many things that help the Filipino economy. They provide a tourist attraction and also contribute to the rain forest by dispersing fruit seeds (Mildenstein, T. & Paguntalan, L., 2016). Although they provide many benefits, there is a big cost to preserving them. The golden-capped fruit bat needs more long-term studies and research so that population patterns can be tracked (Mildenstein, T. & Paguntalan, L., 2016). Most importantly, current laws need more enforcement. This requires a lot of people and money to be done. More awareness also needs to be spread for this species, because people often fear bats wrongfully. Many steps need to be made both socially and politically in order for this species to survive, but it is definitely worth it. All species deserve the right to survive and thrive on this planet, and humans should not get to dictate if a species is “worth” saving. Even so, the golden-capped fruit bat does a lot of things to help the environment and humans and is certainly worth saving.
A golden-capped fruit bat hanging from a tree. (Animal Spot, 2018)