Mount Pangasugan


Mount Pangasugan is a mountain in the province of Leyte in the Philippines. It is approximately tall, and located to the north of the city of Baybay. The mountain is densely vegetated, very steep, and home to a remarkable number of plant and animal species. It has been called "the last forest frontier in Eastern Visayas." Mt. Pangasugan Ecopark is situated in the virgin rain forest of the mountain.

Ecological diversity

A study by Visayas State University in Baybay City, Leyte
found many animal species listed by the World Conservation Union in the Red List of Threatened Animals, including the Philippine tarsier, Philippine flying fox, Fischer's pygmy fruit bat. New records of the microbat, with a length of 5.5 centimeters and body weight of 10 grams, a type of skink, and two new species of the Gobiidae fishes were also found by the VSU survey.
VSU's Natural History Museum collected 43,000 arthropod specimens from 377 families and 500 genera on Mt. Pangasugan. A new species of orchid and a tiger beetle were named in honor of incumbent VSU president Dr. Paciencia Po-Milan, a renowned ecologist.
Other endemic species include the eagle-owl, Philippine hawk-eagle, rufous-lored kingfisher, Philippine leafbird and miniature tit-babbler and flying lemur.
The Federal Republic of Germany funded the VSU study to collect, identify, describe and document the existing species of aroids and orchids in Mt. Pangasugan. 25 species of aroids representing 12 genera were documented at
elevations of up to 350 m ASL. Classified as erect ground dwellers or climbers, the most dominant aroid belong
to Pothos and Epipremnum. The orchid species represent 16 genera, with the most dominant belonging to Phalaenopsis.
The Herpetofauna of Anibong, Jordan, Mt. Pangasugan Range, Leyte is a habitat to endemic species, which is so diverse and slightly distributed. The Mindanao State University-Iligan Institute of Technology identified 17 herpetofaunal species belonging to 6 families, of which eight are endemics. These endemic species include Limnonectes magnus, Platymantis corrugatus, Platymantis dorsalis, Brachymeles samarensis, Draco lineatus, Sphenomorphus jagori, Rhabdophis lineata and Trimeresurus flavomaculatus. Limnonectes magnus is already in the near-threatened category.