"Animals in the Phippines "

The whale shark

Do you want to meet the biggest fish in the world, a shark which can grow up to 9 meters in length? The Philippines is one of the countries where there is the possibility to arrange such a meeting!

Meeting whale sharks in the underwater-world became an attraction for many divers In the nearby seas of the

south-eastern part of Luzon.

Not dangerous for human beings

Whale sharks live in tropical, warm waters all around the world. For eating, they swim quite near  the water surface.

Whale sharks are not dangerous for human beings, on the contrary. Though their mouth  is about 1,5  meter wide, the opening to the stomach is very small. So, they are not able to swallow a human body. Whale sharks only live on plankton and krill.

Length and weight

When they have a length of 4,5 meters, the weight is about 750 kg. The maximum length of a grownup whale shark is 13-14 meters. The whale shark then has a weight of approximately 1500 kilograms.

The "Butanding", a lucrative business

World Wildlife Fund

Happily, fishermen discovered that whale shark tourism makes good business. The World Wildlife Fund started learning  local fishermen how to get tourists close to whale sharks and showed the fishermen the way how to shift livelihoods to become tour operators or "spotters", capable to look out for the whale sharks.

 

In the waters of the Philippines

there are more than 2000 different kinds of fish. Added to that figure, the country counts about 200 different kinds of reptiles and 25000 different insects. The smallest monkey and the biggest fish in the world, they both live in the Philippines! Spectacular is the colourful underwater-world. Every year many tourists come to the Philippines to one of the islands, where scuba diving brings them to this amazing underwater-world.  

The Philippines can show you what a typical tropical country can offer in species of animals. Of course, not all animals are rare or specific for the Philippines. That is for sure if you take the carabao, the cocks or the lizards. 

 

Mga Tokó, as the people in de Visayas call the small lizards, are living in houses and other buildings in every tropical country.