Keystone species in the Philippines

1. Philippine Eagle
It is known that Philippine Eagle or scientifically know as Pithecophaga jefferyi is
the national bird of the country and its been a great pride of the Filipinos because
it can only be seen in the Philippines. It could reach a height of 3 feet and a
maximum of 7 feet for it’s wingspan. Philippine eagle is a monkey-eating animal,
they also feed on snake and flying lemurs which population had been increasing.
Philippine eagle is significant in maintaining the population of these preys
mentioned. Without Philippine eagle number of large snakes, and monkeys will
grow that may cause harm to other species and to us humans. Unfortunately,
due to destruction of their habitats made by Mt. Pinatubo and human actions
such as deforestation Philippine eagle is now close to extinction. With this,
imbalance in the ecosystem will occur affecting many species.

2. Philippine Crocodile
Fresh water crocodiles or known to be Crocodylus johnstoni scientifically served
as both prey and predator. When the are still small they are usually pretty for
large birds. On there other hand, as the grow older and bigger they became
predators to fishes, shrimps and other fresh water creatures. Crocodiles is
believed to be regulators that contain the number of these small species. With
human activities harming crocodiles their population had decrease allowing small
species to propagate dramatically. Also storm which cause flashfloods served to
be a contributing factor in the extinction of fresh water crocodiles. With storms
fresh and salt water will mix which may cause death to crocodiles or to other
fresh water species if they can’t adapt to it. Both ways would affect the population
of crocodiles, if crocodiles die then population of small species will increase.
Subsequently, when small species die crocodiles will also be affected because
they feed on them. Thus, extinction of crocodiles will greatly affect the balance in
fresh water as a whole.