Just for Fun! Bonus Facts
Welcome! Thank you for playing Flip Your Story! As you go through the deck of cards, you will encounter several elements that are special to the Philippines. Below are some bonus facts to learn more about them:
Palawan Forest Turtle
- The Palawan Forest Turtle lives in lowland forests in rivers, swamps, and streams in northern Palawan and in the surrounding islands, including Dumaran, Tayta, and San Vicente.
- They are nicknamed the “bowtie turtle” because of its thin white or pale yellow line around their head.
- Unfortunately, they are critically endangered.
- These turtles spend a lot of time hiding under rocks. They are active during the early morning and late evening, looking for food.
- They eat small fish, crustaceans, and figs.
philippine maya bird
- They are known as the Black-headed Munia or the Chestnut Munia.
- Their feathers are brown and turn red when they mature.
- Before 1995, the maya bird was the national bird of the Philippines, which later became the Philippine eagle.
- They can sometimes be confused for the Eurasian tree sparrow, which is also a “maya” in the Philippines.
- The Philippine maya birds eat grain and seeds.
philippine duck
- They are recognized by their cinnamon-orange head, black crown, and eye stripe, along with a gray body.
- The Philippine ducks eat fish, shrimp, insects, rice, and young vegetation
- They live in freshwater and saltwater habitats, including mangroves.
- Their population is rapidly declining due to hunting.
philippine pit viper
- There are 3 types of pit viper species: Trimeresuru schultzei, from Palawan, the Trimeresurus mcgregori from Batanes, and the Trimeresurus flavomacalatus, found throughout the Philippines.
- They can camouflage in its environment with their green color and body markings, skilled at hiding from both predators and prey.
- They are known as “ahas tulog” (sleeping snake) because they can stay still for long periods of time, waiting to attack their prey.
- They are venomous snakes, with painful, deadly bites. Victims can potentially lose limbs if not treated immediately.
tarsier
- Tarsiers are the smallest primate in the world, measuring 3.5 to 6 inches long (not including their tails, which are about twice their length).
- They are known for their distinct large eyes. The tarsier has a short body and a round head that can rotate 180 degrees.
- Tarsiers have really long angle bones (called tarsals), which inspired the name, “tarsier.”
- Adhesive pads on their fingers allow them to have great grips, moving from tree to tree, and launching themselves with their hind limbs, and using their tails for extra support, hanging on to the tree trunks.
- They are excellent jumpers, jumping 40 times their height!
- They are carnivorous and nocturnal, hunting for small birds, insects, and lizards at night.
philippine forest frog
- They are a new species of frog (the Platymantis), and are 1 of 32 species of frogs.
- They are known as wrinkled ground frogs, ground frogs, or forest frogs.
- The Philippine forest frog is from the forests of Leyte and Samar Islands (which is in the Eastern part of the Philippines).
- They are small in size, measuring about 0.83 – 1.1 inches.
- Philippine forest frogs are bright emerald green, with small dots across their body.
* Trumpo is the red top pictured above.
trumpo
- Trumpo is a popular Filipino game involving a conical, spherical wood top, that spins on an a needle.
- They are typically made from hardwood, the more durable the better, as they bump into an opponent’s trumpo.
- A thread wrapped around the trumpo, helps to twirl it and throw towards the opponent’s trumpo.
- It can be played individually to show your best tricks or competitively to aim for other’s trumpo sitting inside of a circle.
- Spinning top games are also popular around the world. It is called “trompo” or “peonza” in Latin America, “perinola” in Spain, “bugari” in India, “koma” in Japan, and “trombia” in Morocco.
tinikling
- The Tinikling is one of the most popular folk dances in the Philippines.
- It is named after the long-legged tikling bird. Dancers are said to imitate the tikling bird’s movements as it walks over grass and dodges bamboo traps set by Filipino farmers in the rice fields.
- It involves pairs of bamboo poles held parallel to each other or can have variations where pairs of poles are arranged in cross patterns.
- Dancers step, hop, and jump in and out of the clapping bamboo sticks, which produce the signature rhythm to the music.
- Dancers are barefoot, where females traditionally wear a balintawak (a dress with arched sleeves), or patadyong (a pineapple fiber blouse) paired with a checkered skirt. Males traditionally wear a Barong Tagalog (an embroidered long-sleeve shirt) and cropped pants.
thresher shark
- They are the largest of the 3 thresher species, and grow up to about 20 feet long.
- A unique feature that sets them apart is their tail which makes up about half of their length.
- Thresher sharks are found in Malapascua Island in the Philippines. Here there are several “cleaning stations” where cleaner fish hang out and eat parasites on the thresher sharks. This symbiotic relationship is a win-win for the sharks and cleaner fish, providing food for the cleaner fish, and keeping the thresher sharks clean, protecting them from diseases caused by the parasitic creatures.
- They are not dangerous to people, despite their intimidating size.
- Another distinct process thresher sharks go through is “egg eating.” The mother shark continues to produce eggs during her pregnancy, and the eggs provide food for the growing pups.
bahay kubo
- The bahay kubo, or nipa hut, is named the national house of the Philippines.
- “Bahay” means house in Tagalog and “kubo” comes from the Spanish word, “cubo” translating to cube, which is the general shape of the house.
- The bahay kubo is a symbol of togetherness, as the house brings the family together in one unit, without any partitions to separate the rooms.
- It is typically made from natural materials, including bamboo tree strings, dried coconut leaves, grass, and nipa leaves.
- It was made to provide shelter from the rain and to give shade from the heat. It is raised high on stilts for ventilation and is also a good place to store food, or even give shelter to small animals.
rainforests of the philippines
- The land of the Philippines is predominantly tropical rainforest.
- There are 9 ecoregions: Luzon Rainforests, Luzon Montane Rainforests, Luzon Tropical Pine Forests, Palawan Rainforests, Mindoro Rainforests, Greater Negros-Panay Rainforests, Mindanao-Eastern Visayas Rainforests, Mindanao Montane Rainforests, and Sulu Archipelago Rainforests.
- Luzon is the largest rainforest of the Philippines.
- The Philippine rainforests are home to diverse animal populations. There are approximately 185 species of birds, 160 types of reptiles, 100 kinds of mammals, 76 different amphibians and over 65 freshwater fish species.
- In addition to a wide variety of animal life, there is also rich plant life. Examples of the native Philippine plants in the rainforests are orchids, ginger, palms, and pandan. Two thirds of the palm species here are not found anywhere else in the world.
- The Philippine rainforests produce much of the well-loved fruits people enjoy, including coconuts, bananas, pineapples, and mangoes, which not only are enjoyed by Filipinos, but are also exported to many countries to be enjoyed overseas.
rice field & carabao
- Carabao (or Kalabaw in Tagalog), is a water buffalo found in the Philippines and Guam. It was introduced to Guam from Spanish Philippines in the 17th century.
- They are the unofficial national animal. In the 1980’s Kardong Kalabaw, a puppet, became a symbol of hard work and sense of industry.
- They are large animals, where males can weigh between 930 – 1,100 pounds and females can weigh between 882 – 937 pounds.
- They are gray in color with horns curved backward, and long thin hair covering their body.
- They thrive in the hot, humid climate of the Philippines, where water is very important for them to wallow in to withstand the heat. They cool down by lying in waterholes and mud, which also protects them from insects.
- The carabao help to plow rice fields, with the support of Philippine farmers.
- The old “payatak” method of farming was used, where the soil of the rice paddy was first softened with rainwater, and the carabao trample the area until it is soggy enough to receive rice seedlings.
references
https://aboutphilippines.org/files/Will-the-real-Philippine-Maya-bird-please-stand-up.pdf
https://www.theguardian.com/science/grrlscientist/2012/mar/03/4
https://www.waterfowl.org.uk/wildfowl/true-ducks/philippine-duck-2/
https://businessmirror.com.ph/2020/11/08/cryptic-philippine-pit-vipers/
https://www.britannica.com/animal/tarsier
http://www.sci-news.com/biology/platymantis-navjoti-08772.html
https://steemit.com/game/@wagun001/philippine-traditional-game-trumpo-top
https://www.naturetripper.com/articles/thresher-shark
https://www.oneearth.org/bioregions/philippines-sulu-sea-tropical-forests-im15/
https://www.huawei.com/en/tech4all/stories/rainforest2
https://owt-thephilippines.weebly.com/tropical-rainforest.html
https://animals.fandom.com/wiki/Carabao