Great White Egret (Ardea alba) Hunting in the Balili River in La Trinidad, Benguet

Saw this 𝗚𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁 𝗪𝗵𝗶𝘁𝗲 𝗘𝗴𝗿𝗲𝘁 (𝘈𝘳𝘥𝘦𝘢 𝘢𝘭𝘣𝘢) hunting for prey in the shallow waters of the Balili River in La Trinidad, Benguet. The diet for this big bird includes fish, frogs, small reptiles, crustaceans, insects, and even mice. 

Baguio City Has a Public Transportation Crisis

Baguio City has a public transportation crisis. The lines for jeepneys are hundreds of people long. It can be nearly midnight and people will still find it difficult to flag a taxi. Taxi and jeepney drivers sometimes prefer going home than taking passengers when the traffic situation becomes unbearable.

Some people say these only happen during holiday season wherein tourist arrival reaches its zenith. Nope, these also happen during the off-seasons. Not as often but they do happen.

There's a good paper recently published by the University of the Philippines Center for Integrative and Development Studies that touches on Baguio City's urban problems and how these can be potentially solved or at least alleviated. 

Authored by Jeffrey H. Javier and Karl Mico D. Alangui, the paper is called 𝗜𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗖𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗼𝗳 𝗕𝗮𝗴𝘂𝗶𝗼 𝗛𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗱 𝗧𝗼𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗱𝘀 𝗨𝗿𝗯𝗮𝗻 𝗗𝗲𝗰𝗮𝘆? The paper is free-access. Give it a read. Just Google the title of the paper and it should come up.

#baguiocity #urbandecay #trafficproblems

A Book About the Practice and History of Tattooing in Kalinga, Northern Luzon, Philippines

This book is a must-have in your bookshelf if you're interested in learning about Igorot culture, traditions, and history. In this book, the art of tattooing among the Kalingas in Northern Luzon takes center stage. 

Based on her extensive fieldwork and documentation in Kalinga, Analyn V. Salvador-Amores weaves a comprehensive account of the traditional practice of tattooing in Kalinga in the past and in the present.

Salvador-Amores also discusses the relevance of the practice and how it has evolved in the time of contemporary practitioners like Whang-od and her young apprentices. 

To get a copy of this important book on Cordilleran culture and history, you can try the bookshop/giftshop of the Museo Kordilyera at the University of the Philippines Baguio (UPB).

📖 𝘛𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘐𝘯𝘬, 𝘛𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘰𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘐𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘦𝘴: 𝘛𝘳𝘢𝘥𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘔𝘰𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘪𝘯 𝘊𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘮𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘢𝘳𝘺 𝘒𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘢 𝘚𝘰𝘤𝘪𝘦𝘵𝘺, 𝘕𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘩 𝘓𝘶𝘻𝘰𝘯, 𝘗𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘱𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘴

✍️ Analyn V. Salvador-Amores

The Last Full Moon of 2025

The full moon yesterday evening is the last full moon for 2025. It's called the Cold Moon in reference to the bitter cold and plummeting temperatures that comes with it during this time. For instance, Baguio City and La Trinidad recorded low temperatures between 13 to 14 degrees Celsius this morning.

The next full moon will occur on January 3 next year and it's called the Wolf Moon. This is the traditional name for the first full moon of the year.

Kankana-ey word for moon: 𝗯𝘂𝘄𝗮𝗻.

On The Physical Fitness of Early Igorots

This is one of the more well-known ensemble photos taken in the Cordillera region by Dean Worcester, an American politician, photographer, and writer who lived in the Philippines during the late 19th century and early 20th century.

What's immediately noticeable in this photo is the fitness of the subjects. No one is obese. Everyone has the lean-and-mean physique.

There are no gyms back then. No fancy fitness fads and trends. So their great physique can be attributed to the toughness of life in the mountains, of always being physically active, and a clean diet.

Re: Wild Philippine Brown Deer Reportedly Seen in Bakun, Benguet

Many people seem to have misunderstood my previous post about the Philippine brown deer (Rusa marianna) that was allegedly spotted in Bakun, Benguet. I didn't say that wild deer can't be found in Benguet or other Cordilleran provinces. I even stated that deer populations can be found in all Cordillera provinces. I've seen some of them myself.

I was merely pointing out the obviously manipulated photo being circulated which can misinform people. 

Wildlife populations in the Cordillera region are declining. Some species are considered endangered. Protection and conservation efforts for these are important and urgent. Spreading misleading or false information about these animals can negatively affect conservation and protection efforts. 

I've written about the Philippine brown deer in the past a number of times. The first photo is a brown deer held in an enclosure at the Banao Protected Landscape facilities in Balbalasang, Kalinga. It was injured by a hunter's trap so forest rangers had to keep it in the enclosure. We saw this during the Lumin-awa Trek last February.

The second photo is another Philippine brown deer spotted by a hiker at a trail going up to Mt. Pulag in Kabayan, Benguet last March. 

The third photo is a vintage shot of local hunters carrying a Philippine brown deer in Mt. Pulag in the 1990s.

The fourth photo is an infographic created by the Field Museum of Natural History with the help of the DENR and the National Museum of the Philippines in 2011. It shows mammals of the Mt. Pulag National Park and it includes the brown deer.

Wild deer populations still inhabit forested areas in the Cordillera region. That's a fact. 

Creating images of these animals using AI then sharing these as "actual sightings". That's misinformation.

Is This Photo of a Wild Deer Reportedly Spotted in Bakun, Benguet Real or AI-Generated?

This photo of a deer is rapidly circulating online. It was allegedly spotted in Bakun, Benguet. Is it real? Is it AI-generated? 

Bago ang lahat, hindi imposible na may mga wild deer sa mga kabundukan ng Bakun. All provinces in the Cordillera region have populations of wild deer. Mountainous areas in Benguet, Ifugao, Mountain Province, Abra, Kalinga, and Apayao are home to these elusive animals. 

But here are the reasons why it's difficult to believe that this particular photo is real.

1. As stated above, wild deer are very elusive creatures. It's very difficult to get close-up photos of them in the wild. At the smallest sight or scent of a human being, they'll run away. The photo looks like it was taken a few meters away. This is the kind of close-up photo someone takes in a zoo, not in the wild. 

2. The deer in the photo looks like a sambar deer (𝘙𝘶𝘴𝘢 𝘶𝘯𝘪𝘤𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘳). Walang 𝘙𝘶𝘴𝘢 𝘶𝘯𝘪𝘤𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘳 na deer dito sa Pilipinas dahil hindi ito native dito. Ang meron dito sa Pilipinas is the Philippine brown deer (𝘙𝘶𝘴𝘢 𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘢𝘯𝘯𝘢). 

3. Why are there no other photos of the same deer? If the one who took the photo was able to take a close-up photo like this one, for sure, he/she was able to take other photos.

In short, I think this photo is AI-generated.