Prior encounter, recognition and perception on bats
More than half of the sampled tourists (n = 106; 54%) had seen
bats before compared to 45% (n = 87) who had not and 2%
(n = 4) who were not sure if they had prior or previously
encountered bats. Within the sociodemographic class, gender had
relatively equal percentages. However prior experience differed
significantly among age groups (ꭓ2 = 12.03,df = 4, p = .02, V = 0.17), with a higher
percentage of prior experience among younger age groups (age group A,n = 17, 55%) compared to older groups.
Tourists’ ability to recognize bat species and differentiate between bat
groups (e.g., the difference between fruit bats vs. microbats) was
significantly higher in the younger-aged group (13% of below 20 years
old) compared to other groups (ꭓ2 = 13.42, df =4, p = .01, V = .18). When tourists were asked about their
knowledge of bat diversity and distribution in the Philippines, 13%
(n = 26) have knowledge on bats and their diversity in the
country. While there were 34% (n = 67) of the sampled tourists
understood the importance of caves as bat habitats. Examined between
groups, Filipinos (n = 27, 16%) showed higher knowledge on
Philippine bat diversity than foreign tourists (n = 0, 0%)
(ꭓ2 = 6.026, df = 2, p < 0.05,V = 0.17). Similarly, Filipinos (38%, n = 63) showed
higher familiarity than foreign tourists (10%) in terms of the
knowledge of cave bats in the Philippines (ꭓ2 = 8.78,df = 2, p = 0.012, V = 0.21) (Figure 2).