MAY 09, 2002

CALAUIT (Philippines) - Twenty-five years ago, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos imported more than 100 exotic African animals and let them loose on one of the nation's 7,000 islands.

Dwarfed by Calauit Island's inhabitants, President Gloria Arroyo feeds some giraffes during a visit recently. -- AFP

Today, the remote south-western Calauit Island is teeming with their offspring. It is hoped the island would be a tourism money spinner.

The Philippine-born giraffes, gazelles, zebras, elands, impalas, bushbucks and waterbucks may not be as tall or robust as their African parents but have adjusted well to the 3,700-ha sanctuary.

The island's forests, grasslands and mangrove swamps are also the habitat of some of the rarest and most endangered species in the Philippines.

However, only about 200 tourists visit the sanctuary every month as it is not easily accessible.

Mr Froilan Sariego, manager of the government-run project, said the Philippines embarked on this ambitious project in 1977 in response to an appeal by the International Union of Conservation of Nature to save endangered African animals in Kenya, then wracked by civil war.

But some sources say the late Marcos used the appeal as an excuse to set up a playground for his hunting-crazy son. --AFP

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