Mount Tapulao > Palauig, Zambales Province > North-West Luzon (2nd trip)My second trip there and this time went much further into the mountain than the first time I collected at the edge of the forest only.
4 hours hard hiking from sea level to 1500masl, stopped engulfed in the clouds, cold mist and temperatures dropped dramatically and fast with the sunset. Cold mist available right at night start. Very few sticks spotted then at that altitude and for the next 6/7 hours going down the mountain we collected few specimens only......so I can say, considering the hard and exhausting trip we had it is a disappointing one !!
A few lessons to take from it however : collecting above 1000masl on north Luzon is collecting few specimens only and the higher you go the less specimens are to be found. Then because it is January temperatures are very cold then at night and many sticks we spotted were just hatchlings or L1, logically those will be adults at arround march which is the start of the summer and when temperatures even that hight won't drop bellow 18/20C.
The "thing" is that Mount Tapulao has no remaining forest available below 900m altitude.....everything below that has been logged, even burned to the ground and only high grass grows !
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