Not everything in the story is made up. Here are some real creatures that show up in the book. I was definitely one of those kids that liked reading all the information at the zoo. What about you?
The Philippine Forest Dog / Tiger Dog / Aso Ng Gubat / Witch Dog – The Gubat is a dog indigenous to the Philippines. It can climbs trees thank to claws that it sheds and regrows when they are dull. They are incredibly fierce and have a very high kill drive, which is why they were once targeted for dog fighting. They are rare and only breed with their own kind. In the book, the Stone Dogs were bred from the forest dog.
Lady Death is represented by a moth with four eye marks on its wings. The Saturnid Moth family can be found worldwide, including Southeast Asia, and many include four eye marks on their wings.
jean-pierre Hamon, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Visayan Warty Pigs are known by many names. They’re now endangered due to habitat loss and overhunting.
Shukran888, CC BY-SA 4.0
Carabao are commonly used in farming, for plowing the fields and pulling wagons. During the Philippine American war, so many were killed that farms could not be tended when the war ended and it led to famine. They also are used for dairy products such as cheese. They are the national animal of the Philippines.
Mike Gonzalez (TheCoffee), CC BY-SA 3.0
Crocodiles were once common but now highly endangered in the Philippines. The pictured crocodile is a Crocodylus mindorensis from Palawan.
Gregg Yan, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Tigers no longer live on the Philippine islands, but there is archaeological evidence that Bornean tigers once existed there. They are referenced in the story, since Song is not an island, and they’re scarier than the local big cats such as…
The tiny Visayan Leopard Cat/Maral, is similar to the Indonesian cat pictured here.
Ridho Illyasa, CC BY 2.0
There are two kinds of monkeys that are native to the philippines: The long tailed Macaque and the Slow Loris.
Julia Sumangil, CC BY-SA 4.0
And there are always birds, though we don’t see them up close in the story. Here is a list of birds from the Philippines.
Pictured is the Philippine Eagle / Monkey-Eating Eagle / Great Eagle which is critically endangered. Its one of the largest eagles in the world.
Here’s a list of frogs endemic to the Philippines, since Raefel’s latest discovery is a new species of frog.
Kramthenik27, CC BY-SA 4.0
Lycodon chrysoprateros is only found in 52 square kilometers of island. It is critically endangered. However, other species of wolf snake are common.
In the book, Matiu talks about a kind of snake that’s disappeared due to the city encroaching their habitat.
Lizards are everywhere! Here is a list of 8 different types of lizards in the Philippines, though there are many more.
Pictured is the sailfin lizard.
Kirkamon A. Cabello, CC BY-SA 4.0Bonus: Memeng, Mengmeng, Mingming are common names for house cats. ie. Kitty!
Flora
There are many mountainous areas in the Philippines and some are cool enough for species such as pine to exist. For example, the Baguio Pine.
Gibough, CC BY-SA 4.0
Atis fruit is sweet, with cream white flesh. It’s also known as the sugar apple, or scientifically Annona squamosa. In the Philippines it’s a favourite meal for fruit bats.
JFVelasquez Floro, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
The Lady’s Breath is a fictional fungus, but here are the 20 most common mushrooms in the Philippines.
Mushrooms are strange – neither technically meat or vegetable – and they’re known to create communication networks beneath the forest. Also! The largest organism on earth is a fungus, and it’s in Oregon.
