Davao del Norte

The area that became Davao del Norte was part of the vast Davao frontier opened to agricultural settlement in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In the early 1900s settlers from the Visayas, Luzon, China and Japan arrived, and plantation agriculture boomed.

Davao del Norte is culturally diverse, reflecting the layers of settlement that characterize the Davao Region: Lumad indigenous peoples in the highlands and some coastal areas, Visayan migrants and their descendants in the lowlands and cities, and Moro Muslim communities in some coastal barangays. Cebuano is the dominant language of everyday communication.

Lumad Heritage

The province's indigenous peoples include the Mansaka, whose language is one of the province's main tongues; Mandaya, a related Mansakan language, is also spoken here. Ata Manobo and Kalagan are native languages of Samal Island, and the Manobo and other Lumad peoples live in the Pantaron Range, where the government has identified ancestral domain claims. Samal's Hugyaw Madayaw festival in August was started partly to keep the island's Sama culture alive.

The Kadayawan Festival of Davao City, held each year in August, is the Davao Region's best-known celebration of the harvest and of its indigenous peoples. Samal's Hugyaw Madayaw festival is a spin-off of it, held in the same month.

The food of Davao del Norte follows the Cebuano-Mindanao tradition, with the abundance of a major agricultural province available in markets and kitchens. Bananas appear in multiple forms beyond the raw fruit — banana blossom (puso ng saging) is cooked as a vegetable; saba bananas are fried, boiled, or made into desserts. Pork, fresh seafood from Davao Gulf, and abundant tropical produce are the foundations.

Cebuano is the dominant language of Davao del Norte, spoken by the majority of the lowland and urban population descended from Visayan settlers. Mansaka, Mandaya and other Lumad languages are spoken by indigenous communities, and Ata Manobo and Kalagan on Samal Island. Tagalog and English are used in government, education, and formal settings.

The linguistic diversity of the province reflects its settlement history. In Tagum's markets, Cebuano mixes with Tagalog and with the languages of settlers from across the Visayas and Luzon. This mix is characteristic of Mindanao frontier cities built by migration from multiple origin points.

The region also has its own Davaoeño (Dabawenyo) language, a Mansakan language influenced by Cebuano and Tagalog. It was once the main language of the Davaoeño people, but in Davao City speakers have shifted to a local form of Cebuano that is also often called Davaoeño.

Davao del Norte is reached from Davao City — the regional hub with an international airport — about 50–80 kilometers to the south. Tagum City is a 1–1.5 hour drive from Davao City on the national highway. The province is also a stopping point on the route north through Mindanao toward Bukidnon and the Cagayan de Oro–Manila highway.

Davao del Norte runs from the Davao Gulf coast up into the Pantaron Range, the Central Cordillera of Mindanao, whose old-growth forest is home to the Philippine eagle, the Philippine brown deer, the Philippine flying lemur and a Mindanao-endemic gymnure, and which is threatened by mining and logging. Out in the gulf, at least ten species of toothed whales and dolphins have been recorded, and whale sharks and sea cows are seen often. On Samal Island, the Monfort cave shelters a colony of fruit bats estimated at 1.8 million.

Philippine Eagle

Pithecophaga jefferyi

Critically Endangered

The national bird and, by length and wing area, the largest living eagle. It survives in the old-growth forest of the Pantaron Range, and each breeding pair needs a very large home range, which makes it highly vulnerable to logging.

Field note: Report sightings or nests to the Philippine Eagle Foundation and keep well away; never disturb a nest.

The Bats of Monfort Cave

On a hillside in Samal, the Iñigo-Monfort family has kept watch over a cave since the 1900s. Inside, fruit bats cover about three-quarters of the ceilings and walls of a 75-meter cave. Bat Conservation International estimated the colony at about 1.8 million in 2006, and Guinness World Records lists it as the largest colony of Geoffroy's rousette anywhere.

Norma Monfort, who owns the 57 acres around the cave, fenced the property against hunters and hired round-the-clock guards. In 2011 she was named a Disney Worldwide Conservation Fund Hero. Visitors watch from outside, because any disturbance can panic the bats, and the best time to come is just before sunset, when the colony pours out of the cave entrances to feed.

The bats feed on fruit, nectar and pollen, and the cave is one of the island city's best-known sights, only a short boat ride across the channel from Davao City.