They largely feed on grasses and aquatic plants, foremost on Saccharum, Imperata cylindrica, Narenga porphyrocoma, Phragmites karka, Oryza rufipogon, Hygroryza and Hydrilla.
Many years ago, the place was a vast plain of land with few houses, two roads and a little vegetation including the balite tree and Cogon grass.
Wood was used for trusses to support the roof, which originally was made of cogon grass and was later replaced with nipa.
The parish of Silay was established in 1776 and its first church was built of light materials: bamboo, cogon grass and nipa palm.
Ukibara has no arable land and is mostly covered in dense cogon grass.
There are also some wooden plants such as cemara (Casuarina junghuhniana), mentinggi gunung (Vaccinium varingifolium), kemlandingan gunung (Albizia lophantha), acacia bark (Acacia decurrens) and bottom plants such as Javanese Edelweiss or Senduro (Anaphalis longifongila and Anaphalis javanica), (Imperata cylindrica, Pteris sp.
Other threats to the species include the invasion of non-native plant species such as cogongrass (Imperata cylindrica) and pangolagrass (Digitaria eriantha), dumping of abandoned cars and other garbage, and vandalism.