The Serangoon stork

July 2, 2012, 1:23 am

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Mouth of Sungei Serangoon, which has since been dammed up to create the Serangoon Reservoir;
(Photo by Food Trails)

Hello from SG (@HellofrmSG), Singapore's very own rotation curation project on Twitter, has just been launched, and our very first curator is journalist and history buff Eisen Teo (@eisen).

As part of his self-introduction, Eisen shared the etymology of the name of his neighbourhood, Serangoon:





(Note: an alternative explanation is provided in the 27th March 1950 edition of The Straits Times)

Naturally, this piqued my interest. Just what sort of bird did the Malay name burong ranggong refer to?

A Google search for "burong ranggong" wasn't very helpful, as all it did was turn up various other sites with similar explanations as to how Serangoon got its name. However, some of these provide further information; for instance, if you combine the clues given by this page from the Singapore Tourism Board, and this page from the National Libary Board, the burong ranggong is apparently a "small, black and white marsh bird."

There are a few local birds that are clearly black and white, such as the Oriental magpie robin (Copsychus saularis), Oriental pied hornbill (Anthracoceros albirostris), or white-bellied sea eagle (Haliaeetus leucogaster). One species in particular, the white-breasted waterhen (Amaurornis phoenicurus), lives close to water, and is usually encountered near dense vegetation in marshes and swamps. Could this be the burong ranggong that Serangoon was named after?


White-breasted waterhen, Singapore Botanic Gardens;
(Photo by mjmyap)

Unfortunately, no. According to the Bahasa Malaysia edition of Wikipedia, the white-breasted waterhen is burung ruak-ruak.

Other sources refer to the burong ranggong (also spelt burung ranggung) as some sort of stork. A 1934 article from The Singapore Free Press and Mercantile Advertiser states that

...The Serangoon district, spelt Saranggong in old land grants, deeds and legal conveyances, is a derivation of "Sa Ranggong," "ranggong" being a species of adjutant stork. I understand that that part of Singapore was the habitat of that particular breed of bird. It should be noted that the Malay prefix, "Sa," means, "one of anything."

That does a lot to clarify a lot of the confusion.

The name "adjutant" refers to 2 large species of stork found in tropical Asia, the greater adjutant (Leptoptilos dubius) and lesser adjutant (Leptoptilos javanicus).


Greater adjutant, India;
(Photo by yathin)

These are related to the more famous (and extremely ugly) marabou stork (Leptoptilos crumeniferus) of Africa.


Marabou, Kenya;
(Photo by -Ni'ma-)

Among the 2 adjutant storks, it is the lesser adjutant which can be found in the Malay Peninsula and Indonesia, and in fact, this species was recorded from Singapore in the past. Could it be that Serangoon owes its name to this inhabitant of wetlands and mangroves?


Lesser adjutant, Johor;
(Photo by Lip Kee)

However, the lesser adjutant is a large bird that can grow up to 1.2 metres in height, with a wingspan of 2 metres. It's certainly not a "small" marsh bird, and makes one wonder how that error came about!


(Photo by yychong)

Lesser adjutant storks are distributed from India and Sri Lanka to Indochina, the Malay Peninsula, and the islands of Sumatra, Borneo and Java. An opportunist, this bird feeds on all sorts of small animals; fishes, frogs, and crustaceans are taken, as are rodents and small birds. Unlike the greater adjutant and marabou however, which have adapted to feeding on human refuse and are well known as scavengers, the lesser adjutant is said not to consume a lot of carrion in comparison.


(Photo by Rainbirder)

Globally, this species is considered Vulnerable to extinction; hunting of adults and harvesting of eggs and chicks occurs, but perhaps the more significant threat comes from habitat loss and degradation, including the draining of wetlands for aquaculture, development, and changing agricultural practices, which often includes the liberal use of pesticides. As these storks nest in colonies, the loss of available trees in their habitual breeding grounds and human disturbance have also been implicated as factors behind drastic declines or even extirpation of the lesser adjutant from many parts of its range.


(Photo by rayanLEE)

According to a 2009 paper, The status of the lesser adjutant stork (Leptoptilos javanicus) in Singapore, there is very little information about lesser adjutant storks in Singapore during the colonial period; the only records that we know of include that of a resident pair in the Tanglin area in 1882, and of unconfirmed breeding reports from the outskirts of town, in 1938. Unfortunately, there's nothing that conclusively states that the lesser adjutant once lived in what we now know as the Serangoon area. In 1986, a lesser adjutant was indeed seen in Serangoon, but it had its wings clipped, and was clearly a former captive.

So while I think we've found the most likely candidate for the burung ranggung that gave Serangoon its name, there are no statements from naturalists or ornithologists from the late 18th and early 19th centuries to confirm this.


(Photo by Vijay Anand Ismavel)

The lesser adjutant is listed as locally extinct in Singapore, although populations can be found in the mangroves and mudflats of western Johor. Lesser adjutants have been regularly encountered between Kukup and Tanjong Piai, and the latter is within sight of Tuas. Villagers at Kampong Pendas, near the Second Link, have also reported at least 2 birds in the area. So it's certainly conceivable that once in a while, individuals may fly across to the western coasts of mainland Singapore.


(Photo by Rivertay)

Indeed, this is what has happened, with sightings at Sungei Buloh in 1999, and a number of records from near the coast of the Western Catchment, which is part of a military training area and off-limits to most members of the public.


A lone lesser adjutant on the coastal dyke adjacent to Poyan Reservoir near the PUB Tanjong Skopek sluice gates on 9 Sep 2008;


A lone lesser adjutant on freshwater marshes at the Pergam Channel linking Murai and Poyan Reservoirs on 14 Jan 2009, after another individual flew inland;
(Photos by R. Subaraj)

Hopefully, given enough time, minimal disturbance, as well as upcoming plans to link disjointed patches of mangroves as part of the Sungei Buloh Master Plan, these storks will establish themselves here, and form a new breeding population.


(Photo by Arddu)

An interesting side note: I tried searching for burung ranggung in the Malay Wikipedia, and the only result is a redirect to burung botak padi, which is apparently the Malay name for milky stork (Mycteria cinerea). This list of bird names in Malay has burung ranggung padi, which similarly redirects to the entry for milky stork. The Malay name for lesser adjutant is supposedly burung botak kecil. I have a feeling that burung ranggung has fallen out of favour, and has been replaced by burung botak as the 'official' term to refer to storks.


Milky stork, Japanese Garden;
(Photo by kampang)

Like the lesser adjutant, the milky stork is widely distributed across Southeast Asia, although it too is now declining and its status is Vulnerable. Often seen at Sungei Buloh and the Japanese Garden, these storks are actually free-flying birds from the Singapore Zoo and Jurong Bird Park which not only regularly wander beyond the park compounds to feed, but have also managed to breed. There are no records of the milky stork ever having occurred here naturally in the past, although it was once present in greater numbers and had a much wider distribution in Peninsular Malaysia.


(Photo by eddylynx)

Similarly, flocks of the closely related painted stork (Mycteria leucocephala), often seen at Sungei Buloh or in the vicinity of the Singapore Zoo, are of captive origin. This species is globally Near-Threatened, and is distributed from the Indian subcontinent and Sri Lanka to Indochina and the northern Malay Peninsula, although like many other Asian storks, it too has suffered great declines in numbers and is no longer found in many areas where it was once common.


Painted storks, Sungei Buloh;
(Photo by hiker1974)


Flock of painted storks, Upper Seletar;
(Photo by NatureInYourBackyard)


Milky stork (left) and painted stork (right), Sungei Buloh;
(Photo by chrisli023)

These are the 3 species of storks recorded in Singapore to date. The painted stork probably never occurred as far south as Johor and Singapore, while the milky stork is absent from old records as a native of Singapore's wetlands and mangroves. Both are best treated as feral species. Hence, if the burung ranggung that Serangoon is named for was indeed a stork, the best candidate remains the lesser adjutant.


(Photo by Mark Bakkers)

Sure, the lesser adjutant might be attractive in its own way, but it does make me glad that my own neighbourhood of Tampines was named after a tree.

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STOMPer's plea to park users: Please throw your litter into rubbish bins

July 2, 2012, 3:00 am

≫ Next: Raccoons in Singapore? Mistaken identity, and the local trade in exotic small mammals

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STOMPer Meiping appeals to park user to dispose of their rubbish properly, after coming across litter strewn all over the grass at Ang Mo Kio-Bishan Park this morning (July 2).

She wrote:

"This is a plea to all park users, whether Singaporeans or non-Singaporeans, to make use of the rubbish bins provided.

"This photo was taken on the morning of Monday July 2 2012 at Ang Mo Kio-Bishan Park."

It really is quite appalling to see how people can be so callous, irresponsible, and oblivious to the selfishness of their actions.

Raccoons in Singapore? Mistaken identity, and the local trade in exotic small mammals

July 2, 2012, 5:00 am

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Which one is native to Singapore?
(Left: Photo by kwokwai76)
(Right: Photo by flipkeat)

It's a running gag among nature enthusiasts in Singapore that many members of the public are ignorant of our own wildlife, and that even common native species are bound to get confused with species not found locally. As a result, our monitor lizards become "Komodo dragons" or "iguanas", agamid lizards are "chameleons", sunbirds are mistaken for "hummingbirds", egrets and herons are "cranes" or "storks", our otters are "sea otters", and these are the most obvious errors we've heard of so far.

It is saddening that many people seem to be more familiar with wildlife found in other parts of the world. Perhaps it's because of the prevalence of wildlife documentaries focusing on ecosystems and species found on other continents, or the infusion of American pop culture. Faced with a small, vaguely cat-like mammal in their gardens or on their rooftops, with a dark eye-mask, it's not surprising that some local residents think that they have seen a common raccoon (Procyon lotor), when in fact this is a species native only to North and Central America. In most cases, any reports of "raccoons" in Singapore are likely to be misidentified common palm civets (Paradoxurus hermaphroditus).



Common palm civet;
(Photos by kwokwai76)


Common palm civet, Siglap;
(Photo by Kok Sheng)

Besides raccoons, another recent sighting of what was said to be a "Mexican coati" raises the question of whether people are simply oblivious or ignorant of all the readily accessible information about Singapore's wildlife. Of course, without a good photograph, the most likely answer is that it's yet another common palm civet.

Raccoons and coatis are both members of the Procyonidae, a small family of 15 species found only in the Americas. The bulk of their diversity is found in tropical Central and South America. Closely related to other small carnivorans like the weasels, badgers, and otters (F. Mustelidae), and the skunks (F. Mephitidae), the procyonids comprise several species known for their omnivorous diets.


Common raccoon, Texas;
(Photo by peskador_X)


White-nosed coati (Nasua narica), Mexico;
(Photo by kathryn.weiss)

According to this ZooChat forum thread from 2010, Wildlife Reserves Singapore has (had?) a number of procyonid species in their collections. The Singapore Zoo used to have common raccoons on exhibit, although apparently they are no longer on display. A pair of common raccoons do make an appearance in the Creatures of the Night show at the Night Safari.


Common raccoons, Singapore Zoo;
(Photo by valentinokh)

The Rainforest Fights Back show at the Singapore Zoo features a brown-nosed coati (Nasua nasua) among its animal performers. This species replaces the white-nosed coati in South America; the latter species lives in Central America and the southern United States.



(Photos by Steel Wool)


Brown-nosed coati, Brazil;
(Photo by Brian Ritchie)

Another species supposedly in the collections, but which is not on exhibit, is the crab-eating raccoon (Procyon cancrivorus). This species is found in forests and wetlands of tropical Central and South America, from Costa Rica to Argentina. The Central American portion of its range overlaps with that of the common raccoon. The common raccoon itself is arguably one of the most successful procyonids, and can be found in the wild from the deciduous woodlands of Canada to tropical forests in Panama.


Crab-eating raccoon, Brazil;
(Photo by Gaia Dell'Ariccia)

One final species of procyonid listed as being in the collections (albeit off-exhibit) is particularly notable, as it is quite a unique creature in many ways. It is the kinkajou (Potos flavus).




Kinkajou, Costa Rica;
(Photos by ppoggio2)


Kinkajou, Brazil;
(Photo by jmittermeier)

Found in tropical forests from Mexico to southern Brazil, the kinkajou is a highly arboreal and nocturnal animal. Despite its carnivorous ancestry, the kinkajou's diet is made up mostly of fruit and nectar from flowers, which it reaches with its long tongue. It is believed to be an important pollinator and seed disperser for some plant species. Insects such as ants are also consumed, and may be seasonally important. So far, unlike the omnivorous raccoons and coatis, the kinkajou is not known to feed on eggs or small vertebrates.


(Photo by ppoggio2)


(Photo by thechemnerd)


(Photo by Yale_Rebecca)

In its appearance, diet, and habits, the kinkajou appears similar to many of the palm civets of Asia, and can perhaps be seen as an example of convergent evolution; its physical appearance alone is highly reminiscent of the small-toothed palm civet (Arctogalidia trivirgata).


Small-toothed palm civet, Fraser's Hill;
(Photo by Vilma)

Like many New World monkeys such as spider monkeys (Ateles spp.) and capuchins (Cebus spp.), the kinkajou has a prehensile tail, serving as an extra limb to help it climb, even allowing it to hang from branches.


(Photo by thedamian)

Through another quirk of convergent evolution, the only other carnivoran with a prehensile tail is the largest of the arboreal Southeast Asian palm civets, the binturong (Arctictis binturong).


Binturong, Colchester Zoo;
(Photo by 14nelson)



The kinkajou's lifestyle and habits are shared by another group of procyonids, the 5 species of olingos (Bassaricyon spp.), which are also arboreal, largely frugivorous inhabitants of tropical forests in Central and South America. Despite this similarity, olingos are apparently more closely related to the coatis, whereas kinkajous are more distant kin, representing a basal offshoot of the common ancestor of all extant procyonids. Unlike the kinkajou, an olingo does not have a prehensile tail.


Bushy-tailed olingo (Bassaricyon gabbii), Costa Rica;
(Photo by Deep Green Photography)

Kinkajous are available as pets in some countries, and there are a number of people in the United States specialising in exotic pets who are breeding and raising kinkajous for the pet trade. However, like many other wild animals, owning a kinkajou can be challenging and expensive.


Pet kinkajou;
(Photo by meyerweb)

The upside of a pet kinkajou is that it is generally quiet and docile, with no noticeable odour. Still, a kinkajou will tend to be more active and playful at night, clambering everywhere and even pouncing from high places. A tame kinkajou is highly intelligent, curious, and affectionate towards its owners, but will require plenty of space to roam and climb about, which means that it is prone to breaking things as it wanders around the house, or leaving scratch marks on furniture (and owners) with its sharp claws. It is not meant to be kept in a small cage all day long, and will either require a large cage or be allowed to spend plenty of time exercising and exploring outside the cage while under strict supervision. Some owners even set aside an entire room full of toys and objects to climb, all just for their kinkajou.





Their nocturnal habits mean that trying to force a kinkajou to become diurnal to suit the owner's lifestyle might lead to exhaustion and stress, or even crankiness and a tendency to nip when woken up. It is recommended that a pet kinkajou be spayed or neutered before it reaches sexual maturity, as it might have a higher chance of turning aggressive as it reaches adulthood. Also, toilet-training a kinkajou seems to be a real challenge; one learns that it is simpler to just place litter-boxes beneath favoured perches. Proper socialisation and lots of loving attention are necessary, so as to ensure that the kinkajou forms a bond with its owner and does not turn aggressive. As a result a dedicated kinkajou owner is advised to spend many hours every day with his or her pet. On top of that, kinkajous can be long-lived, living an average of 23 years in captivity. This is certainly not an animal for those without the time or commitment.


(Photo by Lifted Spirit)

One particular pet kinkajou attained a fair bit of fame after it bit its owner, who was none other than Paris Hilton.


(Photo from Wetpaint Entertainment)

Another possible problem with having a pet kinkajou is the risk of zoonotic infections, which can occur when an infected kinkajou bites its owner. Given that we often know little about the pathogens and parasites that these exotic animals carry (aside from those already known to affect domestic pets like dogs, cats, and ferrets), owning a wild animal like a kinkajou can be risky. The raccoon roundworm (Baylisascaris procyonis), which is typically a parasite of wild raccoons, can also be carried by kinkajous (after all, kinkajous and raccoons are quite closely related), which presents another possible health issue for pet owners if strict hygiene measures are not followed.



Due to the level of commitment needed to take care of a pet kinkajou, as well as their tendency to get nippy, there are many stories of pet kinkajous being sent to rescue centres and animal sanctuaries, or possibly being abandoned. They may be cute, but it certainly seems like kinkajous are not "easy" pets at all.



The kinkajou is currently considered to be of Least Concern in the IUCN Red List. It's not known if hunting for the pet trade is a significant threat to wild populations, although deforestation and local hunting for meat and fur might also be important factors. Like all other exotic mammals, the kinkajou is not allowed as a pet in Singapore. However, as we've seen in an earlier post on green iguanas, some exotic pets still manage to get smuggled in, which explains this recent posting on a local classifieds website:

Baby Kinkajou needs new home (Sg)

I am moving out and cannot take my little baby kinkajou with me due to many pets already going with me. Her name is Holly and she is 2 months old female Kinjkajou baby. She is very tame and loving. She really likes strangers for some odd reason, but prefers females. I am going to be very picky on her new home. Her current cage is 12ft tall by 7ft wide and inside. She just started eating food though still on bottle 3 times daily. I will include her cage if you want to help take apart, also included her toys, blankets, food, diapers, treats etc. She has been vet checked and has been TB tested and fecal tested recently. I am sad to see her go and know you will love her as much as i do. Please do not even think of taking her in, unless you can be with her at least 5+hrs a day & plan to keep her with you when traveling.

One does wonder how the owner managed to obtain a pet kinkajou in the first place, and how it was smuggled into Singapore. It's also a little surprising to see someone flouting pet ownership laws so openly, without fear of attracting unwanted attention from the authorities.

This is the first time I've ever heard of someone in Singapore with a pet kinkajou; most previous reports have involved reptiles, arachnids such as tarantulas and scorpions, or the more 'usual' mammals such as ferrets (Mustela putorius furo), hedgehogs (Atelerix albiventris x algirus), sugar gliders (Petaurus breviceps), and even slow loris (Nycticebus spp.). It may seem strange that an animal like the ferret, which has been domesticated for at least 2,000 years, would be considered 'exotic' wildlife. Similarly, sugar gliders and hedgehogs are bred in large numbers in captivity in other countries. However, the Agri-food & Veterinary Authority (AVA) has chosen to exercise caution, and cites the following reasons for restricting the trade and ownership of these and other species as exotic pets:

• They may introduce and spread diseases to humans and domestic animals.
• Collection of wild animals for trading will lead to ecosystem imbalance and threaten the survival of endangered species.
• The welfare of the animals may be compromised due to reasons such as unsuitable living conditions, poor diet and pet owner's lack of knowledge of the proper care for the animal.
• Singapore's biodiversity would be greatly affected if such exotic pets were released in the wild, as most of them are non-native.
• If the animal escapes, it may cause nuisance, fear and trauma to the general public.

I was especially motivated to write this post after I'd stumbled upon more recent online advertisements of people in Singapore attempting to sell off pet capuchin and marmoset monkeys. The ads have since been taken down (unfortunately, before I could do any screen captures), but I still managed to look through the archives and found someone in 'western Singapore' offering a pet chipmunk for sale.

Chipmunk For Sale

Selling my Chipmunk with Cage
Healthy...tame..plyfull
Selling Prz $350neg
Do sms hp no [redacted]

Breed: Chipmunk PureBred
Age: 10 Months
Sex: Male
Primary Color: Chocolate
Secondary Color: Gold
Advertiser: Owner
Price: $350 Neg.

The chipmunk species most often kept as a pet is the Siberian chipmunk (Eutamias sibiricus). Found across northern Asia from Russia to China, Korea, and Hokkaido in Japan, this is the only chipmunk species occurring outside of North America.


Siberian chipmunk;
(Photo by Houston Chandler)

Like a slew of otherexoticrodents that are becomingincreasinglypopular in recentyears, the trade and ownership of chipmunks in Singapore is at best questionable. Some could plausibly be categorised together with domesticated mice, hamsters, or gerbils, despite belonging to completely different species. It's certainly an aspect of the pet trade that should be looked into and refined, especially since there is likely to be confusion regarding the importation, sale, and ownership of these exotic rodents, especially if they are similar to species already allowed in Singapore.

In an ideal situation, in the hands of people aware of the responsibility and requirements, some exotic animals CAN make great pets. Given enough demand, as well as captive breeding efforts (with the inevitable colour mutations and other fancy varieties), some species could logically end up being counted among the more conventional pets in future. However, the reality is that many of these animals are still bought simply for the novelty factor, for people to show that they have the resources to keep and rear something exotic or different. Not that there's anything inherently wrong with that mentality, but it probably also means that many exotic pets are being kept in less than ideal conditions, and are not receiving the basic level of care needed to thrive in a captive environment, no matter how suitable they may be as pets. When you consider that there are already too many people out there who shouldn't even be allowed to raise a hamster or guppy, let alone a dog or cat, perhaps it is indeed better to err on the side of caution and work on improving the welfare of those animals already allowed as pets.


Pet Gambian pouched rat (Cricetomys gambianus). This is a huge rat.

Here are some recent news articles regarding the illegal wildlife trade in Singapore, much of which involves cracking down on sellers and owners of exotic and illegal pets.

Sting operation nabs online sellers of illegal animals
Animal smuggling on the rise in Singapore
Home's no place for wildlife in Singapore
Still a growing problem: Animal Criminals
Drop in illegal wildlife trade here
Illegal wildlife trade in Singapore active despite heavy penalties
AVA nets 48 exotic animals in island-wide raid

Note: All ads in this post are real, and were found through a simple Google keyword search. Contact details and website links have been removed so as to avoid helping people who might actually want to obtain an exotic and illegal pet.

Hello from Singapore! (@HellofrmSG)

July 11, 2012, 2:43 am

≫ Next: Visiting the ACRES Rescue Centre

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If you've been spending time on Twitter lately, you might have seen the rise of a new phenomenon known as rotation curation, in which a Twitter account sees a change in the person tweeting (or the curator) on a regular basis (usually weekly).



It all began with the Swedish governmental tourist bureau, VisitSweden, and the Swedish Institute. Realising that the world's image of Sweden was constrained by stereotypes of uniformity, it was decided to turn over the nation's official Twitter account, @Sweden, to a new and different Swede each week for uncensored expression of their individual Swedishness.

This soon spawned similar projects all over the world, with rotation curation projects representing the people of cities, countries, cultural groups, and so on.

As the Rotation Curation site states:

What this means is that while Twitter began as a medium for individuals to share their experience with other individuals, it has now evolved into a medium for communities to share their experience with the entire world. Moreover, and reciprocally, it has become a global offering for individuals to dynamically participate in the real-time life experience of communities they find of particular interest.

This evolution of Twitter elevates it from the commonly understood stage of social media to a new — with vast potential — plane of cultural networking.

Rotation curation has generally been well-received, despite some controversy regarding the statements made by some of the @Sweden curators. It was probably a matter of time before Singapore joined in as well.

One Twitter account. A different person living in Singapore a week, every week.

Rotation curation projects started off with Sweden's official twitter account (@sweden). Since then, similar accounts have blossomed for nations and cities all over the world, from Mexico to Russia to London.

This is Singapore's version.

We want to show that Singapore is not just a place where chewing gum is banned and graffiti gets you caned. We are so much more than Disneyland with the death penalty. We want to tell stories of Singapore and Singaporeans and those who live in Singapore.

So join us. Talk to us. Curate with us. Madness? No. This is Singapore.

Hello from Singapore is the brainchild of June Yang (@MizHalle) and Kirsten Han (@Kixes). After making its debut last week, in the hands of journalist and history buff Eisen Teo, I took over the reins this week, and will be the face of @HellofrmSG until midnight, 15th July.

It's been an interesting experience, representing the nation in some way on Twitter. I've tried to showcase aspects of Singapore culture, especially our food, to the point that people overseas say that they miss Singaporean food.



I've also been sharing a lot of information about Singapore's biodiversity and wildlife. For instance, I talked a bit about my Sunday trip to look at the marine life on Terumbu Raya:



And highlighted instances of wildlife being encountered as roadkill:



Over the last few days, I have provided nuggets of information and links to publicly accessible resources and reference materials covering a range of topics, often the result of questions from curious Singaporeans. From monkeys, squirrels, and bats, to birds of prey, lizards, spiders, and plants, these questions have helped me exercise my knowledge of local wildlife and biodiversity, while at the same time highlighting the fact that a lot of this information is available online. I've also participated in discussions regarding illegal pets, fossils in Singapore, and introduced species. I've even helped answer queries regarding guided tours on Pulau Semakau. It's easy to fall into the trap of tweeting too often and spamming people's feeds, but it's really exciting to be able to talk about our natural heritage, not just to fellow Singaporeans, but also to the rest of the world.

It definitely has been a very interesting experience, and while the natural history-related tweets from @HellofrmSG will end once I hand over to the next curator, I'm sure there'll be lots of interesting insights and content from future curators.

In the meantime, I'm fielding questions about nature in Singapore, and we'll see what other topics I'll talk about over the next few days.

People who are interested in volunteering to be curators for @HellofrmSG are welcome to sign up.

Visiting the ACRES Rescue Centre

July 14, 2012, 9:39 pm

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≪ Previous: Hello from Singapore! (@HellofrmSG)

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To recognise the contributions and efforts of its supporters, the Animal Concerns Research & Education Society (ACRES) organised a get-together at its headquarters at Jalan Lekar. I had a great time chatting with friends and other like-minded individuals who are concerned about animal welfare, and was glad to finally get the chance to visit the Wildlife Rescue Centre, which was opened in 2009.




Louis Ng, the Executive Director of ACRES, brought us on a tour of the facilities.


He was joined by Penni, who was rescued from a puppy mill. Despite a leg deformity, she still follows Louis around, and allowed some of us to pet and stroke her as she walked past.


This is the Lee Foundation Education Centre, where education programmes are conducted. Much of the posters and other publicity materials from various campaigns are also on display here.





I'll let the pictures do the talking.


When it comes to finding things to do while you're on holiday, riding an elephant or taking photographs with a 'tame' tiger may be fun, but are you aware of the darker side of the business?


Similarly, there are circuses and even some zoos that abuse wild animals or force them to perform unnatural tricks and stunts to entertain visitors. Hardly the sort of environment to inculcate an appreciation and respect for animals.


ACRES works hard to help improve the lives of animals in captive collections, both locally and in the region, and gives recommendations to ensure that the animals' needs are being adequately taken care of.



ACRES also devotes a lot of energy on eradicating the trade in illegal wildlife products, and the cruel methods often used to obtain them from wild animals. Yes, poaching of tigers for their skins and bones, or elephants for their tusks still goes on, despite decades of legislation restricting and even downright banning all international trade.


Another aspect of the illegal wildlife trade concerns the smuggling of pets, with many wild-caught animals dying as a result of the stress of capture, overcrowding, and the methods used in transportation, which pay more attention towards avoiding detection by the authorities than keeping the animals alive. Despite strict laws on what animals can or cannot be kept as pets in Singapore, there are still numerous reports of people who manage to smuggle or own illegal pets such as star tortoises (Geochelone elegans), leopard geckos (Eublapharis macularius), or sugar gliders (Petaurus breviceps).




And it's not just wildlife; domestic animals are also worthy of our compassion and kindness. ACRES advocates reducing our consumption of meat, but unlike other animal welfare organisations, this doesn't dominate its advocacy and outreach work.



The students who visit the Rescue Centre share their own artwork and declarations to do their part for animal welfare.


Some students also made these storyboards, telling the tales of Midori the green iguana (Iguana iguana) and Spongebob the star tortoise, both of whom were illegal pets that were abandoned, and then subsequently rescued by ACRES.


The Outdoor Conservation Classroom teaches students about some of our native wildlife. Models of animals hidden among the vegetation and information panels help educate people about various issues and threats faced, from poaching and habitat loss to human-wildlife conflict.




Here are some of the animals featured:
























There is also a small butterfly garden. It had just rained so unfortunately, there weren't any butterflies for me to chase and photograph.



We were brought behind the scenes to look at where the rescued animals were housed. These are mostly exotic reptiles that were surrendered, confiscated, or rescued after being abandoned.

The Wildlife Rescue Centre is already close to its current maximum capacity, but ideally, it would have a lot more room to take in more animals. That's because of the woes surrounding the wrongdoings of the contractor initially engaged in the construction of the Wildlife Rescue Centre. As Louis shared with us, the contractor carried out improper practices when preparing the land allocated for the Wildlife Rescue Centre; the land was filled with woodchips that rotted and contaminated the soil and polluted the groundwater. As a result, the 62 animal enclosures that had already been erected had to be demolished, and the backfill material removed. Despite pleading guilty to the charges, the contractor vanished, and whether he can be found and brought to justice remains to be seen. At the moment, the plot of land remains unused, while ACRES hopes that it can be opened up again eventually for the original plans for the Rescue Centre to come to fruition.

Still, the enclosures are roomy and relatively spacious, and enrichment is provided for the iguanas and tortoises. The iguanas get heat lamps to bask and branches for them to climb, while the star tortoises have lots of artificial caves and hiding places.


These are tanks for all sorts of aquatic turtles like common snapping turtles (Chelydra serpentina) and pig-nosed softshell turtles (Carettochelys insculpta), also rescued illegal pets. Others, like Chinese softshell turtles (Pelodiscus sinensis), are bought from markets and released into the wild by well-meaning but misguided people who don't realise the potential for ecological damage from non-native species.


We didn't have a lot of time to watch the animals (after all, this isn't a zoo), but at least I managed to get a shot of this green iguana that was close to the wire mesh.



We were able to interact with some of the other inhabitants of the Wildlife Rescue Centre though. Like most other rural corners of Singapore, free-roaming dogs are a common sight in the Sungei Tengah area. Some of these are adopted for a while by others living or working in the area then abandoned, and ACRES has taken in dogs dumped at its front gate before. Still, it is hoped that some of these dogs can find new homes.


This is Charlie, the friendliest of the dogs.



Here's are more photos of Charlie, with Scrappy rolling on his back.


Scrappy is in the background of this photo, while the dog in the foreground is Mocha, who is still quite jumpy and temperamental, and has moments of aggression when she thinks she's threatened. There were other dogs like Brownie and Sunshine, but I didn't take photos of them.



And here's another look at Penni, who actually lives with Louis and his wife Amy, but follows them to work due to separation anxiety.



Time to eat! The get-together took the form of a barbecue, with a variety of vegan food being prepared and served. As a dedicated omnivore, I have to say that I liked what was offered, and I can safely say that the personal biases that I once held against vegetarian food have been dispelled.


The Wildlife Rescue team was out attending to calls when we started, but returned just in time to join us for dinner.


All in all, it was a pleasant evening, where I finally got to visit the Wildlife Rescue Centre, learnt how my support for ACRES went towards improving animal welfare efforts in Singapore, relaxed and had a nice chit-chat with some of my friends in this organisation.

Nice way to end my week.

DENSO Youth for Earth Action

July 20, 2012, 7:00 am

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For the last 3 days, I have been involved with DENSO Youth for Earth Action (DYEA), an international programme to support youths in Japan and ASEAN who are passionate about doing something for the environment in their home countries.

In DYEA, each participating country conducts its own local programme between the months of July and September, giving youths the chance to learn about local environmental issues. In the meantime, each participant develops his or her own action plan, which is a project that will help tackle a particular problem, whether it is waste management, energy, clean water, biodiversity or simply raising awareness and providing a platform for other youths to come up with their own projects. Last year, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam were the participating countries.

The next phase of DYEA is the global programme, held in October, where shortlisted candidates from each participating country all come together to learn more about environmental management in a particular country, through fieldwork, site visits, and discussions with stakeholders and local communities. This year, the global programme will be held in Japan. This is also a time to further refine and hone one's action plan, as each participating country will ultimately select one candidate, whose action plan will receive further support from DENSO so that it may be implemented effectively over the course of one year.

Applications for this year's DYEA opened in April, and I was alerted through the Raffles Museum Toddycats network. In fact, Tze Kwan, one of our lead coordinators, participated in DYEA last year. Not only did she have the chance to visit Indonesia to learn from local case studies covering various issues of conservation and fair trade, but her action plan was chosen to be the one to receive support from DENSO in Singapore. So in some sense, I was following in my friend's footsteps.

The local programme was conducted at DENSO International Asia (DIAS), DENSO's Singapore office, in collaboration with Nature Society (Singapore), with Outreach Officer Ter Yang helping to conduct the activities. Sean, a DYEA alumnus from 2010, was also present as a facilitator.

Day 1

It quickly dawned upon me that I was the oldest among the 6 participants; after all, the age limit was 29, so this really was my final opportunity to take part in this programme. Everyone else was an undergraduate; 4 were from the National University of Singapore, with 1 student from Life Sciences, 1 from the School of Design and Environment, and 2 from the Faculty of Engineering, while the final participant was from Communication Studies in Nanyang Technological University.

We started out simply enough, sharing about key milestones in our personal lives, as well as environmental events that left a lasting impression on us. That soon led to speculation about what the future held as far as the environment was concerned. I think I quickly left a last impression on the others, with regards to my passion and level of awareness of biodiversity conservation and other related environmental issues.



Later that afternoon, we visited Bukit Timah Nature Reserve, where we met up with staff from the National Parks Board (NParks) and learnt about some of the management issues regarding one of our most iconic nature spots. The discussion covered all sorts of problems, from human-wildlife conflict to widening of trails due to trampling by crowds of visitors.


Joey and Wei Ling from NParks Conservation Division shared a lot about some of the threats facing one of Singapore's last patches of primary rainforest. It's funny that I knew both of them before, Joey through a mutual friend, while I've worked with Wei Ling as part of TeamSeagrass. I think they were as surprised to see me as I was to see them!


One of the animals we saw in the forest, a young green crested lizard (Bronchocela cristatella).


It's appalling to see the damage done by some idiots.

Everyone learnt more about our threatened native biodiversity, as well as the many challenges faced where it comes to conserving our green spaces, from encroachment by surrounding urban development projects and invasive species, to the general lack of awareness and ignorance about Singapore's natural heritage. It was especially interesting when we were asked to name 5 local birds besides mynas, crows, pigeons and sparrows (with Wei Ling saying in jest that I wasn't allowed to answer), and there was a long pause before Yong Kuan chimed in with the names of some of the birds he knew about.

Day 2



Our day began with a visit to the NEWater Visitor Centre, where we learnt about Singapore's management of its water resources.





We were led on a guided tour of the facility, and found out more about the technology involved in reverse osmosis.



Water has been so integral to narratives surrounding Singapore's journey as a nation, and it is amazing to see how in the span of a few decades, Singapore has managed to come up with solutions that have greatly lessened the threat of water scarcity. Technology has been a major contributing factor, but the role of ordinary residents in the sustainable use of this precious resource cannot be overstated. At the same time, because of our level of development, it is easy to forget about the problems faced by many communities around the world who lack access to clean water, or the potential problems posed by climate change and ensuing conflicts over water.



In the afternoon, we had a panel discussion with 2 inspiring people, Bhavani Prakash of Eco WALK the Talk and Green Collar Asia, and Dragos Necula of eco fashion brand Etrican. They shared their own perspectives on how companies can play a role in combating environmental problems, whether it is through corporate social responsibility (CSR) efforts, or by finding ways to green their business. The discussion veered towards other topics over the tea break, with plenty of food for thought about fair trade, resource distribution and inequality, and whether there are ways to fix current models for economic development.

Day 3



The final day of the local programme began on the mudflats of Kranji, where we were introduced to the Horseshoe Crab Rescue & Research Programme being carried out by Nature Society Singapore.


Ter Yang briefed us on how to sex and measure mangrove horseshoe crabs (Carcinoscorpius rotundicauda).

I was truly in my element, traipsing about in my booties and collecting horseshoe crabs.




We found many mating pairs.


These were just a small fraction of the total number of horseshoe crabs we documented. Indeed, mangrove horseshoe crabs are very abundant here, but as Ter Yang shared with us, this area is unprotected and as a result, could end up being threatened due to future development plans.




Once the necessary data is recorded, the horseshoe crabs are released.



Fortunately, we did not encounter any instances of horseshoe crabs trapped by abandoned driftnets or fishing lines. I think everyone who works in the mangroves knows all too well about the time 300 entangled horseshoe crabs were freed from a discarded net in Mandai.

After washing up, we headed back for the presentation of our individual action plans. Each one of us had an interesting area of focus, from raising awareness about clean energy by organising competitions among students, to conservation of native flora through the creation of art using leaf printing. The judges, consisting of staff from DENSO, retired to make their final selections on who to send to Japan for the global programme, while Ter Yang shared some of the winning videos from the recent Through Green Lenses, a mini-documentary and film-making competition that was held earlier this year, focusing on the diverse habitats present on Pulau Semakau.


Full disclosure: I happen to know Zestin and Eunice, the people who made this video, as well as David, who provided the narration.

The entire programme concluded with a nice dinner at Kintamani Indonesian Restaurant at Furama RiverFront Singapore, where everyone could relax and chat after the events of the last 3 days. And at the end, the results were revealed: I am among the 3 participants selected to take part in the global programme in Japan!



It's really wonderful to be given the opportunity to not only travel overseas, but also to exchange ideas and learn from people elsewhere in Asia. Of course, there is the hope that with DENSO's support, the implementation of my action plan can be made easier. I'm not exactly ready to share much more about it, but suffice to say that it has something to do with outreach and educating people about Singapore's urban biodiversity.

Many environmental problems are global, but need to be tackled at the local level first if we are to make any headway. It's easy to look at broader issues of climate change and biodiversity loss and waste management, and rage against the inaction of governments or the evil of corporations and industries, but forget how individual actions can help effect change. One may have grand ideas of saving the world, but dreaming big doesn't mean anything if one doesn't also have the patience or resourcefulness to start small, and slowly build up from there.

Over the last 3 days, I've been given the chance to consider issues pertaining to the environment from different perspectives. Some of the ice-breaker activities and games enabled me to imagine scenarios in which I may be a stakeholder or activist, or even a contributor towards a particular problem, and to examine some of the thought processes and relationships that can cause a project to succeed or fail. Through the site visits, I've seen various examples of how both government bodies and non-government organisations try to manage a particular aspect of the environment, whether it is protecting our nature areas or encouraging people to take responsibility for the conservation of our limited resources. And the panel discussion proved to be especially insightful, to see how people can be driven to want to do business in a manner that helps alleviate some of the pressures on the environment, even if the benefits may not be immediately apparent to the consumer.

A big thank you to Audrey, Pauline and Su from DENSO, Sean from the DYEA alumni, and Ter Yang from Nature Society (Singapore) for conducting the programme. Tze Kwan gave me lots of advice and encouragement, and provided lots of moral support, while Gladys gave a vote of confidence back when I was still considering whether to apply for DYEA in the first place.

And to my fellow participants Yong Kuan, Yang Xuan, Bailey, Genevieve, and Shuqi, I hope that the past 3 days have been meaningful and enlightening. I may have the age and experience, but as undergraduates, you have the advantage in terms of energy, imagination, and free time (especially during semester breaks). Even though the DYEA journey has already come to an end for some of us, I hope that each of us will never stop exploring opportunities to learn and read up about the issues that plague our world, and to find ways to become advocates and do our part for a particular cause.

I'm really looking forward to learning more from my time in Japan, and hope that with such invaluable experience, I'll be able to contribute even more back here in Singapore.

Resident disturbed to find canal in CCK bright blue-green in colour

July 28, 2012, 3:00 am

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STOMPer saltandpepper awoke this morning (July 28) to see that the canal near his home at Choa Chu Kang Crescent had turned an unnatural shade of blueish green, with a greasy slick on top.

The STOMPer wrote:

"There is pollution at the canal near CCK Crescent.

"I woke up to see that the canal was a bluish-green hue and that there was weird stuff floating on the surface of the water.

"Behind the canal is an industrial estate.

"Is this industrial pollution or something else?"

The major canal in the area, Pang Sua Canal, drains into Kranji Reservoir.

Sharing Singapore with visiting scientists

August 3, 2012, 8:30 am

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Several marine scientists from all over the Asia-Pacific are in town for a workshop on marine biodiversity in the South China Sea. I was able to spend a day helping out with the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research (RMBR) as a guide, sharing about Singapore's natural heritage to specialists from the region. (Edit: Mei Lin was a participant as well, and shares more about the workshop in this post)

The first activity was a guided walk through part of Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve, where Oi Yee, Jocelyne, Meryl and I talked about some of the flora and fauna in the mangrove ecosystem.


Even before we reached the Visitor Centre, someone had already found a green crested lizard (Bronchocela cristatella).

The large flocks of migratory waders and herons were nowhere to be seen. Birders on the wildbirdSingapore mailing list have mentioned the early arrival of scattered individuals, and we did see a very small group from the Main Hide. Some of these birds include common redshank (Tringa totanus), common greenshank (Tringa nebularia) and common sandpiper (Actitis hypoleucos). I can't wait to see the return of the main wave of migrants in a few months' time.



In the meantime, the Visitor Centre had a mini-showcase of some of the wader species photographed in Sungei Buloh.



As usual, several Malayan water monitors (Varanus salvator) were spotted over the course of the entire session.


We were keeping an eye out for the smooth otters (Lutrogale perspicillata) that Meryl studied, but alas, they were nowhere to be found.


However, an estuarine crocodile (Crocodylus porosus) was seen right below the Main Bridge.

Meryl and I realised that some of the people we were leading probably knew a lot more about various aspects of mangroves than we did; besides, there are larger, more extensive patches of mangroves in some of the scientists' home countries. So we tried a different approach, trying to find out from our group if there were things we had in common.

For instance, the Thai researchers in my group shared how they too consumed the fruit of the nipah palm (Nypa fruticans); while we call it attap chee, in Thailand it is known by some other name. There they are eaten as a dessert with ice-cream. Similarly, the use of the large fronds of this palm to make thatched roofs is widespread throughout communities in Southeast Asia.


We saw several giant mudskippers (Periophthalmodon schlosseri), as well as other smaller species, including the yellow-spotted mudskipper (Periophthalmus walailakae). This species used to be mistaken for juveniles of the giant mudskipper, until it was determined to be a completely distinct species of mudskipper. Other fishes that we saw included banded archerfish (Toxotes jaculatrix) and striped-nose halfbeak (Zenarchopterus buffonis), as well as several schools of mullet (F. Mugilidae), which were usually detected by the telltale splashes as individual fish leapt out of the water.




With the tide rising, the tree-climbing crabs (Episesarma spp.) were impossible to miss as they began their ascent.


We saw another species of mangrove crab; try to spot the face-banded crab (Perisesarma sp.) in this photo.

Some of the scientists in my group were malacologists; in other words, their area of expertise is in molluscs. They quickly noticed the large lokan (Polymesoda spp.) clams and rodong (Telescopium telescopium) snails on the ground, as well as the lined nerites (Nerita articulata) on the tree trunks. One of them looked closely at the base of a mud lobster mound next to the trail and found 2 other types of snails found in the mangroves.



This is a red chut-chut (Cerithidea obtusa). I was sharing how these snails are eaten, with the onomatopoeic local name derived from the smooching sounds made while trying to suck out the flesh from the shell.



This is a belongkeng (Ellobium aurisjudae).


While the carcinologist (one who studies crustaceans) noticed some fresh signs of digging and tunneling at one of the mud lobster (Thalassina anomala) mounds.



We saw these nets. I believe that these are part of a project by NUS to collect mangrove propagules to study how long they can stay afloat and remain viable. With such data, and knowledge of the currents in the seas around us, we can then see if there is gene flow between different patches of mangrove along the northern coast of Singapore, and whether they also receive propagules from Peninsular Malaysia or even as far afield as Thailand. Dr. Dan Friess shared more about this project in a talk that he gave earlier in May. Our mangroves may be small, but a lot of important research goes on within them, with possible applications for the conservation of mangrove forests elsewhere in the Asia-Pacific!

A trio of plantain squirrels (Callosciurus notatus) amused us with their antics as they chased each other through the trees, and we made our way back to the Visitor Centre, where we were entertained by a white-breasted waterhen (Amaurornis phoenicurus).


In the freshwater pond at the Visitor Centre, a pair of large common snakehead (Channa striata) were busy guarding their brood. The small red specks over the back of the adult snakehead here are actually a small school of snakehead fry.


Just as we were leaving, we saw another green crested lizard.

The bus headed back to the RMBR, and en route, Meryl, Jocelyne and I struck up a conversation with Dr. James Reimer, who studies the colonial polyps known as zoanthids. We found out that he'd visited Singapore before, and had explored some of our shores with Ria while studying our own zoanthids. This is the same Dr. Reimer who contributed to a paper about zoanthids in the aquarium trade containing dangerous levels of palytoxin, one of the deadliest toxins known to date. He shared some interesting details about the prevalence of palytoxin in zoanthids; different colonies belonging to the same species in the same general location may have differing levels of the toxin, or some might not even have the toxin at all. So where does the toxin come from? Is it sequestered from some microorganism in the environment? It's a mystery worth looking into.

After lunch, it was time for the next activity. Some of the workshop participants had expressed interest in a guided tour of the Marine Laboratory run by the Tropical Marine Science Institute (TMSI) on St. John's Island. The rest were supposed to go on a guided tour of the museum, led by Jocelyne and me.

However, the scientists who remained around after lunch were so caught up with chats and discussions with colleagues and fellow researchers, while others soon vanished into the museum, keen on looking at specimens pertaining to their areas of interest. Jocelyne and I were left with 3 researchers from Prince of Songkla University, who coincidentally were part of the same group I had guided at Sungei Buloh in the morning.

They had visited the public gallery before, so we led them into the bowels of the museum, down into the collections where most of the specimens were stored.



We bumped into David, who was busily cataloguing the huge collection of birds in the dry collection. He took a break from his work to show off some specimens.

One of the trio got "kidnapped" by Professor Peter Ng. Naturally, it was the carcinologist. That left us with just 2 people to guide around the museum, both of whom were malacologists - one studies cephalopods, while the other focuses on gastropods.



They soon occupied themselves with looking at the many mollusc specimens collected over the years. It was also an excellent opportunity to talk about the constraints that the museum has always faced in terms of storage and exhibition space, hence the move to larger premises in 2014. "Come back in 2 years' time, and you can see dinosaurs too!" we told them.


In the wet collections, we found Dr. James, who was already hard at work looking at more zoanthids.


The gastropod specialist (I feel bad for not catching his name) was busily searching for specimens belonging to 2 families of snails he studied, the terrestrial Pupillidae and marine Triphoridae; both families consist of tiny snails, with the former usually being discovered while sifting through soil and leaf litter, and the latter being found feeding on sponges. Alas, both groups were not represented in our collections.


We also found some shells of giant clams (Tridacninae) that had been recovered from our reefs. I shared about our efforts at restoring giant clam populations in Singapore, and also pointed out the sad loss of some of our giant clam species. I also told them about an interesting mystery: the horse's hoof clam (Hippopus hippopus) had supposedly been locally extirpated; certainly, recent surveys failed to turn up any live specimens. However, the intact shell of a large specimen were recovered from Terumbu Raya in 2010. It was thought to have died only recently, but how did it end up here in Singapore, considering that the shell appears to be too large to have been washed here from Indonesia? Did a horse's hoof clam once live on Terumbu Raya and eluded discovery until after it had died?


Deeper within the museum, we found a trolley full of cephalopod specimens.


And of course we had lots of fun looking at all the different types of octopus, squids, and cuttlefish.


Here's an interesting specimen that they found amongst the jars and bottles. It's a highly venomous blue-ringed octopus (Hapalochlaena sp.) that was apparently collected from Thailand!

Blue-ringed octopus are not limited to Australian waters, but are actually widely distributed across the Indo-Pacific. The taxonomy of the group is still under review, with quite a few supposed undescribed species. And while there haven't been any actual records of blue-ringed octopus in Singapore, a boy died at East Coast Park in 1986 from what was reported back then to be a bite from a blue-ringed octopus. That's quite disconcerting.

And so it wasn't quite the museum tour that Jocelyne and I had expected, although we had a lot of fun showing the scientists around, and learnt quite a lot from them as well. It certainly was an interesting experience, and I'm glad that to have been a part of this cross-cultural exchange of information and knowledge. Every country faces its own challenges and problems regarding biodiversity research and conservation, but some of these are the same, regardless of where you're from; whether it's funding woes, lack of public awareness and support, or simply a lack of resources to comprehensively catalogue the species occurring within national borders. The Thai researchers themselves shared how their own natural history museum had insufficient space.

Studying and protecting marine biodiversity is especially tricky when one is faced with an expanse shared by several nations, like the South China Sea. Being able to accurately assess the biodiversity in the South China Sea and formulate policies for conservation requires collaboration between nations, and a commitment towards upholding and preserving any multilateral agreements over ownership of the resources in the sea. Diplomatic disputes such as those fought over who owns which islands, or the inability to agree to guidelines over shared ownership of marine resources, can seriously impair the progress of scientific research into understanding what lives in the sea and what needs to be done to protect the often fragile habitats within. Hopefully, this workshop has helped to continue to build communication and cooperation, and encourage researchers to build connections with their counterparts elsewhere, so as to improve our collective knowledge and lead to sound decisions for conservation of marine ecosystems. After all, as far as biodiversity is concerned, there are no political boundaries.

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Sightings at Sungei Tengah

August 7, 2012, 8:53 am

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I'd spent the evening at the Animal Concerns Research & Education Society (ACRES) Wildlife Rescue Centre, and as I walked out towards Old Choa Chu Kang Road to take the bus, I stumbled upon a few examples of local amphibians and reptiles along Lorong Pasu and Sungei Tengah Road.



The first encounter was also the most exciting one for me. This was my first ever sighting of a striped kukri snake (Oligodon octolineatus)! At first, I didn't know if I was looking at a live snake or a remarkably intact roadkill; it wasn't moving at all, not even when I walked up to it to take photos. Not until I put my iPhone close to the head and saw the head flinch did I realise that the snake was still very much alive.



Although it was already quite late at night, there were still quite a few vehicles, so I decided to chase the snake off the road before it became genuine roadkill. I nudged it with my shoe, and it immediately went into defensive position, coiling up and raising its head, seemingly ready to strike. I certainly didn't want to grab it, especially because as I wrote in an earlier post, kukri snakes aren't dangerously venomous, but have long and sharp teeth that can make a bloody mess of your fingers.


Such beautiful colours.

It was quite dark, and I couldn't tell if it did make good on the threat display by actually striking; I was wearing jeans and heavy-duty outdoor shoes so I didn't feel a thing. In any case, I was more worried about preventing it from getting run over by a passing vehicle. 2 cars had already driven past us while I was taking photos. And to make matters worse, this section of road wasn't brightly lit, and I was wearing a black t-shirt.

Headlights in the distance told me that a truck was approaching, and if the kukri snake didn't budge, it would almost certainly get flattened. So I nudged it with my shoe even even more insistently, and it finally got the cue and bolted, thankfully in the right direction. I kept up the pressure and escorted it as the snake slithered across the road and vanished into the grass. I was so thrilled by the encounter, although on hindsight I now regret not pausing to take more photos, especially when it was in threat posture. Hopefully the snake remembered the message and kept off the road.


Further down, I saw another snake on the road. This time though, it was a striped keelback (Xenochrophis vittatus), and one that was very much two-dimensional. Sigh.



My only brush with a striped keelback so far was in Tampines earlier this year; I was cycling when one suddenly slithered across the pavement. Fortunately I hit the brakes promptly, but it moved too quickly for me to even think about taking out my own camera at that time.


I found a second roadkill: a common Asian toad (Duttaphrynus melanostictus).


And here's another roadkilled frog, still fresh enough to be picked over by ants. It's very hard to determine the species based on these mangled remains, although it was probably quite a large frog in life. Was it a native field frog (Fejervarya limnocharis) or crab-eating frog (Fejervarya cancrivora)? Or was it another example of the invasive American bullfrog (Lithobates catesbeianus)?


Finally, a live frog! I think this is a field frog.


Just like the kukri snake, this frog wasn't skittish at all. In most cases, field frogs have a tendency to stay still for a while as long as you keep your distance, allowing you to take all the photographs you want, only to make sudden and explosive leaps when you get this close.


I'm actually wondering if it was sickly for some reason, and it's not just because it looks a little thin. Despite my prodding and nudging, it didn't even react to me, save for some weak kicking when I grabbed it with one hand. Usually, a frog would react to being caught with violent kicking and struggling. But no, it was just the slightest hint of protest.


I took more photos before I released it into the grass near a drain overgrown with weeds. I'm not sure if there was something wrong with this frog, but I'm hoping that it stayed off the road.



All these encounters in less than half an hour! It does make me wonder about the potential toll that vehicles can have on small animals, especially along these more rural roads. I may have gained some fresh material for Monday Morgue, but I actually get greater pleasure from the knowledge that I was able to prevent 2 animals from meeting a premature and bloody end, at least for that short period of time.

STOMPer reels in 'sea monster' with many writhing legs at Changi Beach Club

August 9, 2012, 3:00 am

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STOMPer Sadiq went fishing with his friends last night at Changi Beach Club and was surprised when he reeled in this 'sea monster'.

Said the STOMPer:

"Is this a sea monster?

"I caught in Changi Beach Club.

"At around 11pm yesterday, three friends and I made our way to Changi Beach Club for a spot of fishing.

"Prior to catching this 'sea monster', we caught about three catfish, each weighing about 1kg each.

"Around 3am, we caught this 'sea monster', it had gotten itself stuck on our hook.

"We've never seen something like this before, and we don't know what it is.

"We didn't use our hands to take it off, as we feared it might be poisonous.

"At first I thought it was a plant, then I saw it had legs which were moving.

"We took some photos of the palm-sized creature and then released it back into the water and continued fishing, where we caught some crabs."

Many marine creatures, especially those that make a living out of sifting plankton from the water, attach themselves to nearby objects in the environment. Such objects can include rocks, shells, driftwood, even pipes and pieces of garbage. It appears that this is what happened here: the anglers have hooked and brought up an unidentifiable piece of rubbish that had several marine animals attached to it.

The most obvious would be the 2 thorny sea cucumbers (Colochirus quadrangularis), which make up the pink and fleshy parts of the 'sea monster'.


This is a very common species on many of our Northern shores, including Changi;
(Photo by Ria)


The thorny sea cucumber feeds by filtering plankton and particles of organic matter from water with their feathery feeding tentacles;
(Photo by Ria)

Contrary to the anglers' fears, this is a completely harmless creature that can be readily handled with bare hands, although not all sea cucumber species will tolerate being molested by humans in such a manner.

The writhing 'legs', which I presume refer to the yellowish portion, are actually a completely different animal, a feather star or crinoid (Comatulida).


This feather star was found on the Chek Jawa intertidal;
(Photo by Ria)

Like the sea cucumbers, the filter-feeding feather stars are also echinoderms. These fragile creatures are also completely harmless to people; in fact, they are more likely to lose bits of their arms if mishandled.

Singapore is home to several species of feather stars, but they are poorly known and many of the species regularly encountered on our shores have not been conclusively identified yet.




Here are other species of feather star found in Changi;
(Photos by Ria)

It's interesting to see how local anglers react when they find out that there's more to marine life than just fishes and crabs, and what they think of even common (albeit bizarre-looking) invertebrates. But seriously, calling this a 'sea monster' is a gross exaggeration. At least these harmless marine animals were released back into the water.

Monitor Mayday

August 10, 2012, 6:45 am

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I wasn't quite expecting to be involved in wildlife rescue today. But sometimes, you just happen to stumble upon a wild animal in distress, and you feel that sense of conviction that you have to do something to help.



I was walking along a deserted stretch of monsoon canal near Sungei Tengah Road, when I saw a Malayan water monitor (Varanus salvator) inside. Nothing out of the ordinary; these large lizards are typically found close to water, and to them, a concrete drain will do just as well as a natural stream or river. But there was something odd about this particular individual, and I decided to take a closer look.



Despite their size, Malayan water monitors are generally shy creatures. Although my general observation is that smaller individuals are more skittish, even the giants of Sungei Buloh will quicken their pace and retreat into the water if you get too close. On many occasions, the only way you'll know of a monitor lizard's presence is the loud rustling or splashing as it makes a sudden dash for cover. Really large ones might puff up their bodies, assume an erect posture, and raise the tail as part of a threat display. However, this lizard was notable in its complete lack of a response to my presence. The least I was expecting was to have it staring at me, and flicking its tongue in and out to detect my scent. Instead, all it did was swivel its head around, almost like it couldn't see me at all and was trying to track the sound of my footsteps.





There was something about the eyes that didn't seem right. For some unknown reason, both of the monitor lizard's eyes were tightly shut. Was it blind? Even as I walked right up to it, it didn't even panic at all, and just stayed in place. I waved my hand in front of its face, yes, a silly thing to do as it could have lunged and bitten me, but it didn't even react. I splashed some water at it, but it still didn't budge. I was convinced that yes, there was definitely something wrong with this monitor lizard.

I carried on exploring the length of the canal, and returned a while later. The monitor lizard was still at the same spot, and it certainly didn't look like it was in very good shape.

It wasn't especially emaciated for a monitor lizard of its size, but after you've spent enough time watching monitor lizards going about their daily lives, you soon get a sense of what is 'normal' for a monitor lizard.



Monitor lizards are almost always in control of the situation, and they know it. They have a confident yet inquisitive air about them, as if they know their place as top predators in many of our aquatic ecosystems. They are usually steadfast and sure in their movements. They don't skitter about nervously the way smaller lizards do, but despite their mass, they're not lumbering and awkward. They practically saunter, muscles tensed and primed for explosive action, ready for that moment when the need arrives to lunge at prey, or to escape an even larger foe.



Even while hauled up on the shore basking in the sun, or catching a nap while lounging on a branch, you can tell that a monitor lizard is still very much aware of the goings-on around it. Get too close or make too much noise, and you'll notice one eye languidly open, watching out for any perceived threat. The body tenses for the moment when you cross the invisible boundary, and it bursts from its perch, fleeing for the nearest refuge.

In the water, the monitor lizard swims along with slow but regular and purposeful strokes of the tail, head held above the surface, eyes scanning the surroundings. And whether it's on land or in the water, that characteristic forked tongue is continually flicking in and out, gathering information alien to our us, with our comparatively far weaker primate noses. Monitor lizards are supposedly highly intelligent in comparison to other lizards, and I certainly do not dispute this.



This was not what I saw with the monitor lizard in this drain, so weak that even merely keeping its head above the water seemed to be using up a lot of its strength. There were periods when it rested its head on the ground, as if too tired to keep its head raised. This really was a pale shadow of a healthy monitor lizard.

I had decided that in all likelihood, I would have to call the Wildlife Rescue hotline of the Animal Concerns Research & Education Society (ACRES), and get them to pick up the monitor lizard and see if it was ill. But since this was some distance away from the main road, I thought I ought to transport the lizard to a spot where we could wait for the Wildlife Rescue van.

Now, I'm usually the first person to insist that you do not try to touch a wild monitor lizard. If you don't get whipped hard by the tail, you're bound to end up bleeding badly from serious lacerations caused by its numerous sharp teeth or claws. But seeing how unresponsive this lizard was, I took a gamble. I reached out with one hand and gently touched its back. No response. A more confident, regular stroking. Still nothing. I gently held it around the torso and actually lifted it out of the water. Now, trying to do this with a healthy monitor lizard would trigger a great deal of struggling and violent flailing, with the head, limbs, and tail all thrashing about. But all I got from this lizard was a very feeble stretching and kicking of the limbs.

This was the first time I'd actually handled a monitor lizard, and needless to say I was very excited, while simultaneously concerned about its health and unsure about its apparent lack of aggression towards being manhandled. I was aware that it could suddenly find a surge of energy and scratch, bite, or whip its tail, but it was so docile that I could practically stuff it into my backpack without much difficulty. It was a bit of a tight squeeze to fit inside my bag, but this was the only way I could carry it out of the canal, and fortunately monitor lizards are quite flexible.

Once I had emerged from the canal, I removed it from my backpack. Good, the limbs had tensed a little, and the claws had gotten snagged in the fabric lining the interior of my bag. I spent a few tense moments freeing the claws on each limb from my bag, while hoping that it wouldn't lash out and scratch me. Still, the eyes remained shut, and the tongue still wasn't flicking in and out. The tail, its primary defensive weapon, seemed to hang limply.


I placed it on the ground, where it lay there, limp and motionless, save for the rhythmic expansion and contraction of its thorax as it breathed. I splashed some water to help it cool down in the afternoon heat.



Here's a closer look at the head. I have no idea what's wrong with its eyes. Was there an infection? Was it having problems shedding its skin?



These are the claws that enable a monitor lizard to climb trees and scale vertical concrete or rock surfaces with relative ease. When feeding from large carcasses, the forelimbs provide a secure grip while the head works at ripping off chunks of flesh. Of course, these claws can deal a lot of damage if a monitor lizard struggles.


This shows you how big it was. My rough estimate is that it was approximately 80 centimetres in length; still a juvenile.



Beautiful skin patterns.



Seriously, I could never possibly think of doing this with a healthy wild Malayan water monitor.

I called the ACRES Wildlife Rescue hotline, gave them a brief description about the situation, and stated my location. Because they were occupied with attending to other calls and were busy, I was told that I might have to wait as long as an hour before they could drive over and attend to this case. I decided to ask if it might be better if I personally delivered it to the Wildlife Rescue Centre, seeing that it was just a short distance away, and I had a bag to transport it in.

And so, I set off for the Wildlife Rescue Centre, about 10 minutes' walking distance from my location. I tried my best not to jostle the lizard around too much while it was in my backpack; being captured was probably stressful enough for the sickly lizard, I didn't want to cause it further trauma. I'd already alerted ACRES with a tweet, and so when I arrived, the whole procedure was done very smoothly. I handed it over to the veterinarians and shared with them how weak and listless it was. To further prove my point, I emphasised that I'd just handled a wild monitor lizard with just my bare hands, and didn't get bitten or scratched at all. There was certainly something quite wrong with this lizard's health.

In my excitement, I forgot to take more photos of the monitor lizard while it was in the treatment room.

This is the second animal in distress that I've retrieved and handed over to ACRES Wildlife Rescue; the first was a red-eared slider (Trachemys scripta elegans) that I'd found in a drain outside Lorong Halus Wetlands with a fishing hook lodged in its mouth.



This also happened to be the second Malayan water monitor that I'd helped to save; in December 2007, I alerted everyone else to a monitor lizard entangled in a driftnet on Pulau Sekudu and wedged amongst the boulders. If we hadn't found it that day, it most likely would have drowned as the tide rose. The others in my group took charge of the task of cutting it free of the net, as they were armed with the right tools. Now that was one feisty lizard, from the way it struggled and writhed, and even latched onto Terry's finger; luckily he was wearing thick rubber gloves!


(Photo by Ria)

I can safely say that this really is my closest ever contact with a Malayan water monitor, and while I am still very excited about the whole experience, and really stoked about playing a part in rescuing it, I know that I would probably have been just as glad if I had crossed paths with a perfectly healthy monitor lizard. I hope ACRES is able to figure out what's wrong with it, and that it'll be able to make a full recovery.

A reminder: Handling this monitor lizard involved a great deal of risk-taking, craziness, and recklessness on my part, and perhaps it was more due to luck and this lizard's poor health that I wasn't bitten or scratched. It's also likely that I would have been more hesitant to do what I did if the lizard was any larger. Do not attempt to catch or handle healthy monitor lizards, especially if you're unfamiliar with wildlife. It's best that you appreciate these majestic and powerful reptiles from a distance, and leave the lizard wrangling to professionals like ACRES Wildlife Rescue.

Update (23rd August): I was just informed by ACRES that unfortunately, the monitor lizard wasn't responding to treatment, appeared to have a crippled right forelimb, and seemed to have a permanently twisted neck. As a result, it was euthanised. Oh well.

The Naked Hermit Crabs' National Day celebrations on Chek Jawa

August 11, 2012, 6:38 am

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Today, the Naked Hermit Crabs celebrated National Day with a guided tour on the Chek Jawa boardwalk.

I arrived at Changi a little early, so I decided to spend some time exploring a small stretch of coast close to Changi Point Ferry Terminal.


Some of the sea hibiscus (Talipariti tiliaceum) were flowering; the flowers only fully open at around 9 a.m.



Sweet secretions from these slits in the leaf veins attract ants. I always share how the aggressive weaver ants (Oecophylla smaragdina) are fond of building their nests in sea hibiscus, and do an excellent job at keeping herbivores away from the plant.


I found this nymph of a cotton stainer bug (Dysdercus decussatus) on a sea hibiscus fruit.


Further down the boardwalk, the weaver ants were hard at work, processing a piece of prawn.

There were plenty of birds; parakeets (Psittacula sp.) screeched as they flew overhead, while I saw some scaly breasted munia (Lonchura punctulata) perched among the long grass. A small group of olive-backed sunbirds (Cinnyris jugularis) with their high-pitched chirps chased each other through the trees.



I was thrilled to see 4 Oriental pied hornbills (Anthracoceros albirostris) approach and land in a nearby tree. Unlike most other encounters I've had with hornbills, these were completely silent.



There was thick luxuriant growth of seashore morning glory (Ipomoea pes-caprae) on the high shore.



The nearby beach was carpeted with the algae known as sea lettuce (Ulva sp.), washed up with the incoming tide.



Some small animals had gotten stranded with the seaweed too. I found a couple of ball sea cucumbers (Phyllophorus sp.).


I also saw a rather stressed purple sea cucumber (F. Cucumariidae). These were all returned to deeper water, where they will hopefully manage to avoid getting washed up onto the beach again.

I returned to the ferry terminal and joined the others. We often take a few moments to look out for fishes. There were small groups of striped-nose halfbeak (Zenarchopterus buffonis) zipping about near the surface, juvenile mullet (F. Mugilidae) swimming about actively in close formation, and a huge shoal of Kops' glass perchlet (Ambassis kopsii) just lounging in the water.

As we arrived on Pulau Ubin, I stopped to admire the white-bellied sea eagles (Haliaeetus leucogaster) and brahminy kites (Haliastur indus) that were soaring just off the island.


We arrived at Chek Jawa, where Ley Kun promptly shared with some of our visitors about rubber trees (Hevea brasiliensis) and the rubber industry in 19th century Malaya.


The resident wild boar (Sus scrofa vittatus) soon came trotting out of the forest.


They had clearly just gone for a cooling dip in some mud. I like how this sow has a mud stain on her flank the Nike symbol that looks like the Nike symbol.


The wild boar at Chek Jawa appear to comprise a family group, led by one large adult sow. I believe that this was one of the piglets from last year's litter, who has since grown up and now has young of her own. She's usually seen in the company of her mother and one of her sisters, as well as the newest litter.



The piglets are now a little larger, and their watermelon stripes are starting to fade. We're not sure just exactly how many piglets are there, and which sow they belong to.


The matriarch (who is probably a grandmother) wasn't with the rest of the family. I wonder where she is. We also haven't seen the boars in quite some time, although the piglets clearly indicate that they're out there somewhere. Perhaps the boars are still more wary around humans, and like the minibus drivers have shared in the past, the males don't get fed as they are more likely to turn aggressive.

We learnt from the Information Kiosk that the durian trees (Durio zibethinus) had flowered around 3 weeks ago! Which means that we could probably expect to see the trees fruiting sometime in November or December.


A small group from International Coastal Cleanup Singapore (ICCS) are also here at Chek Jawa for a recce trip, in preparation for the annual cleanup session in September.



After a quick briefing, our visitors set off, led by Sankar, Pei Yan, Chay Hoon and Ria.


Ria brought along the Singapore flag, and our enthusiastic visitors gamely posed for photos on the Jejawi Tower.







Here's Ria's group at the foot of the Jejawi Tower.


Everyone has lots of fun trying to spot crabs and mudskippers in the mangroves. Even the giant mudskipper (Periophthalmodon schlosseri) proved to be a challenge to spot among the mangrove roots.


"There, do you see the mudskipper?"

I shared with some of the visitors about the tree-climbing crabs (Episesarma spp.) commonly seen in the mangroves, and as luck would have it, we saw several Singapore tree-climbing crabs (Episesarma singaporense), identified by the distinctive red claws.



We found this plant with white flowers and bright red fruits that reminded us of cherry tomatoes. I wonder what it is.


Where the mangroves began to thin out, large groups of porcelain fiddler crabs (Uca annulipes) were seen. Everyone was amused and entertained by the frantic waving of claws and little skirmishes as males competed with each other for females.




Closer to the mudflat, the orange fiddler crabs (Uca vocans) dominated the shore.


Bearded mudskippers (Scartelaos histophorus) and a blue-spotted mudskipper (Boleophthalmus boddarti) were seen on the mudflat, along with several crabs that appeared to be somewhat larger than fiddler crabs. At that time, I identified them as possibly being ghost crabs (Ocypode spp.), although I now think that they're more likely to be sentinel crabs (Macrophthalmus spp.).



Closer to the water's edge, as if welcoming the incoming tide, several gold-spotted mudskipper (Periophthalmus chrysospilos) were spotted. The shallows were full of activity; we saw lots of small fishes swimming about, including Kops' glass perchlet, crescent perch (Terapon jarbua), and at least 2 species of mullet, one of which I could identify as squaretail mullet (Ellochelon vaigensis). Later on, I saw a pair of fairly large needlefish (Strongylura sp.).




We had a good look at a pair of collared kingfisher (Todiramphus chloris), and while I only had a fleeting glimpse of a straw-headed bulbul (Pycnonotus zeylanicus), its melodious singing was regularly heard. Another bird that we heard more often than we saw was the red junglefowl (Gallus gallus); we'd seen a trio of roosters from the van while en route to Chek Jawa, but otherwise they chose to remain hidden in the vegetation while crowing away.


One of the sharp-eyed visitors spotted a Malayan water monitor (Varanus salvator) basking on the shore.


The seashore nutmeg (Knema globularia) was fruiting. These fruits are eaten by many birds, including hornbills.


Everyone gathered at House No. 1 for the usual guestbook activities.


From the Viewing Jetty, I saw this metal drum with a flag floating in the water. I wonder where it came from.


As we left Chek Jawa, we saw that a huge crowd had gathered. There are plenty of people who do appreciate our nature areas!


We had lunch at Ubin Town, where we learnt that Blackie the dog had recently passed away. I never really interacted with him, but often saw him hanging around Ubin Town. And now I miss Cookie and Max, who used to lounge around the Chek Jawa Information Kiosk, during those early years of guiding on the boardwalk.



As we headed to the jetty to board the boat back to Changi, we found this mandible of a wild boar tied to a coconut tree.

A grey heron (Ardea cinerea) took flight close to the jetty, and as the boat approached Changi, Ria and I saw a black-naped tern (Sterna sumatrana) flying about, in search of fish. I'm starting to look forward to the coming months, when the flocks of winter migrants will return to their feeding and roosting grounds on many of our shores.

Our next guided walk at Chek Jawa will be on 8th September! Follow the Naked Hermit Crabs for more info.

Ria and Pei Yan also blogged about today's trip. Ley Kun also wrote a post on the Naked Hermit Crabs blog.

World Elephant Day: Elephants in Singapore

August 12, 2012, 7:00 am

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Elephant at the Singapore Zoo;
(Photo by i359702)

Today (12th August) is the inaugural World Elephant Day, a day for the world to learn about and act on solutions to the urgent plight of Asian and African elephants. Many of us know that the Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) can still be found in many countries in tropical Asia, including Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand. However, did you know that there are relatively recent records of elephants in Singapore, albeit from our larger offshore islands?

Pulau Tekong, 1990

In May 1990, 3 young bull elephants were spotted on Pulau Tekong. These supposedly belonged to a herd that lived on the eastern bank of the Johor River, near Pengerang.


(The Straits Times, 31st May 1990)

As it did not have prior experience in handling wild elephants, Singapore requested for assistance from the Malaysian authorities.


(The Straits Times, 2nd June 1990)

There were some who argued that the elephants should be allowed to remain on Pulau Tekong, but the official stance by the Singapore Zoo was that for the safety of both the elephants and the people on the island, it was best that the elephants were repatriated to Malaysia.


(The Straits Times, 2nd June 1990)


(The Straits Times, 3rd June 1990)


A coconut tree that was apparently felled by the elephants on Pulau Tekong;



(The Straits Times, 7th June 1990)

The 3 young bulls were eventually tracked down and tranquilised. Accompanied by 2 trained female elephants, which were part of the Malaysian Wildlife Department's Elephant Capture and Translocation Unit, the bulls were sent back to Malaysia and relocated to the forests of Endau Rompin National Park, on the Johor-Pahang border. Their fates are unknown, although given that elephants have long lifespans, I hope that they're still out there somewhere.


(The Straits Times, 8th June 1990)





(The Straits Times, 9th June 1990)


(The Straits Times, 10th June 1990)


Here is one of the young bulls (on the left, identified by the tusks), with a tame female, being loaded onto a truck for the journey back to Malaysia.



(The Straits Times, 18th June 1990)

Pulau Ubin, 1991

In March 1991, yet another elephant made the crossing, and landed in Pulau Ubin. This was also a young bull, which supposedly originated from a herd living on the western bank of the Johor River.



(The Straits Times, 3rd March 1991)

This individual caused quite a bit of havoc; it injured a resident on Pulau Ubin, chased 2 visitors, and damaged a taxi. Fortunately, no one was seriously injured in these incidents.


(The Straits Times, 2nd March 1991)


(The Straits Times, 4th March 1991)



(The Straits Times, 5th March 1991)


(The Straits Times, 3rd March 1991)

Like the others before it, this bull was eventually found and sedated.


(The Straits Times, 7th March 1991)

Accompanied by the same 2 trained females involved in the capture of the Tekong trio, Cek Mek and Mek Bunga, it was loaded onto a truck, sent back to Malaysia, and relocated to Endau Rompin.





(The Straits Times, 10th March 1991)

Besides these few sightings, I have not been able to find out if there have been other records of wild elephants in Singapore. I won't be surprised if the forests of mainland Singapore did previously support herds of elephants in the past. Today, however, the only elephants in Singapore are found at the Singapore Zoo and Night Safari.


Elephants at the Singapore Zoo's Elephants of Asia exhibit;
(Photo by suey_j)


Chawang, the Night Safari bull;
(Photo by Lioneldude Photography)

Imperiled and Exploited


Reconstruction of woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius), Royal BC Museum;
(Photo by Bjornert)

Elephants were once much more widespread and diverse, and in the late Pleistocene and early Holocene, at the end of the last ice age, many more species roamed across Eurasia, Africa, and the Americas, from the chilly grasslands of the northern continents so evocatively known as the mammoth steppe, to the foothills of the Andes, and all habitats in between. We know them by names like mammoth, mastodon, stegodont, and gomphothere, and modern humans once lived alongside, and most definitely hunted them, but these giants have all since vanished. Whether climate change, human hunting, or a deadly combination of both contributed to their disappearance, there is no denying that this wave of extinctions left the Proboscidea a pale shadow of its former self in terms of global distribution and diversity of species.



And the decline continues; elephants today are facing a crisis. All 3 extant species of elephants are experiencing a resurgence in poaching and ivory smuggling, and combined with continued habitat loss and conflict as elephants and humans cross paths with deadly consequences, populations are continuing to decline.

Singapore is not a consumer of elephant ivory, but it is an important transit point in international smuggling networks, where ivory from Africa are shipped to other parts of Asia. In July 2002, Singapore seized a container en route from Malawi to Japan that contained 532 elephant tusks and over 40,000 blank ivory hankos (traditional Japanese name seals), a total of 6.2 tonnes of ivory. This represented around 600 elephants slaughtered in Zambia and Malawi, and still holds the record of being one of the largest shipments of elephant ivory since the 1989 trade ban. Further details are provided in Back in Business: Elephant Poaching and the Ivory Black Markets of Asia, and reveal Singapore's role in the ivory smuggling business. One wonders whether surveillance and enforcement here to root out the companies involved in the trade have been stepped up since then.


Part of the shipment confiscated in Singapore;
(Photo by Environmental Investigation Agency)

Last July, part of this haul, which had been sent to Kenya for further investigation and stockpiling, was set on fire and destroyed.



President of Kenya Mwai Kibaki setting fire to the illegal ivory stockpile;
(Photos by Tony Karumba / AFP – Getty Images)

Unfortunately, nobody, apart from the Singaporean transhipment agent who received a US$3000 fine, was ever prosecuted, let alone convicted. This disappointing conclusion was detailed in The Enforcement Imperative: Combating the Illegal Trade in Ivory.

In Singapore the authorities failed to conduct a thorough investigation of the case. Although the shipping bill for the container stated the consignee as the Singapore-based company Delight Harvest, the authorities accepted the explanation from company executives that the name had been used without their knowledge. Basic analysis of Singapore's register of company information would have revealed that one of the directors had been a founding member of an ivory carving business in Singapore in 1988. Furthermore, while the agent involved in arranging the onward shipment of the container escaped with only a small fine, scrutiny of shipping and business records would have shown his involvement in a company that had received six previous shipments from the syndicate's operatives in Malawi.

In December 2010, 2 Singaporeans, suspected of attempting to smuggle ivory to Thailand, were arrested in Kenya.

If we don't somehow find a way to put an end to the slaughter and decimation of these magnificent and intelligent beasts, we may be seeing the elimination of elephants from much of their range, with untold implications for local ecosystems and countless other species that have evolved to rely on these keystone species.



Not that elephants in captivity necessarily lead better lives; there are many allegations regarding elephants languishing in zoos and circuses ill-equipped to provide them with the space and mental enrichment needed for such large and intelligent creatures, or the opportunity to form long-term bonds with one another as they do in the wild. Meanwhile, in many Asian countries, tourists who visit elephant "camps" to get up close with tame elephants often unknowingly support their continued exploitation and the capture of young elephants from the wild. These end up enduring abuse and torture, their spirits broken to render them tractable. There are claims that many elephants, both in the wild and captivity, are showing signs of suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, triggered by stress as a result of the breakdown of familial ties due to poaching and conflict with humans, or abuse and neglect under captive conditions.





As the World Elephant Day site states,

"World Elephant Day asks you to experience elephants in non-exploitive and sustainable environments where elephants can thrive under care and protection. On World Elephant Day August 12, express your concern, share your knowledge and support solutions for the better care of captive and wild elephants alike."

In an increasingly crowded world, may there always be enough room for these majestic giants, and may they continue to be a force of nature unto themselves.

Saturday Seringat-Kias

August 18, 2012, 7:25 am

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A small group headed out to visit Lazarus Island on one of the last early morning low tides of the year. While the rest headed towards the rocky shores of Lazarus Island, Kok Sheng and I decided to explore a lagoon located in the north of Seringat-Kias; James and I had previously checked out this area in April 2010. On that occasion, we visited that lagoon during the day, and it was raining, so we might have missed out on a lot of the marine life that lived in that lagoon. Hopefully, we would find a more interesting variety of critters this morning.


As we made our way to the shore, we encountered several common Asian toads (Duttaphrynus melanostictus). We also spotted a few large-tailed nightjars (Caprimulgus macrurus) resting on the ground, their eyes glowing pink as they reflected the light from our torches. Rusty millipedes (Trigoniulus corallinus) and African giant snails (Achatina fulica), non-native invertebrates commonly seen in our urban parks and gardens, were extremely abundant, and I'm hoping that we didn't accidentally tread on too many of them as we walked.

The edges of the lagoon were sandy, with dense patches of algae. The zoned horn snails (Batillaria zonalis), which we nickname the bazillion snails, were present in great numbers.


Shadow goby (Acentrogobius nebulosus);


Frill-fin goby (Bathygobius sp.);


There were lots of small fishes swimming around; various halfbeaks (F. Hemirhamphidae), tropical silversides (Atherinomorus duodecimalis), young mullet (F. Mugilidae) and Kops' glass perchlets (Ambassis kopsii). Further out in the deeper parts of the lagoon, loud splashing hinted at the presence of much larger fishes.



There were many blue-tailed prawns (Penaeus latisulcatus).



We discovered plenty of common sea stars (Archaster typicus).


Some of these sea stars had paired up; this isn't actual mating, but pseudocopulation.


This flatworm looks a lot like the dawn flatworm (Pseudobiceros uniarborensis), but lacks the white edge. Could this be a completely different species? There's so much we still don't know about our marine biodiversity!

We walked all the way to the outlet of the lagoon, where the sandy shore was replaced by rocks. Here we found lots of nerites, belonging to various species.


Chameleon nerite (Nerita chameleon);


Waved nerite (Nerita undata);


In the narrow channel that was the outlet for the lagoon, we saw a red egg crab (Atergatis integerrimus).


As well as a velcro crab (Camposcia retusa).

We weren't able to explore the outside of the seawalls, as the tide was too high and the rocks were too slippery. So we headed to the long sandy beach that we usually explore on our visits to this island.



Close to the seawall at one end of the beach, Kok Sheng found this snail that we haven't seen before.


There was an Arabian cowrie (Cypraea arabica) among the rocks nearby.


There were quite a few starry flatworms (Pseudobiceros stellae) on this shore.


Very young squaretail mullet (Liza vaigiensis) and tropical silverside;


Very young Kops' glass perchlet;


A small carpet anemone (Stichodactyla sp.). I'm not sure if this could be the mini carpet anemone (Stichodactyla tapetum).


Striped sand anemone (Actinaria);


This isn't a true sea anemone, but a cerianthid or peacock anemone (Ceriantharia).

We found various types of snails.


Such as the pink moon snail (Natica zonalis).


And oval moon snail (Polinices mammilla).



The bazillion snails were everywhere in great numbers.


The black whelks (Nassarius pullus) were actively on the prowl. Unlike the bazillion snails, which graze on microscopic algae and detritus, whelks are scavengers.



These larger lumps are actually firebrand murex (Chicoreus torrefactus), camouflaged by a thick coat of algae and sediment.


Some of these appeared to have been feeding on the bazillion snails.




There were also several tiny dubious nerites (Clithon oualaniensis).


I found a large spotted moon crab (Ashtoret lunaris). I also saw many tiny flower crabs (Portunus pelagicus).


Most of the shore was carpeted with blades of spoon seagrass (Halophila ovalis). Slightly further out, I came upon a small clump of tape seagrass (Enhalus acoroides).


I stumbled upon one end of a remarkable sea cucumber (Holothuria notabilis), buried in the silt.


More echinoderms: a white sea urchin (Salmacis sp.) washed up by the waves.



As well as an unidentified brittle star (Ophiuroidea).


Orange striped hermit crab (Clibanarius infraspinatus);


Some sort of cockle (F. Cardiidae);


The sun rose, and we headed back to the jetty to wash up and wait for the others.



I watched an oval St Andrew's cross spider (Argiope aemula) wrap and feed on an insect that flew into its web.


Some rusty millipedes were still crawling around on the paths.

We saw quite a few birds; there was a brahminy kite (Haliastur indus) soaring above us at the beach, and we heard the cackling calls of collared kingfisher (Todiramphus chloris). As we headed inland, we came upon yellow-vented bulbul (Pycnonotus goiavier), olive-backed sunbirds (Cinnyris jugularis), and a small flock of scaly-breasted munia (Lonchura punctulata).

Kok Sheng and I went to look at the marine life that had colonised the pontoon and lower parts of the seawall. I didn't take any photos, but we saw dense growths of seaweeds, both hard and soft corals, and sponges. Thorny sea cucumbers (Colochirus quadrangularis) clung to the sides of the pontoon, filtering small particles from the water with their feeding tentacles. We saw half a dozen long-spined black sea urchins (Diadema sp.) perched amongst the soft corals and sponges on the seawall, as well as a large batfish (Platax sp.) and small groups of silver moonies (Monodactylus argenteus).

The rest eventually returned, and shared with us their findings. Some of them are featured in these blog posts written by others who went on this trip:

Exploring a new stretch of Seringat-Kias by Kok Sheng
My first visit to Lazarus Rocky Shore by Pei Yan
Special finds on Lazarus Island

Green Drinks Singapore: Seagrass & Aqua Republica

August 30, 2012, 8:35 am

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I attended the August 2012 edition of Green Drinks Singapore earlier tonight. Not only did I learn more about the importance of seagrass habitats from Siti, but also listened to Chengzi share about an upcoming game that aims to teach people about integrated water resource management.



Naturally, I was tweeting away, and the following Storify is a compilation of tweets, mostly by Gladys and myself, as well as relevant links and further information.

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International Vulture Awareness Day: Vultures in Singapore

September 1, 2012, 7:12 am

≫ Next: Rhinos are not prehistoric survivors: World Rhino Day Part 1

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(Photo by reurinkjan)

Today is International Vulture Awareness Day, and I thought it would be appropriate to write about records of vultures in Singapore.

But why do we need a day to celebrate vultures? As stated on the International Vulture Awareness Day website:

Vultures are an ecologically vital group of birds that face a range of threats in many areas that they occur. Populations of many species are under pressure and some species are facing extinction.

The International Vulture Awareness Day has grown from Vulture Awareness Days run by the Birds of Prey Programme in South Africa and the Hawk Conservancy Trust in England, who decided to work together and expand the initiative into an international event.

It is now recognised that a co-ordinated international day will publicise the conservation of vultures to a wider audience and highlight the important work being carried out by the world's vulture conservationists.

Singapore is home to many species of raptors, but vultures are not usually included among our native birds. In the past, a number of vulture species were known to occur in Peninsular Malaysia and Thailand, but supposed records of 2 of these species in Singapore are believed to be erroneous. In any case, these Southeast Asian vulture populations have now all but vanished, making it even less likely that one of these will somehow wander all the way to Singapore.


Due to a lack of verifiable evidence, old records of the red-headed vulture (Sarcogyps calvus) (left) and the white-rumped vulture (Gyps bengalensis) (right) in Singapore are believed to be in error;
(Photos by lucvanderbiest and falguna_shah)

However, in recent decades, one other species of vulture has quite unexpectedly been making sporadic appearances, and every time one is sighted, it creates a stir within the local birding communities.


(Photo by jcozannet)

The Himalayan griffon vulture (Gyps himalayensis) is the second-largest vulture in Asia, with a wingspan that can range from 2.6 to 3.1 metres, and is typically a resident of the uplands of central Asia, from Afghanistan and Kazakhstan to the Tibetan Plateau and Himalayas. Although it does not usually migrate large distances, it is known to be an altitudinal migrants, with sightings of birds in lowland areas of northern India during the winter months.


Himalayan griffon vultures over the mountains of Kashmir;
(Photo by NotMicroButSoft)



Himalayan griffon vultures in Qinghai, western China;
(Photos by reurinkjan)

Every once in a while, for some unknown reason, these vultures fly beyond their usual haunts, and enter Southeast Asia. With sightings in Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, and Peninsular Malaysia, some of these vultures have apparently managed to fly all the way to Singapore!

The first Singapore record of Himalayan griffon vultures was in Tuas in December 1989. At least one of these birds was captured, and as of August 2008, was known to be still living at the Jurong Bird Park.


Himalayan griffon vulture at Jurong Bird Park;
(Photo by Diyana AR)

In January 1992, a group of 9 vultures roosted at Bukit Timah Nature Reserve.


One of the vultures spotted at Bukit Timah;
(The Straits Times, 10 February 1992)


(The Straits Times, 10 February 1992)

After a long interval, Himalayan griffon vultures were spotted again in Singapore, with a pair seen at Kent Ridge, and another sighting of a pair in the Orchard Road area in January 2005. One of the vultures was subsequently encountered at Nanyang Girls' High School off Dunearn Road. Weak and unable to fly, it was picked by the Jurong Bird Park.


(The Straits Times, 12 January 2005)


This was the Himalayan griffon vulture rescued from Nanyang Girls' High School;
(Photo by glassdog00)

January 2006 saw another vulture at Changi Cove, and one more turned up in Ang Mo Kio in December of that same year. In both cases, the vultures appeared weak and exhausted, and were subsequently sent to the Jurong Bird Park.


Himalayan griffon vulture at Changi;
(Photo by Wang Luan Keng)


The same vulture rescued from Changi;
(The Straits Times, 29 January 2006)


(The Straits Times, 29 January 2006)

More Himalayan griffon vultures were seen in January 2008, with an individual seen in Upper Seletar, three in Bukit Timah, and a single bird that was seen soaring over a grassland in Yishun before flying over to Johor There is also a sighting of a vulture in Braddell from February.


A pair of Himalayan griffon vultures soaring above Bukit Timah;
(Photo by Lee Tiah Kee)


(Photo by Lee Tiah Kee)


Himalayan griffon vulture at MacRitchie;
(Photo by Leslie Fung)

Himalayan griffon vultures made an appearance again in 2010, with a single bird seen at MacRitchie Reservoir. In March 2010, a pair was seen flying above Sungei Buloh, coinciding with the Annual Bird Census.

Where are all these vultures coming from? It may be easy to assume that these represent escapees from captive collections, or the exotic bird trade. However, most of these vultures do not seem to be suffering from any damage to the tail and flight feathers, or staining from faeces, as would be seen in large birds confined for long periods of time within a cage.

What is interesting is that for most of these records, the vultures are juveniles, which suggests that this is linked to the tendency of immature raptors to disperse and wander after fledging. It is likely that some of these end up straying beyond their usual haunts, due to inexperience with foraging and navigation. That these sightings typically occur during the winter months also hints at the possibility that this is linked to a reduction in food supply during winter. Of course, it also raises the question as to whether there have been any changes to the vultures' sources of food up in the mountains; some wild ungulate species like Tibetan gazelle (Procapra picticaudata) and chiru (Pantholops hodgsoni), whose carcasses would have fed and sustained Himalayan griffon vultures, have suffered greatly in recent years due to rampant hunting.


Left: Male Tibetan gazelle;
(Photo by marc.foggin)
Right: Male chiru;
(Photo by yun dan)

Although the Himalayan griffon vulture is not typically migratory, it appears that every once in a while, something occurs in the central Asian uplands, triggering juvenile vultures to disperse far and wide, with some flying as far as Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore. And if the story of this Himalayan griffon vulture that was supposedly caught in Bintan is to be believed, some of them might even cross the large expanses of sea into Indonesian territory.

Whether this is the result of population irruption, in which a large increase of numbers causes vultures to wander far beyond their usual range, or a possible range expansion, with vultures possibly establishing themselves in areas outside of their current distribution, remains to be seen. The fact that many of these vultures are in poor condition, likely a combination of flying such great distances as well as a lack of large carcasses to feed on, probably means that Southeast Asia does not offer much suitable habitat for these scavengers.


(Photo by Market Uncle)

Much of this information, including a comprehensive list of records of Himalayan griffon vultures in Southeast Asia, is covered in this 2008 article by Yong Ding Li and Chaiyan Kasorndorkbua.

Rhinos are not prehistoric survivors: World Rhino Day Part 1

September 18, 2012, 7:29 am

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Sumatran rhinoceros (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis);
(Photo by International Rhino Foundation)

This coming Saturday, 22nd September, will be World Rhino Day. It is a day to highlight the ongoing poaching crisis that continues to threaten the survival of all 5 species of rhino, and to push for greater action to put an end to the needless killing over fallacious claims of rhino horn possessing medicinal properties.

While it seems that rhinos were not historically present in Singapore (except as captive specimens), I am particularly fond of rhinos, and have decided to do a series of post in the days leading up to World Rhino Day.

Primer to the Perissodactyla

Where it comes to traditional classifications of hoofed animals, there are 2 main groups: there are the artiodactyls or even-toed ungulates, which typically have hooves with an even number of toes, usually 2 or 4. Cattle, sheep, goats, antelope, deer, giraffes, camels, pigs, hippopotamus are all classified as artiodactyls, and a growing body of fossil and genetic evidence reveals that surprisingly enough, whales too belong to this group, despite their current lack of hooves.




A selection of species representing the 10 families traditionally classified under the Artiodactyla (the additional 14 families of whales, which are now thought to be aquatic artiodactyls closely related to hippos, are not pictured);
Top row (left to right): Camelidae: guanaco (Lama guanicoe); Suidae: (Sus scrofa); Tayassuidae: collared peccary (Pecari tajacu); Hippopotamidae: Hippopotamus (Hippopotamus amphibius);
Middle row (left to right): Tragulidae: Lesser mousedeer (Tragulus kanchil); Giraffidae: Giraffe (Giraffa cameleopardalis); Antilocapridae: Pronghorn (Antilocapra americana); Moschidae: Siberian musk deer (Moschus moschiferus);
Bottom row (left to right): Cervidae: Chital (Axis axis); Bovidae: American bison (Bison bison);
(Photos by viva300, Pigsaw, Meddaugh Photography, @Doug88888, dfg photography, safari-partners, rlw5663, gentle lemur, Radha Rangarajan, and Robert-Bannister)

The other group is the Perissodactyla, or odd-toed ungulates; these have 3 digits on each limb, and in the case of 1 group, only a single toe remains. They were once a highly diverse group, but are now represented by only 3 families, each quite distinct and dissimilar from one another:

There is the Equidae, encompassing the 7 species of horse, ass, and zebra. All surviving equids have only 1 digit on each limb.


Plains zebra (Equus quagga);
(Photo by periss)

The 4 extant species of tapir make up the Tapiridae.


Brazilian tapir (Tapirus terrestris);
(Photo by kaili williams)

And the final surviving family of perissodactyls is the Rhinocerotidae, comprising 5 species of rhinoceros.


White rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum);
(Photo by Insu Nuzzi)

It is the rhinos that I want to focus on for these next few posts.

Rhinos are NOT prehistoric survivors

But first, it's important to put an end to a statement that I've often seen being used to describe rhinos. There are many who state that rhinos are "prehistoric-looking", although I'm not sure what exactly that means. Perhaps it's their lumbering size and fearsome weaponry, although one then wonders why elephants don't get saddled with such a label. Maybe it's because when compared with other herbivores such as zebra and gazelles, which rely on being fleet of foot to survive, a rhino, which often considers a good offense to be the best form of defence, might seem positively archaic in comparison, a supposed anachronism in an era where we seem to equate speed with sophistication. The wrinkles, bumps, and folds of skin seen on some rhino species, which make them appear as if they are armour-plated, does also possibly contribute to that perception.


Indian rhinoceros (Rhinoceros unicornis);
(Photo by Adam Biesenthal)

Perhaps it's the fact that rhinos are inevitably compared with the ceratopsid or horned dinosaurs of the Late Cretaceous period. Many reconstructions of these large herbivores allude to them being prehistoric equivalents of rhinos, charging at predators and fending them off with their horns. However, biomechanical studies indicate that they probably couldn't gallop like rhinos. Needless to say, these dinosaurs are not related to rhinos at all, except by virtue of being fellow tetrapods.


Triceratops mount, American Museum of Natural History;
(Photo by jbparker)


Sketch of a series of ceratopsian dinosaurs belonging to the subfamily Centrosaurinae, showing (top to bottom) Centrosaurus brinkmani, Centrosaurus apertus, Styracosaurus albertensis and Pachyrhinosaurus canadensis;
(Artwork by Julius Csotonyi)

Others go one step further, and claim that rhinos don't just look prehistoric, they areprehistoric survivors.


There are so many inaccurate statements in this WildAid PSA I don't even know where to begin.

It's understandable why the term "prehistoric" is trotted out so often; here is a group of animals that has weathered much ecological turmoil and upheaval over many millions of years. Ideally, there is nothing to stop rhinos from continuing to thrive and prosper, if not for hunting and human exploitation that have caused them to vanish from large swathes of otherwise suitable habitat. Suggesting that humans could spell the final doom for a family that has survived for so long casts us as key players in the rhinos' fate; we have the power to either cause them to be wiped out once and for all through our greed and belief in bogus cures, or we can stop the slaughter and restore them to their former glory. Similar mentions of great antiquity, claiming that a particular group has survived virtually unchanged for millions of years, are often used to describe other animals like turtles, sharks, and crocodiles.

What I dislike about such a statement is that it's frankly misleading. Yes, the rhinos as a group have been around for a long time, somewhere around 50 million years. But the rhinos we see today are simply not the same as the rhinos that were around 50 million years ago. Just like any other group of organisms, many species of rhino have evolved, lived for a time, and then faded into extinction. Also, there are other groups of animals, like elephants and horses, that have been around for approximately just as long a span of time, so why the unnecessary focus on the rhinos' longevity as a clade? Today's rhino species are not particularly ancient either, with current evidence indicating that they evolved during the Pleistocene, like other large mammals. Tossing in that 50 million year old figure is likely to cause confusion, giving people the false impression that our modern-day rhinos have been around for so long. Similarly, statements about the Sumatran rhinoceros in particular being labelled a "living fossil" prompted Darren Naish to protest and debunk such a notion.

To illustrate this, here's an idea of what rhinos looked like 50 million years ago:


This is Hyrachyus, a fairly small animal thought to represent the early perissodactyls from which rhinos evolved;
(Photo by Carl Wozniak)

Today's rhinos belong to lineages that evolved only around 16 million years ago; for much of their history, rhinos evolved a wide variety of shapes and sizes, and most of the earlier species didn't even have horns. Here are some reconstructions of a selection of prehistoric rhinos:


Hyracodon, Eocene (Approximately 35 million years ago);
(By Charles R. Knight)


Paraceratherium, Oligocene (Approximately 25 million years ago);
(By Chen Yu)


Cadurcodon, Eocene (Approximately 35 million years ago);
(By Roman Yevseyev)


Metamynodon, Eocene (Approximately 35 million years ago);
(By Heinrich Harder)


Chilotherium, Miocene (Approximately 7 million years ago);
(By meribenni)


Elasmotherium, Pleistocene (Approximately 50,000 years ago);
(By Dmitry Bogdanov)

Using the word 'prehistoric' to describe modern-day rhinos can carry a negative connotation, insinuating that these creatures are primitive and increasingly irrelevant and obsolete, relicts from a bygone era. This gives rise to the dangerous notion that perhaps rhinos are ill-adapted to the challenges of the modern world, and doomed to die out, like Sega consoles in the age of PlayStations and Xboxes. Why should we bother investing so much time and resources into cracking down on poaching, and saving the rhinos, if we see them as evolutionary failures anyway? (Extinction is the eventual fate of every species that has ever lived, but that's beside the point)


Javan rhinoceros (Rhinoceros sondaicus);
(Photo by Alain Compost, from International Rhino Foundation)

This probably ties in with the erroneous yet prevalent belief that evolution is solely about progress, changing from a primitive to a more advanced state. To say that a particular lifeform is a prehistoric survivor is to often hint that it has stagnated and failed to keep on improving, a claim that fails to stand up to closer scrutiny when one looks at both fossil and historical records.

After all, rhinos were highly successful animals, and in the course of their long history, came to inhabit much of North America, Eurasia, and Africa. The remains of various extinct rhino species are abundant in many fossil deposits, and judging by the sheer number of bones found at some localities, must have occurred in large herds that dominated the landscape. Our 5 extant species of rhino were themselves once widely distributed across much of Africa and Asia; their much reduced range and numbers today reflect overhunting by humans, not an inability to adapt to the challenges of the modern environment. They have the potential to thrive once again if we allow them to.


Black rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis);
(Photo by thewildlifephotographer)

And don't get me started on statements about "the rhino". There are 5 distinct species of rhinoceros, each with its own distribution, habitat preference, and ecology, and while all are threatened by poaching, to use "the rhino" is the equivalent of talking about the lion, tiger, leopard, jaguar, cheetah, puma, lynxes, and all the other species of felids as "the cat".

Stating that "the rhino" has been around for 50 million years, or that it is a prehistoric survivor, is just plain inaccurate and misleading, and frankly does little to inspire people to protect rhinos and put an end to poaching. Instead of appealing to falsified notions of great antiquity, why not focus on rhinos as symbols of deadly power?







On the other hand, despite their reputation for being solitary, aggressive, and bad-tempered, perhaps it's time that we showed how rhinos can have a playful, endearing side as well. Surely it's about time people dropped that old "prehistoric survivor" drivel, and celebrated rhinos for what they are: majestic, powerful, creatures possessing the weaponry and the willingness to use them to cause much damage, but with a gentle, endearing side as well.







Next up: A closer look at some prehistoric rhinos.

Prehistoric Rhinos - An Underrated Evolutionary Saga: World Rhino Day Part 2

September 19, 2012, 7:30 am

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Paraceratherium, a giant browsing rhinoceros from the Oligocene;
(By Kevin Yan)

Previously, I explained my great dislike for statements claiming that the 5 extant species of rhinoceros are prehistoric survivors. The rhinos we see today represent a single surviving lineage, a mere twig in the rhino family tree. This post will look at some of these actual prehistoric rhinos, and we'll see that over the last 50 million years, rhinos took on many different shapes and sizes.

Our story begins sometime during the Early Eocene, some 55 million years ago. At this point in Earth's history, temperatures were much higher, and much of the continents, including the polar regions, were covered in dense forests. Eurasia and North America were connected via land bridges and island chains across the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. It was in such an environment that the first perissodactyls evolved. They flourished as small herbivores, feeding on leaves and fruit in these vast jungles, and rapidly diversified into many different forms.


Hyrachyus skull;
(Photo by California Academy of Sciences Geology)

One of these was Hyrachyus, a small herbivore found in Eurasia and North America. Some palaeontologists think that this creature possibly represents the ancestral form that would eventually give rise to rhinos, although there are others who think that it's more closely related to tapirs. The ancient ancestors of rhinos, tapirs, and horses all look so similar at this stage, that we need more fossils to get a clearer picture of early perissodactyl evolution in the Eocene.


The larger skeleton is that of a Hyrachyus, while the smaller skeleton in the foreground is that of Orohippus, an early horse, Smithsonian Natural History Museum;
(Photo by Tapir Girl)


Reconstruction of Hyrachyus;
(Photo by Carl Wozniak)

Regardless of whether or not Hyrachyus belongs to the rhino family tree, what we do know is that by the Middle Eocene, rhinos had evolved. But these didn't look like our modern-day rhinos at all. In fact, they were so diverse that they are currently classified into 3 distinct families.

Amynodontidae

The Amynodontidae were a group of large-bodied rhinos that lived in Asia and North America, and are believed to have been browsers adapted to forests and swamps.


Amynodon;
(By Hirokazu Tokugawa)

Many browsing herbivores have a prehensile upper lip, enabling them to grasp leaves and twigs, and studies of their skulls have shown that amynodonts possessed such an anatomical feature. Amynodon itself has been found in Middle Eocene deposits of Asia and North America, and appears to have been a relatively primitive-looking form.


Drawing of Amynodon skeleton;
(From American Museum Novitates)


Cadurcodon;
(By Roman Yevseyev)

One particular group, represented by Cadurcodon from the Late Eocene of China and Mongolia, is believed to have further modified the upper lip into a proboscis, very much like that seen in tapirs.


Cadurcodon skull;
(Photo from Integrated Collection of Digital Educational Resources)


(From Natural History Museum Picture Library)

Another group of amynodonts, represented by Metamynodon from the Late Eocene and Early Oligocene of Asia and North America, appear to have become specialised for an amphibious lifestyle, very much like the unrelated hippos.


Metamynodon skeleton;
(From Wikipedia)

Most reconstructions of Metamynodon portray it as a hippo-like creature.


(By Charles R. Knight, 1896)


(By Heinrich Harder, c. 1920)


(By Zdeněk Burian, 1964)

At the end of the Middle Eocene, shifts in climate were causing great changes in the distribution and types of vegetation, and this continued into the Oligocene. In response to cooling and greater seasonal variation, the great forests of the Eocene were shrinking and thinning out, with increased aridity leading to the spread of open plains and savannas, covered in shrubs and bushes adapted to the drier conditions.

Presumably, the amynodonts were able to adapt at first, with some evolving to become grazers with teeth equipped to cope with tougher foliage, but they too eventually succumbed. All amynodonts in Asia and North America vanished after the Early Oligocene. A final amynodont, Cadurcotherium, lingered on in Europe during the Oligocene, and presumably managed to disperse back into Asia, where fossils have been found in end-Oligocene sediments in Pakistan. If the dates are accurate, this would mean that Cadurcotherium survived for around 10 million years after all its other relatives had become extinct. Still, it too eventually disappeared.

Hyracodontidae

A second family of rhinos, the hyracodontids, adopted a very different lifestyle.


Hyracodon;
(By Charles R. Knight)

The early forms, like sheep-sized Hyracodon from the Middle Eocene to early Late Oligocene of North America, had long, slender legs with only 3 digits. This made it look very similar to the primitive horses that shared the open forests and woodlands.


(By Heinrich Harder)


(By Roman Yevseyev)


Drawing of Hyracodon skeleton;
(From Cambridge Natural History Mammalia)


Hyracodon skull;
(Photo by ryanzz)

However, while the horses continued to adapt to life on the plains, becoming fleet-footed grazers, the hyracodonts, which remained browsers, took a rather different evolutionary path. Hyracodon persisted until the Late Oligocene, long after all the other small hyracodonts had gone extinct. But in the meantime, as the forests of central Asia vanished, with trees becoming more sparsely scattered or limited to well-watered areas, one group of hyracodonts had coped by growing larger. Presumably, this enabled them to travel greater distances between suitable patches of vegetation. And so, millions of years after the sauropod dinosaurs went extinct, a group of mammals finally evolved to rival their gargantuan size - these were the indricotheres.


Forstercooperia;
(By Roman Yevseyev)

Indricotheres were hyracodont rhinos, classified under the subfamily Indricotheriinae, and their fossils are found in Central Asia. One of the earliest species, Forstercooperia, appeared during the Middle Eocene. The size of a cow, its fossils have been found in India, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, and China. At that time, this area would have been a lush forest, fringing the shores of the ancient Tethys Ocean. Later in the Middle Eocene, the larger Juxia appeared, followed by Urtinotherium in the Late Eocene.


Juxia;


Reconstruction of Juxia head;


Urtinotherium;
(By Chen Yu)

It was in the Oligocene that the indricotheres achieved truly gigantic sizes, with Paraceratherium reaching heights of up to 4.8 metres at the shoulder, and weighing up to 16 tonnes.


Paraceratherium model, California Academy of Sciences;
(Photo by Rose Laurel)

Paraceratherium is known by 2 other names; some older sources will mention Baluchitherium or Indricotherium, and it's still unclear as to how many species of giant indricothere are known, and whether they are all similar enough to be considered the same genus. The name Paraceratherium has priority as it was named in 1911 from specimens found in Pakistan, with Baluchitherium being named in 1913 for fossils also from that country. Indricotherium was described in 1915, based on remains from the Caucasus Mountains in southern Russia. It's likely that Baluchitherium is synonymous with Paraceratherium, but whether the latter is the same creature as Indricotherium is still not confirmed.

In any case, fossils of this massive beast have mostly been found in Pakistan, China, Mongolia, Russia, and Kazakhstan, with possible remains from Turkey as well.


Moscow Paleontological Museum;
(Photo by cazfoto)


Paraceratherium dwarfs the largest living land mammal, the African bush elephant (Loxodonta africana);
(By SameerPrehistorica)

Paraceratherium is quite a famous prehistoric mammal, thanks to its epic size, and also due to it being the focus of an episode of the BBC's Walking With Beasts.







(By Chen Yu)


(By Paul Heaston)

Despite its hefty size, Paraceratherium retained the relatively gracile limbs of its smaller, more cursorial ancestors, which were adapted for running. Even so, it's highly unlikely that there were any other animals that would make an adult Paraceratherium run.



(By Mauricio Anton)

Its size and long neck mean that Paraceratherium is likely to have been a high-level browser, feeding at heights beyond the reach of other herbivores. In essence, this was a rhinoceros that fed like a giraffe, but grew larger than an elephant.



(By Zdeněk Burian)


(By Roman Yevseyev)

Most reconstructions depict Paraceratherium with some sort of prehensile upper lip, like that seen in many browsing herbivores. This would have helped in grasping twigs and leaves. So far, reconstructions depicting Paraceratherium with an elongated tapir-like proboscis are still speculative, although their presence cannot be completely discounted yet.


(From Wikipedia)


American Museum of Natural History;
(Photo by Ryan Somma)



(By Chen Yu)

Even though it was such an immense creature, Paraceratherium was initially known from scanty remains, bits and pieces that did not provide much information about its body proportions. In the 1920s, when a partially complete skull was found (and described as belonging to Baluchitherium), confirming that it was related to modern-day rhinos, it was restored as a giant, hornless rhino, with a shape roughly similar to its much smaller extant cousins.


(From July 1923 Issue of Popular Mechanics)


(By Charles R. Knight)

Subsequently, as Brian Switek has written, it was realised that Paraceratherium was a much more gracile animal, resulting in an updated reconstruction that made it somewhat more slender.


1923 reconstruction of Paraceratherium;
(From American Museum Novitates)


1935 reconstruction of Paraceratherium;
(From American Museum Novitates)


American Museum of Natural History;
(Photo by Ryan Somma)

Paraceratherium lived through the Oligocene, although some of the Late Oligocene forms have been identified by some paleontologists as belonging to a different genus altogether, known as Dzungariotherium. Others maintain that there aren't sufficient differences to warrant separation from Paraceratherium. Whatever the case, the largest of all the indricotheres lived during the Late Oligocene.



Unfortunately for the indricotheres, the dawn of the Miocene heralded their end. The cooling and drying of the Earth's climate did not abate, and the forests continued to shrink. The plains were being taken over by a new type of plant, one that had been present for some time, but had never dominated the landscapes until then: grass. The indricotheres, dependent on woodlands for their survival, vanished as these habitats gave way to open steppes in the early Miocene.

As mentioned earlier on, Carducotherium, the last of the amynodontid rhinos, also disappeared at this time. So the beginning of the Miocene saw the extinction of both the amynodont and hyracodont lineages. However, a final family of rhinos remained, and they continued to prosper and flourish - these were the rhinocerotids, or the 'true' rhinos, and they'll be the focus of the next post.

The Wallace Lectures - Marine Biodiversity: Known and Unknown

September 21, 2012, 8:00 am

≫ Next: "The Power of We": Nature Outreach & Environmental Efforts in Singapore

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I attended the latest instalment of the Wallace Lectures. Conducted by Dr. Bertrand Richer de Forges, it was an overview about some of the amazing and mysterious deep-sea communities, many of which were only discovered in the last 50 years, as well as a discussion of how much more we still don't know about marine biodiversity.



Naturally, I live-tweeted much of the session, under the hasthag #WallaceBertrandRicherdeForges, and here are my tweets from that evening and photos of some of his slides, compiled as a Storify:



Ria also blogged about the lecture over at Wild Shores of Singapore.



Dr. Bertrand Richer de Forges will be providing his expertise for the dredging surveys, to be done during the October Expedition for our Comprehensive Marine Biodiversity Survey; he was in town earlier this year as part of the first Expedition. It'll be great to get a clearer idea of what lives at the bottom of the Johor Straits.

"The Power of We": Nature Outreach & Environmental Efforts in Singapore

October 15, 2012, 8:34 am

≫ Next: Mega Marine Survey Day 2: Pulau Ubin

≪ Previous: The Wallace Lectures - Marine Biodiversity: Known and Unknown

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(Photo by Ria)

Today is Blog Action Day, and this year's theme is The Power of We.

The Power of We is a celebration of people working together to make a positive difference in the world, either for their own communities or for people they will never meet half way around the world.

Today also marks the start of the Northern Expedition of the Comprehensive Marine Biodiversity Survey (also affectionately known as the Mega Marine Survey). Although this effort has been spearheaded by local scientific bodies, and the visiting specialists form an invaluable element of the team, much would not be possible without the contributions of volunteers as well, who will be participating in various roles, from collecting specimens during field surveys, to sorting and preservation, to photography. In a sense, this is the culmination of close to 2 years of leading volunteers in carrying out smaller surveys. And this is just the first of several major expeditions planned for the next few years.


Volunteers hard at work on the mudflats of Kranji;


Sorting specimens collected during surveys at Pulau Ubin;
(Photos by Ria)

Similarly, volunteers form the backbone of many other groups and organisations, and anyone who's interested in making a difference can contribute, whether it's in terms of communicating the importance of our green spaces to the general public, or offering an additional pair of hands to haul rubbish out of a mangrove.


Children fascinated by the sights on the Chek Jawa Boardwalk;
(Photo by Ria)

For instance, people with a desire to share the beauty of our natural heritage can sign up to become guides with groups like the Naked Hermit Crabs and the Raffles Museum Toddycats!.


Naked Hermit Crab guide Ley Kun leading a group of visitors at Chek Jawa, showing them how to behave appropriately when crossing paths with a wild boar;
(Photo by Ria)


Toddycat Tze Kwan talks to a certain VIP about our wildlife at the Festival of Biodiversity;
(Photo by Zuze, on Habitatnews)

Those who are keen in contributing to field research can join the Mega Marine Survey, TeamSeagrass, or the Mangrove Action Squad.


Monitoring seagrasses at Cyrene Reef;
(Photo by Ria)


Mapping trees and surface elevation in Mandai mangroves;
(Photo by Rick)

Maybe you are concerned about the impacts of trash on marine life; you can be involved in the International Coastal Cleanup Singapore or Project Driftnet.


Removing trash from a shore at Tanah Merah;
(Photo by Weiting, on Habitatnews)


Disposing of a large net deposited on the shore at Pulau Semakau;
(Photo by Ria)

There are so many other groups and organisations out there which rely on ordinary citizens who are committed towards spending their time and energy to raise awareness of our natural heritage, or who are actively involved in research and conservation efforts.


A guided walk at Sungei Buloh;
(Photo by terrapungent)

You can rescue wildlife in distress with the Animal Concerns Research & Education Society (ACRES), run educational programmes for children as part of Cicada Tree Eco-Place, or help to enhance urban biodiversity with Butterfly Circle. You can guide visitors around Sungei Buloh or carry out reforestation projects in the Central Catchment Area as a volunteer with the National Parks Board (NParks), or simply join the many activities offered by the Nature Society (Singapore). Whether you decide to do something in your own personal capacity, or manage to convince your colleagues to commit as part of corporate social responsibility (CSR) obligations, you are helping to show others that Singapore's biodiversity is worth protecting.


Andrew helps children learn about reptiles during a workshop held by Cicada Tree Eco-Place;
(Photo by *Damselfly*)

Even if you don't have the time to take part in volunteer-based activities on a regular basis, you can still join guided walks as a visitor, or head out on your own to explore. There are plenty of activities organised by various groups, and many of them are catered towards families with young children: Wild Happenings in Singapore has a list of upcoming events. By sharing and publicising your own encounters and experiences while visiting parks and other nature areas, you too can help increase public awareness of these places, and the often remarkable wonders that they contain; a lot of people are still woefully unaware of the beauty that is to be found in our green spaces, and besides, there are still plenty of gaps in our understanding. Much of what we know about our wildlife is based on sightings and observations shared by people who visit our nature areas as part of a hobby, whether it's birdwatchers, macro photographers, or ordinary parkgoers on a family outing. Just the simple act of posting photographs up on Facebook, writing about your experiences on your personal blog, or submitting a record to the Bird Ecology Study Group or Mammal sightings in Singapore, for example, can help increase awareness of the treasures that still survive here in Singapore, and even lead to further research.

What if you're someone with no background knowledge about biodiversity, or no experience in identifying plants and animals? Everybody starts off with a blank slate, and you really don't need to be a scientist or have a degree in Biology in order to contribute; all you need is the passion to be involved, and the willingness to learn, often on the job. Many research projects don't require people with in-depth technical knowledge; sometimes, the basic need is an extra pair of hands, whether it's to move equipment or record data. This is especially the case with small individual projects, which often lack the budget to hire research assistants, instead relying on the goodwill and free time of others to help out.


Assisting Amanda's small mammal study for her Honours project;
(Photo by Gladys)

Much of the knowledge that we gain comes from reading up on our own, attending training sessions, and simply being out there in the company of others who are more experienced. Even the most seasoned guides are always referring to available resources, and most importantly, they teach one another, exchanging facts, imparting tips. The best way to learn how to become a guide is to follow someone more experienced, subsequently gaining the confidence and knowledge to lead a group on your own. And it doesn't matter if you're a student in secondary school, or a retiree; you're never too young or too old to learn new things. Many visitors simply don't notice something until a guide points it out to them. But once they get the hang of things, and realise just how much there is to see, often in plain sight, they themselves can become inspired to take a more active interest in nature, and may even end up becoming guides themselves.


A training session for Raffles Museum Toddycats!, in preparation for the Festival of Biodiversity;
(Photo by Sarah, on Habitatnews)

Through the combined efforts of many people, whether it's in research, documentation through photography, habitat protection and restoration, outreach through guided walks and educational activities, advocacy by speaking up via public platforms about issues, or simply visiting and appreciating our wild places, we can each play a part in showing that there is another side to Singapore, one that deserves a lot more attention from the general populace.

It's easy to feel despair and hopelessness when grappling with many of the pressing issues and challenges regarding conservation in Singapore. But it gives me a great sense of motivation when I see other like-minded people with the passion and drive to do something, people who bring to the table their own set of skills and capabilities, with each individual doing his or her part to help foster and nurture a greater appreciation for an often overlooked aspect of living in a small island nation at the heart of a hotspot for biodiversity.

To be champions for our natural heritage, with everyone's efforts ultimately contributing towards a heightened awareness about our place in this world, as one link in an interconnected web of relationships, much of which we are still only just beginning to comprehend: that is The Power of We.

TL;DR: You can make a difference for nature in Singapore, even if you're not a scientist or self-styled environmental activist. Explore, Express, and Act!