Flashback: wildlife news in 1960s Singapore

A 6 metre long whale shark (Rhincodon typus), shot by police after it was trapped at a kelong near Pulau Sebarok in 1964. This is the only record of this species in our waters;
The Straits Times, 7 June 1964

This year's theme for the Singapore Blog Awards is "60s Fever", and I thought it would be nice to take a look back at what it was like for Singapore's biodiversity in the 1960s.


Singapore's Master Plan from 1958. Some of the Southern Islands are not included in this map.


Singapore, according to the Urban Redevelopment Authority's (URA) Master Plan 2008. You can see how much our coastline has changed since 1958.

Of Boar and Men: My article on POSKOD

Chek Jawa is home to many creatures large and small, but few other animals manage to thrill and excite visitors like the resident herd of friendly wild boar (Sus scrofa vittatus). Feeding has made some of the pigs very used to humans, and it is now common to see sows with piglets out in the open, allowing people to get very close to them. Such habituation has its benefits, and there have been countless peaceful interactions between wild pigs and humans, but there is an uneasy tension. With some of the wild boar starting to approach people to beg for food, are people at risk of being harassed or even attacked? And are visitors aware of how to behave appropriately around wildlife so as to allow this coexistence to continue? I write about this interesting relationship between humans and wild pigs in my first article for POSKOD.

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

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.

Rhinos are not prehistoric survivors: World Rhino Day Part 1

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.

World Elephant Day: Elephants in Singapore

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?

Sharing Singapore with visiting scientists

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)

Visiting the ACRES Rescue Centre

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.

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

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).

Thoughts on Roadkill, Part 1: A video collection

Road sign on Sentosa;
(Photo by scubawatters)

Despite my morbid fascination with dead animals, I still get a little shudder every time I encounter roadkill. Maybe it stems from the fact that motor vehicles (through the actions of the people who operate them) can also cause serious injury and death to other people, so it's a twinge of empathy, acknowledging that it is a nasty way to get killed, and the grim realisation that it could just as easily be a fellow human being lying on the road. Not to mention the fact that despite near-universal knowledge and education on road safety, there is no indication that we will ever be able to eliminate vehicular traffic as a significant cause of human mortality. What makes one think that animals, being unable to comprehend the purpose of pedestrian crossings or road signs, would fare any better?

Chek Jawa in June with the Naked Hermit Crabs

(Photo by Kok Sheng)

With it being the June holidays, the Naked Hermit Crabs received an overwhelming response for our monthly guided tour on the Chek Jawa boardwalk. And so 5 guides showed up on Saturday morning, ready to take on the crowds and share the sights and sounds of this very special place.

World Oceans Day @ Tanah Merah

Yesterday was World Oceans Day, and in recognition of this day in which we are supposed to "celebrate and honour the body of water which links us all, for what it provides humans and what it represents", the International Coastal Cleanup Singapore (ICCS) team conducted cleanups of 2 stretches of coastline. I had signed up for Tanah Merah Site 7, the same place I had volunteered for earlier in April as part of a series of year-round coastal cleanup efforts. I have visited this shore infrequently every year, and it really is gratifying to see how the efforts of small groups of individuals have truly helped make a difference in reducing the amount of trash accumulating here.

Prickly Porcupines

There are porcupines on Pulau Ubin!

Robert Teo from the National Parks Board (NParks) shared this video showing a wild Malayan porcupine (Hystrix brachyura) being released, after it had been caught and kept as a pet by one of the villagers.

Monkey problem getting worse: One even invades Khatib MRT Station

Bungalow owner wants to barbeque civet cat for dinner after it destroyed his phone wires

Meet the 'friendly' wild boars at the wetlands of Pulau Ubin

Year of the Dragon: The "Dragon Cats"

(Photo by StefanKoeder)

An unfortunate consequence of having the Chinese zodiac associated with animals is that there are bound to be plenty of superstitious people who get a pet associated with that particular year, only to lose interest soon enough. Despite campaigns to encourage responsible pet ownership, the Year of the Rabbit was not a good one for plenty of pet bunnies, dumped once the novelty wore off. In Singapore, most exotic reptiles are (thankfully?) banned as pets, so we won't get a spike in cases of chameleons, iguanas or bearded dragons being released in our parks. However, there is the likelihood that by the end of the Year of the Dragon, we may see a rise in sales of another animal, and a corresponding spike in cases of abandonment and neglect. One thing's for certain, the chinchilla actually has very little to do with dragons.

Seven Links Blog Project: A Milestone Year

We're almost a week into the new year, and while I'm not really the sort who likes to reflect on the past year and mull over my successes and failures, Crystal Riley from Crystal and Bryan in Singapore has tagged me to take part in the Seven Links Blog Project, where I repost links to seven of my posts from different categories. Although I was tagged last year, I only found out last night, and I guess it's still not too late for me to look back on 2011.

On Meat-eating Giant Pandas

(Photo from Huffington Post UK)



A few days ago, this sequence of camera trap images of a giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) gnawing on the carcass of an animal started showing up on news sites all over the world. It's received quite a fair bit of attention, and certainly reveals a darker side to the seemingly placid and peaceful nature of the giant panda. However, it does appear that much of the coverage of this story overlooks a couple of facts.

Macaques, Conflict and Keyboard Warriors

(Photo by John 3000)

About a week ago, someone named Paul Chan wrote in to the Straits Times Forum, in response to reports of several long-tailed macaques attacking visitors to the Forest Walk along the Southern Ridges.


Long-tailed macaque (Macaca fascicularis);
(Photo by gamebit)
(The photos in this post feature several macaques that have been encountered by visitors to various parts of the Southern Ridges over the past few years)

Cull monkeys if over-population is the problem (Mirror)

I WAS shocked to read that a search was on for a monkey believed to have attacked three people over the past three weeks ("Attacks spark hunt for monkey"; last Friday).

I was also disappointed with the response of National Parks Board (NParks) officials that the monkey-feeding problem might have reached a tipping point and that sometimes, animals just go crazy. Did NParks do an extensive survey or study to arrive at such conclusions?

Despite many reports of rogue monkeys attacking people and foraging for food at bus stops and households, NParks prefers to pin the blame on human feeding or provocation.

The attack on Hort Park visitor Tang Mae Lynn was apparently due to the monkey pack invading her personal space at the Forest Walk; she carried no food or drink. The problem could be due to monkey over-population or lack of monitoring by NParks officials.

I disagree with NParks about not going after the monkeys because the creatures belong there as much as humans. Does that mean we should silently accept monkey attacks as normal?

It is the job of NParks to ensure monkeys behave where they co-exist with us. NParks has a duty to patrol and monitor the growth of the animal population within the forest boundaries. The animals should be culled if they encroach on human living space and disturb our peace. They should also be punished if they misbehave.

NParks could install closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras along the Forest Walk and areas prone to monkey attacks to check on the culprits while initiating programmes to control such disturbances so that both animals and people can share the limited space on our island in peace.

Paul Chan

Timberland Earthkeepers: Like the deserts miss the rain...

Over the last two days, as part of Timberland's contributions towards fighting desertification, we helped to prune poplars, and also planted pine saplings. Today, we bade farewell to Inner Mongolia, and embarked on the next leg of our journey, to the city of Chengdu in Sichuan Province.

To find out why I'm so gleefully holding a leafy branch, read on.