SLOG:- I entered "snake" in STOMP's search engine and realised that the site actually contained quite a number of snake sightings posted by the public:

SLOG:-

SLOG:- The last time I checked Singapore Seen (STOMP) at 23:00 h on 8 June 2007, a post titled "I killed a snake - in my 8th floor HDB flat" is top in the "Most Commented" category with 91 comments and is second best in the "Most Viewed" category with 5,766 views.

SLOG:-

SLOG:- I realised that STOMP contained a few more postings on snakes, which were not reflected in the result of my search for 'snakes' in the site. The following sightings appeared after I did a search on 'python':

SLOG:- "We are looking at two dog-toothed cat snakes. You want to come down now?"

SLOG:-

SLOG:- The Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority of Singapore (AVA, which I sometimes refer to "Animals & Vegetables Authority" Haha!) explained why it is illegal for people living in Singapore to keep exotic wildlife such as snakes:

SLOG:- This is an interesting article on snake venoms that was written more or less in Singapore context:

SLOG:-

SLOG:- This Banded Krait (Bungarus fasciatus), photographed by Loh Kok Sheng and posted in his blog, made a pleasantly surprised appearance at the launch of the Chek Jawa Wetlands on the morning of 7 July 2007.

SLOG:- We have been calling this beautiful snake the wrong name.

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SLOG:- A fun-filled activity, named 'Fun with Snakes', was organised by the NSS Education Group on 15 September 2007 to raise awareness on snakes, with emphasis on local species, among kids in the age group of 5-9 years old.

SLOG:- There is an recent article in The Daily Mail that reported on the increasing use of snake skin in the fashion industry.

SLOG:- During a late afternoon on 8 September 2007, Chan Kwok Wai found not one, not two, not three, but FOUR Oriental Whip Snakes (Ahaetulla prasina)!!!! One of the snakes was sighted at eye level, while the rest were encountered at the tree canopies. The green colour and long body length of this species, are perhaps adaptations for life at the canopy, since the former provides the snake with a good camouflage against aerial predators and the latter allows the snake to move from canopy to canopy.

SLOG:- Lai Chien-Houng opened the door and a House Wolf Snake (Lycodon capucinus) fell onto the floor. This snake is THAT common (relative to other species) in buildings, probably because their food, geckos, are also abundant in this type of habitat. However, this species is still rarely encountered by people because of their secretive nature. Fortunately to us, it is neither venomous nor dangerous. This encounter, occurred in the TMSI (Tropical Marine Science Institute) compound at St. John's Island on 24 September 2007, made our day. We took some photographs and released it soon after that. The following photographs were taken by Lim Swee Cheng.

SLOG:- Yang Shufen found this Equatorial Spitting Cobra (Black Spitting Cobra; Naja Sumatrana) near a mangrove at the southwest of Singapore Island on 13 September 2007. The following photographs were contributed by her.

Urban Forest:-

teamseagrass:- Prof Helene Marsh is giving a talk about dugongs later this week!

teamseagrass:- "Habitats in Harmony: The Semakau Landfill Story" was written to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Semakau Landfill. It was written by our very own TeamSeagrass member, Marcus Ng.

Bird Ecology Study Group:- “I had a brief encounter with what I suspect to be a Chinese Egret (Egretta eulophotes), listed as globally threatened and an uncommon winter visitor in Singapore. As I’m just a leisure photographer and seeing this species for the first time, would appreciate verification and confirmation from the experts. “It was low tide last Sunday morning. [...]

Urban Forest:- Today I decided to make an impromptu trip down to Centre for the Arts Museum with SD to visit the exhibition of Dr Ivan Polunin’s treasured collections of film, photos and other documents.

teamseagrass:- The lead article of this issue features the important role of seagrasses in giving early warning of dangers to the shores. "Like the canaries that were used to detect deadly gases in the coal mines, seagrasses are our 'coastal canaries' detecting environmental degradation in coastal and reef ecosystems." The articles shares how intertidal seagrasses in the Great Barrier Reefs are monitored by Seagrass-Watch as part of the Reef Rescue Marine Monitoring Program to track trends in sediments, nutrients and other pollutants in the waters there.

For the Future of Our Forest:- Insects are a major group of arthropods and the most diverse group of animals on the Earth, with over a million described species.

Bird Ecology Study Group:- An earlier report by Johnny Wee describes the Oriental Pied Hornbill (Anthracoceros albirostris) eating guava fruits (Psidium guajava) by picking pieces off the attached fruits and swallowing them. On the other hand, Tan Teo Seng observed the hornbill in his farm in Johor, Malaysia, picking ripe guave fruits, mandibulating them before swallowing. These are [...]

Nature Spies:-

teamseagrass:- Wow, the Team's work is featured as one of the actions taken in protecting Singapore's biodiversity!

Urban Forest:- Running out of creative juices now so pardon me for the title. Anyway, during a recent frogging trip with D at BTNR, we found a few beautiful moths as shown below. A commonly sighted species of Owl Moth, Erebus ephesperis

For the Future of Our Forest:-

Nature Spies:- .flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; }

The Big Trees:- We begin a new weekly series to keep our blog happily active, featuring none other than our big trees!

The Big Trees:- Some researchers, with the Centre for Tropical Forest Science (CTFS), are now working on the big trees at Bukit Timah Nature Reserve (BTNR). Within one year (hopefully!), all trees with diameter at breast height (dbh) of 30cm and above in the 164 hectare Reserve are to be identified, measured, tagged and mapped. Working for 3-4 days a week in the forest, these people (basically just two) are walking across almost every inch of BTNR (and of course, bashing through many irritating rattan-laden patches and some relatively untouched slopes/valleys!). They are here to share with you what they have learnt about the big trees that form the main structure of the forest on Bukit Timah and also some interesting flora and fauna they encountered along the way!

The Big Trees:- What a name to restart this blog in 2008. My time is really ticking - no manuscript (yet) after almost one year of the completion of Big Tree survey - everything has been just ticking along slowly (ticking over). I need to find the very thing that makes me tick and be productive. The eleventh hour gets a tick for that but it is also unhealthy.

The Big Trees:- Finally, I'm reviving this blog after almost two years. Mainly because the basic fieldwork of the Big Trees Survey has been completed, and I should start the momentum of writing (besides my regular botany/reading/analyses/software-learning). Also because I really want to say something about our last remaining primary forest to the masses out there.

The Big Trees:-

The Big Trees:- This blog is too empty, I thought. What to do? The trees are just too many for Plywind and Bluebird.. Sigh.. We hope we can have 48 hours a day.. or a helicopter to help us accessing the canopy!

The Big Trees:- It has all in all, been a fruitful field week, and we have been blessed with showers... not of the water sort... but of flowers! Especially now that SHORCU, the most abundant Shorea is also flowering, ed, bluebird and plywind are quickly adorned with nature's pretties, once they step into the forest. Yet for those of you familiar with SHORCU's flowers, you will soon notice that it is conspicuously missing from the picture above. as the tiny flowers are not for amateur photographer like ply.

The Big Trees:-

The Big Trees:-

The Big Trees:- Finally.. we saw the elusive Rhinoceros Hornbill, Buceros rhinoceros, near Fern Valley! First feeding happily on some climbing figs (may be Ficus aurantiacea), then got chased away by some Greater Racquet-tailed Drongo.. Haha.. Despite the constant pestering by drongos, it seems quite happy living in the Fern Valley - may be due to the abundance of food :)

The Big Trees:- Our tree this week should be familiar with many residents of the East of Singapore. It is the Tempinis tree, after which the estate Tampines was named. The scientific name for the Tempinis is Streblus elongatus. In Latin, Streblus means crooked while elongatus means elongated or lengthened - possibly refering to the flowers arranged in catkins (spikelike, often pendulous, inflorescence of petal-less unisexual flowers, see below).

The Big Trees:- So this tree introduction thing was supposed to be a weekly series.. but looks like we're a weeee bit too busy, what with 4/5ths of BTNR still waiting for us. But we'll still try our very best to keep posting! In fact, here's our very next tree.

The Big Trees:- Some fresh, recently fallen Keruing (Dipterocarpus caudatus ssp. penangianus) fruits were seen along Tiup-tiup path - almost two months after the 'end' of the mass fruting season. Well.. the determination of the timing is really quite ambiguous - nobody did actually scan through all twigs to see if there are any 'leftover'.

The Big Trees:-

The Big Trees:- According to Wikipedia, ticks undergo a lifecycle of several stages. Those we encountered (and got bitten most of the time) are the nymphs (ca. 1-2mm) and some perhaps larvae. So, just how big can a forest tick grow? I was quite intrigued by this question as I never got bitten by an adult one before. Actually, I'd never want to be bitten by one as I can't imagine something as big as the adult dog ticks (ca. 5-8mm) I used to remove from my dogs crawling over and penetrate my skin - unthinkable!

The Big Trees:- The long flowering and fruting season (since March) is so exausting.. But now I'm so proud and happy to see many of my babies spining gracefully down the canopy.. lying on the ground and patiently wait...

The Big Trees:-

Ubin Volunteers:- Preparation work for Saturday's launch of Ubin-HSBC volunteers' hub

Ubin Volunteers:- Conducted a orientation for new volunteers today to know more about the island and discuss volunteering opportunities. Was supposed to have 13 pax coming but some could'nt make it last minute.