SLOG said:

All snakes received bad publicity, even if they are totally harmless. SLOG hopes to encourage the appreciation of these animals and dismiss the myth that they are all mindless beasts with long fangs chasing after people and eat them.

Recommended by ramblinglibrarian: "I had no idea there were so many species of snakes in Singapore. And plus it's a collaborative citizen-contributed blog. Most entries have references to related articles."

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Ria Tan said:

Suddenly, someone yells "Monitor lizard in a net!" It was still alive and struggling badly in a net that was wedged in a narrow crevice between the boulders.

We had a hard time trying to get the poor little animal out. Finally, it came out after it gave a good chomp on Terry's finger. I was too shocked to take a photo of this incident. The guys managed to gently get a hold of it. And it was eventually cut free of the drift net.

Here it is, all free of netting. It scampered away amongst the boulders when we released it.

Recommended by hai_ren: "Illustrates some of the threats to our fragile ecosystems. Trash such as discarded nets and fishing lines can be especially dangerous to the creatures that live along our shores. Plus there's always illegal collection and poaching..."

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Ria Tan said:

The ST article mentions that "that was where the team has been building them since March last year. When completed, they are moved out to sea." So after the seacils are built on the intertidal, these large and heavy structures are moved out to sea over the lower reef flats and the reef crest to a subtidal area? How was this done without dragging the large heavy structure over seagrasses and corals already on the shore?

Recommended by hai_ren: "Remember this article? Here's an update, with more recent photos, as well as explanations from the organisers behind the project."

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Ria Tan said:

We continued to see the objects as time went by. And it appeared that the structures were abandoned. Because they started to disintegrate and were not anchored down or repaired. The broken pieces move to and fro in the waves all across the rich Labrador shore. Crushing seagrasses and corals.

[...]

Today, there was an article "Undersea garden takes root" Straits Times 29 Oct 07, the diagrams of the equipment used in this project looks very familiar...

Recommended by hai_ren: "Straits Times reports on artificial reefs being built off Labrador to allow corals to grow. This post shows very clearly that what the newspaper reports seems to be very different from what people have actually observed, and may actually be causing damage to marine life. This is also an important post on the value of blogging as a form of citizen journalism."

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Jaxon S said:

There are two things you would surely see in Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve -- one, is a family of monitor lizards in the wild and I don't mean just any monitor lizards. They are big, fat and looking mean with forked-tongues sticking out every now and then.

Recommended by Anonymous Coward: "It's one of those articles about wildlife in Singapore..."

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Ria Tan said:

This lone older guy was already on the shore for some time. We approached him and he had a bag full of stuff in one hand, and in the other, a large Bailer snail shell! Melo melo is listed among the threatened animals of Singapore. We have never seen a living Bailer snail besides at Beting Bronok. He allowed us to take a photo of it. We asked and he said he was going to eat it. We explained it was rare and asked him to leave it behind, but he just walked away. He wouldn't show us what else he had in his bag.

Recommended by hai_ren: "Too few people are aware of the rich diversity of life that still survive on Singapore's seashores. Many of those who do choose to exploit it, finding more pleasure in seeing our natural heritage in the cooking pot rather than out in the wild. How much more damage must be done before we care enough to protect our last remaining natural coasts?"

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Sivasothi said:

Chek Jawa Wetlands" was officially declared open by Mr Mah Bow Tan earlier this morning, and the public can now visit the Chek Jawa boardwalk (Mangrove and Coastal Loops), the Jejawi tower, House No. 1 and a viewing jetty without a booking between 8.30am - 6.00pm any day! No more restrictions to visiting Chek Jawa, hooray!

Recommended by Anonymous Coward: "Now everyone can visit the Chek Jawa boardwalk without killing the wildlife! Read here today or in papers tomorrow :-)"

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Sab and WC said:

All the above are works of WC...no reproduction of them are allowed without permission. and if you would like to buy one, we have no qualms in selling it to you for a cheap price of US$1000. If we catch you stealing these photos, I will personally place the poison dart frogs on you. hehe

Recommended by littlefish: "Amazing pics of Costa Rican flora and fauna by Singaporean couple"

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Singapore Rojak Librarian said:

rewarded with this shot on our way back after a usual birdwatching trip. Yup it is wild estuarine crocodile spotted near the main bridge of visitor centre...(btwn hide 1 and 1a). It was just lying still basking in the shade of the sun. It is about 1.6 m long and i was told by one of the Sg. Buloh volunteers (Keith), it is about 2 years old only...!!!!

Recommended by ssf: "Nice pic of a buaya in Singapore..."

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Habitatnews said:

Habitatnews is happy to introduce The Singapore Naturalist, a webpage that tracks updates of [21] dedicated nature blogs and mailing list newsletters in Singapore via an RSS feed aggregator.

Recommended by Otterman: "Habitatnews features, amongst other things, posts from other local nature blogs of exceptional interest. With the explosion of blogging in 2005, it got difficult to keep up. The KickRSS mechanism provided a one stop page - The Singapore Naturalist - which automatically links to updated posts from 16 blogs and 5 newsletters about natual history in Singapore. It's an interesting example of niche blogging. "

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Jani Thuaibah/The Blue Tempeh said:

Suffering from serious lack of sleep, we were off to Saint John's for some diving. DIVING. Today was one of those days where I just wish I could spend the rest of the morning and afternoon in bed.

[After seeing some nudibranchs]

Haha! I wouldn't miss this for anything else!!! think the photos speak for themselves.

Recommended by Otterman: "Around the world, divers exclaim over the colours of the sea, and particularly over nudibranchs (=sea slugs). Though a pale shadow of former glory, Singapore's underwater world still has surprisingly beautiful scenes that have survived decades of reclamation and heavily-utillised shipping channels. This post features the reefs off St. John's Island.

It is no wonder that there are calls in parliament for a marine park of our own in the southern islands. "

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The Blue Tempeh finally starts diving again and despite the very poor visibility, spots interesting marine life amidst the struggling coral reefs:

"Yah man. The vis is....WHOOAHHH where's my hand...thought I lost it for a moment there...couldn't see TWO fingers in front of me eyes..."

"But all said and done, little pleasant surprises still pop up now and then...=) Take for example, this cuuutteee baby nudibranch...So tiny, it's smaller than my fingernail!"

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Siyang said:

One evening when i looked out the kitchen window, I saw a group of uncles prodding the tree, what a curious sight. I thought someone's underpants or bra had fallen from their flat and got caught in the trees. But i soon found out that they were robbing the tree of it's fruits!!! The tree was full of Green mangoes.

The geriatric pole vault

Something's going on in the heartlands....

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Reefwalk Blog is a new "walk blog", or in short klog, which will give accounts of the reefwalks organised by the Blue Water Volunteers. In the blog they wrote their first klog post.

Grandfather of all sea hares (probably too bored to get it on)! Grandpa Aplysia was huge! After that, we spotted Grandma Aplysia (probably looking for new blood 'cos grandfather was too boring), but by then, everyone was like "oh another sea hare" and walked on.

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The Blue Tempeh said:

'Reef Enhancement Units (REUs) a.k.a. Reef Homes, DO WORK. I was a skeptic to begin with, but, seeing it for myself, following the life of some these REUs from the beginning, I began to believe.'

'But if our waters are still sedimented from dredging and reclamation works, you CANNOT expect the REUs to do their job!'

A project to sponsor Reef Enhancement Units or Reef Homes was reported in the Straits Times recently. This is sometimes debated elsewhere and this acccount provides a personal perspective by the research associate working on the project. And there are lots of nice photos!

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Exotica describes the reptiles of Singapore, including this fine specimen from Sungei Buloh:

The Puff-faced Water Snake inhabits fresh water bodies including swamps, ponds and forest streams. Nocturnal in habits, it feeds mainly on small fish or frogs..

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habitatatnews said:

NEA and NPArks contractors cleaning the park and floatsam at Labrador Park found the decomposed carcass of a Indo-Pacific humpbacked dolphin (Sousa chinensis) on the beach.

They checked with the National Park Board who tried calling me at the Raffles Museum - they know that we had previously retrieved or received dugongs, pangolins, leopard cats and blue-winged pittas - all important testimony to the secret fauna that still inhabits our seas, coastlines and forests.

This is a real loss. Makes you want to visit our reserves and parks to appreciate the natural heritage around us.

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Merv said

Singaporeans, newsflash. You want to enjoy nature, and you want to have comfort, please go to the nearest park, and sit your ass on the nearest bench. There you can play frisbee or roller-blade or whatever you do. You can even barbeque.

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Habitatnews identifies the recent guests at some of our homes and invites us to participate in building a picture album featuring these creatures.

In the past couple of weeks, several people have reported seeing a large, white-striped variably dark-brown to brownish-grey large, nocturnal moth in their homes and offices. It's Lyssa zampa (Butler, 1869), a moth in the Family Uraniidae (and subfamily Uraniinae).

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budak explains why the act of fang sheng or releasing animals into the wild may not earn you the merit you think you will obtain, and implores all to spare a thought for God's creatures.

The road to hell is paved with good intentions, some say. Living hell, however, can sometimes be found on earth, thanks to the hopes of men who impose heavenly expectations on their brethren (as well as other species) or crave saintly approval for themselves. In the business of being good, form and features too often take precedence over substance and spirit, and this is just the case with the practice of "fang sheng" as practiced by some people, especially around Vesak Day.

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