SZ Tale 14

Zoo was different today because decided to do a biodome tour instead as I thought I'm on duty alone. However another docent came along, except we still decided to do tour haha (less preparation, more impromptu).

It was rainy though so less crowd. I met a lovely family of 4 from London and wife from NZ. The eldest boy had just done a rainforest project thus seeing the biodome (replicate of a rainforest) is an awesome experience for him. Pointed to them the tree kangaroo, mouse deers and lemurs. Still remember the lemur family pose - the 4 of them will huddle together on this particular branch. They did that again with tail dangling from branch tempting the boy to grab it. Of course he is refrained from doing so. Oh they also caught the lemur shitting haha. Then when one of the lemur was above me, the little boy “warned” me (Aww so sweet!).

They asked about the feeding habits for sting ray. (Wiki says "Stingrays feed primarily on mollusks, crustaceans, and occasionally on small fish.")

Last stop was the mangrove. The little girl was telling me how she got stung by a spiderfish in Italy (and freaked her mother) and how her brother got stung by a jellyfish. Haha they do travelled a lot from what I gathered.

One of the sloths was pretty active today as it was found in different spots at different times (i.e. it was exploring about). The female sloth and baby only came out during feeding time. So were the mousedeers. Unfortunately my camera seems to be unable to take a good photo of these. Manaaged to take the Red Lory though... (another active creature)



Animals not in action include the white-saki monkey (in the cage) and the butterflies (due to the droplets). Sadly….

Killer animals

Source: Australian's Women Weekly May 2008

The 10 top threats
1 Mosquitoes - up to 3 million people a year through malaria, yellow fever and dengue fever
2 Snakes - 125,000 deaths a year
3 Scorpions - paralyse prey by pumping venom through the stinger in their tails, causing 2000 fatalities a year
4 Big cats - e.g. Lions are responsible for 800 deaths a year
5 Crocodiles - these prehistoric creatures strike prey at speed, clamping their jaws onto the victim before performing a disorientating death roll, killing about 800 people a year
6 Elephants - weoghing up to seven tonnes, this herbivore kills around 500 people a year
7 Hippopotami - kill 100 to 150 people a year. They can outpace a human on land, and are also known to upturn boats and canoes
8 Box Jellyfish - sting can kill human within minutes. Causes an estimated 100 fatalities a year
9 Shark - of the 360 species of shark, only four (tiger, great white, whitetip and bull) will attack humans. They cause around 100 deaths a year
10 Bears - cause 5 to 10 fatalities each year, but the number of attacks are on the rise due to the continued destruction of their natural habitat

Wonder how's the white tiger in the zoo now...

And I wonder if human is considered in the list, what position will it be?

2 sad news

Source:
TodayOnline
SZG News

Read 2 sad news today... simply disheartening.

1. US Supreme Court ruled that US Navy can continue to use long-range sonar in exercises off the California coast, even though such acts are harmful to whales.

"Even if the plaintiffs have shown irreparable injury from the navy's training exercises, any such injury is outweighed by the public interest and the navy's interest in effective, realistic training of its sailors," the court said in a opinion written by Chief Justice John Roberts.

Is war really more important than life? Is destruction really more important than protection? Why do man always value the wrong things....

2.

An incident has occurred at our white tiger exhibit today at 12.15pm. A Malaysian contract worker jumped into the moat and was attacked by one of the three white tigers.

Why did he jumped? Such a violent death.. how scary it must be for the visitors... how unfortunate for the zoo... Just when Kidzworld is having an official opening tomorrow.. Sighz

SZ Tale 13: KidzWorld

Its Kidzworld Docent preview today... and my 2nd duty.. so.. let's talk about my duty first.

Duty at the station again because manpower not alot. Interesting events do happen still. most memorable will be this recount written by my partner and duty ic of the day:

One English lady working as a nurse recognised immediately the stick insect’s eggs on display and was pleasantly surprised to see the Giant Prickly Stick Insect here. She shared with us her experiences of keeping one female given by an Australian friend as pet back home. She said the stick insect would lay one or two eggs (which are the same size as the Malayan Grey Stick Insects’ eggs) everyday all over the house and then she would have little nymphs running around.

Oh then before and after the duty, did a biodome tour.. Simply love the biodome.. one can just get lost inside. Early in the morning I caught sight of the family of ring-tailed lemurs


I Like To Move It Move It
I Like To Move It Move It
I Like To Move It Move It
Ya Like To (MOVE IT!)

Didn't realised that there is a crab in the mangrove area...


Then after the duty, the butterfly lover told me about the butterfly eggs.. so many!!


Oh and we were seeing how a mother sloth (and her baby.. aww so cute) was fighting food with the bat... As you can see, she did succeed afterall.. YEAH


Then we hurried to Kidzworld to grab our KFC lunch...


before boarding the boat. Well actually the event started since morning, just that my partner and I had duty so we could only join the last event.. the boat ride (sob sob we missed the free ben and jerry).. there are a total of 4 boats: Omar, the white tiger; Pedro, the seal; Ah Meng, the deceased orangutan and Komali, the elephant.


Sadly maybe due to the timing we took the boat, nothing much life to see.. but the scenery is beautiful.. and heard the hill myna's bird call. Oh and the boat ride is 5 bucks a ride.. hmm.. wonder when is the next time I can take the ride...

SZ Tale 12 - First FF Duty

My first FF Duty... very excited. Reached zoo at 9am and did a biodome tour first to see where are the animals so that I will know what animals are around today should I conduct a biodome tour today.

And I could just wile the whole of Sunday away, stuck in the biodome, see the animals sleeping, eating, swimming, flying, running...


Caught sight of the Tree Kangaroo.. just can't resist its cuteness... curl up the tree. Sadly I left my camera at home and had to use my handphone as substitute camera...


The black and white ruffed lemur seems so active and yet so lonely.. because its best buddy - the ring-tailed lemur is not in the biodome today.


SLOTH! SLEEPING! SO SWEETLY!
Makes me wanna sleep though... cannot, I still got duty to do. Oh and I happened to be walking around with this family and I kindly pointed the tree kangaroo and sloth to the granny haha. The little boy was trying to catch butterflies (managed to get them land on his cap later on).. and the little girl pointed 2 bird eggs to me...

Anyway duty wise, I had only manned the fixed station today. And time flies very fast when visitors just kept asking questions and children and adult just kept getting fascinated with the live specimens...

Questions asked include:

1. Tree Nymph Butterfly
How long does the caterpillar takes to become a butterfly?

>>More facts about Tree Nymph Butterfly

• Japanese Name: Ogomadara
• Scientific Name: Idea leuconoe
• Chinese Name: 大白斑蝶
  
• The larvae are known to feed on plants of the species Aganosma cymosa (Apocynaceae).
• Another species of Apocynaceae, Parsonia spiralis has also been noted as a larval host plant. By the way, parsonia is the plant used by the zoo.
• The plant alkaloids apparently have a similar structure to the male pheromones of this butterfly, so it appears that there has been an ancient evolutionarily relationship between the butterfly and its food plant.  
• The caterpillars accumulate the bitter alkaloids in their bodies, protecting them from predation.
• The tree nymph is attracted to the color red, and will land on red shirts and hats.
  Source: JapanTimes

2. Mousedeer
Someone had asked about the mousedeer describing that it look like a deer but a smaller version. She then commented they were coming up to get close to her (odd because mousedeers are supposedly very shy?). She also asked if mousedeer is related to rodent or deer. (From the internet, it is of the same order as the deer.)

3. Malayan Gray Stick Insect
A father mentioned he saw a lot of the Malayan Gray Stick Insect in Malaysia in his younger days and was fascinated with the eggs. He asked about the dried skin too but at that time, I did not know stick insect moult.

SZ Tale 11 - Animal Day

MISSION STATEMENT - WORLD ANIMAL DAY

•  To celebrate animal life in all its forms
•  To celebrate humankind’s relationship with the animal kingdom
•  To acknowledge the diverse roles that animals play in our lives – from being our companions, supporting and helping us, to bringing a sense of wonder into our lives
• To acknowledge and be thankful for the way in which animals enrich our lives

And the zoo decided to take this chance to organise an Enrichment Day today to share with the public how the zoo keeps the animals entertained. By stating examples, those with pets might get pointers on how to keep their pets occupied too.

The only problem is both the briefing and the actual event is on a Saturday so I had to take 3 buses just to head to the zoo. Just shows how “passionate” I am about the zoo right now haha.

My first half of the day is spent at the giraffe section sharing with the public the tools they use to keep the giraffe, zebra, rhino etc occupied.


This is one of the tools used. And usually food is the main motivating factor for them to explore the tools. So for this case, different type of food and scent will be put into the tubes and the giraffes will spend time trying to extract these yummy food!


This is another tool used by the zoo. For giraffes, it is hung high up the tree and the giraffe will get their treats there. For the zebras, it is placed on land for the zebras to graze upon. Oh and this bottle was used as a game in the section where kids (or adults) will cover one hand with a sock (for protection against the bottle sharp edges if any and to mimic a giraffe’s tongue) and try to find 10 grapes within 1 minute. Those succeed will get a bookmark (actually anybody who tries will get la haha). I didn’t take photo of it though (forgot). You can see how scary some children can be!!

The second half of the day I was manning the face/hand painting corner which totally freak me out because I can’t paint at all. But my friend paints well for a beginner.. she painted a snake…


And a rabbit… cute right!


Then towards the end, there were 2 brothers who were asking to be face painted into cheetahs… So while painting the 2nd brother, another boy (the one on the extreme left side)  came along and he started staring first at the 1st brother then at the 2nd brother.. because he was also painted into a cheetah. And all 3 were very fascinated with each other.. it was a rather amusing sight. I still remember one of them even mention “I look better” or something haha.. Kids…

Oh and the lady (a CA) painting is the best face/hand painter I ever seen.. She was really good. And she’s very young. In fact I had quite a fun day making friends with these CA because they were really dynamic and amazing. And they were experienced volunteering in the zoo (compared to me this hatchling).

SZ Tale 10 - Tundra

Last project for our zoo training before we finally become full fledged hatchlings... and mine is on Tundra. Shall share with you some parts of the presentation

Introduction

• Comes from the Finnish word tunturi, meaning treeless plain.
• Separated into 2 types: Arctic Tundra, Alpine Tundra
• Youngest ( 10000 years ago )
• Coldest of the biomes ( -40°C to 18°C )
• Simplest ( species and food chain )
• Darkest and brightest ( 24 hour darkness , 24 hour sunshine )
• Least inhabited by humans
• Most delicate ( first to reflect any change )

Food Web


The tundra food web is simple with a few numbers of tundra plants and animals. With fewer species, it is easy to disrupt this simplified equilibrium; the disappearance of one species could affect the entire ecosystem. Because of constant immigration and emigration, the population continually oscillates.

Undesirable Human Activities

1. Mining and drilling
   Popular in arctic tundra areas because they tend to be rich in mineral resources
2. Oil drilling
   Oil pollutes the ground and water and kills animals that come in contact with it. No plants or animals will return to an area where an oil spill has occurred for decades or even longer.
3. Global Warming
   Arctic tundra's winter will be shortened, melting snow cover and parts of the permafrost, which will result in the flooding of some coastal areas. Tundra being the most fragile biome it will be the first to reflect any change in the earth.

Need for Conservation - People
Livelihood of native (Inuit aka eskimo) affected. The inuit still inhabit these arctic regions. They survive by living off tundra animals.


Source: Greenlandholiday

Need for Conservation - Environment
The low production of the terrestrial ecosystems makes the Arctic tundra particularly sensitive to land degradation and erosion. Annual melting of the topsoil above the permafrost layer combined with damage to the vegetation cover by human activities can lead to erosion. This process is further exacerbated by slow vegetation regrowth.

Conservation Message

NLB Garden Walk

I love the library...
I love the nature..
Thus I cannot ... miss this NLB garden walk at all

NLB Garden walk tours are conducted every 1st and 3rd Saturday of the month (except Public Holidays) from 4 pm to 5.30 pm in the National Library (near Bugis MRT).

I was there at the 1st Saturday of Sept mugging my zoo test when the guide came and advertise the tour. Thus I made up my mind to come back 2 weeks later to join the tour.

On that day, I thought it started at 4.30 pm and was taking my own sweet time to reach there. Luckily the moment I stepped into the library, they were just gathering. And they even gave some souvenirs to us, the participants. Considering the tour is free, it came as a shock to me. What impressed me more is the guide (I followed the English guide), because of how well prepared she is. I went to this walk partly to see how other guides conduct their tour (having been so impressed by the botanical garden tour guide) and I learnt a lot from her.

She started the tour by giving us each a list of the plants we can find in NLB and some books we can reference from. Afterall we are in the library so of course must publicise the books and encourage us to borrow haha. Then she started the touring around level 1.

Peacock Plant, Prayer Plant

I like this plant for its unique feature of being in a prayer position when the sun sets due to a knot in its stem, allowing it to "open" and "close". It is sensitive to sunlight, and its pattern is quite special. Oh and one can see such plant in the zoo too haha...

Young Frond

New leaves typically expand by the unrolling of a tight spiral called a crozier or fiddlehead. This uncurling of the leaf is termed circinate vernation. (Source: Wiki)

Giant Fish Tail Palm

I like this palm alot. Looks like fish tail right?

Taking a look at the view from the top... about the 5th level of NLB.. supposedly it should be a nice view but guess my camera was unable to capture it...


Umbrella Tree, Octopus Tree

Another cute plant ... seems like you can hide from the rain with this tree.

Bamboo

I always like the view at B1 with the bamboo trees outside. Now that I'm taking it top down, it looks just as lovely. At this point, the guys were all sharing the uses of bamboo... Oh ya they mentioned about bamboo flowers every 35-50 years and the flowers will attract the rats. This will cause the rat population to rise and rat infestation to happen where there might be a shortage in food after all the flowers are eaten. One of nature at work's phenomenon. Hmm you can read more about it here.

Sweet Paddle Plan, Sweet Prayer Plant

Similar to the prayer plant, it will "open" and "close" by the availability of light.

Peppermint

Always like peppermint plant... that minty feel...

Windowleaf Plant, Swiss Cheese Plant

Another plant that left a deep impression on me. Such holes allowed sunlight and rainwater through which will help those plants below it. And these natural holes are supposed to keep insects from eating it. The mentality is that when the insects see holes, they will feel that someone has eaten it and will not want to feast on it. Haha good disguise. More about it here.

Plants in your purse

The tour guide ended the tour by saying we carry plants in our purse too. I'm impressed by the laminated notes she made and the "props" (e.g. a bottle of figs - oh and she also mentioned the story of the wasp and fig which I heard in botanical garden then) she brought. She was also very nice.. came and tell me I can take a photo of this.. and was patiently holding it still for me to capture the shot. Really thank you so much. Unfortunately I did not catch her name then.

(Extra info about the National Library from the souvenir given)

The journey begins with Sir Stamford Raffles (1823), who had a vision to instill a library within the Singapore Institution so as to "collect the scattered literature and traditions of the country". The vision became a reality in 1844 with the establishment of a private library called the Singapore Library. The institution eventually evolved to an icon Singapore fondly remembered as the Stamford Road "red brick" building.

SZ Tale 09 - Fragile Forest Animals

While studying for the test and re-test, I fell in love with some animals/insects....

Tree kangaroo

Source: www.greenexpander.com

"They are solitary (except during breeding) and tend to ignore one another even when sharing the same tree."

• Found exclusively in the Huon Peninsula of Papua New Guinea and the nearby island of Umboi
• Endangered

Sidenote: A friend asked me for the difference between a kangaroo and a wallaby... Other than the fact that wallabies are smaller than kangaroos, there should be no other differences.

Tree Nymph or Rice Paper

Source: iodid.com

• Have only 4 legs as their forelegs are poorly developed some species forelegs have been reduced to a hairy cushion
• Caterpillar advertises their distasteful nature but using black and white stripes.
• Chrysalis of the butterfly is golden in colour, which represents sunlit dew drops hanging on the leaves in the morning.
• They are called Rice Paper butterflies as they float like a piece of paper in the wind.

Lucas's short-nosed fruit bat

Source: britannica.com

Unlike some bats, they do not echolocate. They rely on vision and olfaction to navigate and locate food.

Sidenote: Always am fascinated by bats since I wrote an article on them in my first homepage... sadly I lost the homepage already...

Love the habitats too...
The multi-storeyed rainforest of emergents, canopy, epiphytes, climbers, understory and forest floor
The strange looking mangrove which I came to love after understanding it better. I guess their first impression which includes their pungent smell puts people off. Human are so quick to judge hmm...
And I miss the coral reef... was taken out from the zoo.. wonder when they will bring it back.  No notes on it except that its survival is closely linked with the mangrove

Corals, which are combi-plant animal, depend on crystal clear water to photosynthesis and grow. Mangroves also neutralize nitrates and phosphates which would poison coral reefs. In return, the coral growth prevents huge waves from attacking the mangroves.

Sidenote: On 1st Oct, watched a documentary on coral reef in Kusu Island, talking about mutualism, communalism, and parasitism by Ms Glenda Chong. Very informative.. and makes me tempted to go to the Kusu Isle now... Hmm..

Anyway a lot of people had been asking me about my voluntary in the zoo.. well you can read more about it here @ www.szdocent.org
and my station is Fragile Forest! =D

SZ Tale 08 - Botanic Garden

Today's focus is not Zoo but Botanic Garden.  Got a bit lost before I finally realised one should have alighted at the NUS bus stop...

Ta-da... and this is not the main NUS.. but the Law Faculty.  I got that blur too when Senior told me is near NUS previously...


As I got lost for half an hour, I left 15 minutes to be at the visitor centre... but while rushing, I can't help but admire at the grace of the black swans.  By the way at the end of the walk, I saw the white swans too but did not managed to take pics.


And I made it to the Visitor Centre on time.  Was the earliest in fact haha.

Thus begin our guided tour (15 bucks per pax - pricey one would say BUT that guide is really good.  Learnt alot)

First he told us that when we visit someone's house, we will first preview the outward appearance before exploring the insides... Likewise you should first appreciate the rainforest outward view... The emergents, the canopy, the epiphytes, the climbers, the understory and the forest floor.  Hmm of course the outward view can only see the emergents and canopy bah... I was just recalling my 6 levels of rainforst "p


I love the sigh of this... These are called common red stem fig.

"The figs grow on the trunk, often in prolific masses. Each fig contains hundreds of tiny flowers that are pollinated by minute wasps living in association with the flowers."
Source: The sign erected beside the tree

Open up view of the fig.. where you may find a wasp.. hee hee


This is an African Oil Palm.. I remember the fruits have an oily feel...


And lots of rattan.  Guide says in the past you can find lots of cheap rattan furnitues in neighbourhood shops.  Now you can only purchase rattan furnitures in upscale Orchard road.. Sighz human are so wasteful...


I did not know these are Pandan leaves... They are so big and thick.. and probably sharp too.. beware!


Because there wasn't a structured path in the rainforest thus some rampant walkings had damaged this precious rainforest that "Do not enter" sighs had to be adapted to protect it from further damages.  (I forgot to mention that you can only find rainforest in SG in Botanic Gardens and Bukit Timah only.. and of course a replicate biodome in the SG Zoo - Fragile Forest!)



Rainforst has lots of tall trees...


And to protect them from being struck by lightning, a conductor was attached to earthed the electric charges.. Mind you, these conductors don't come cheap... I forgot the price already but I remembered we were considering changing job to attaching conductor for tall trees haha..


How do one know the age of the tree?  They used to say count the rings.. but that applies only in the temperate countries because trees "hibernate" during winter and stop growing rings... but in the tropics, it is forever summer and forever growing rings.. Thus you have to measure the circumference to know the age.  Hmm I'm suddenly thinking if humans age can be measured by waistline too?  hmmmm

Stars flower... such pretty sight.  But have you ever consider these stars are the fruits to grow the trees and how many actually succeeded?  The rainforest may seem sturdy and tough on the outside but it is actually very fragile with shallow top soil and intricate web and complex interdependence... In short, the relationships in the rainforest are complicated too =D.


Ferns.. used to love them in primary schools.  I love to see their undersides for their spores... which helps to continue their existence...


Tree Vandalism.. I really wonder what is so interesting about carving... but I do know that some love stories the protagonists will return back to the tree to see their carvings and it will send some warm fuzzy feeling.. I suppose that is call romantic.. but this?


This is call a leaf litter plant because it collects all the leaves and nutrients to sustain itself... Interesting!


Longest Palm leave...


Coke secret ingredient - The Giant Cola.  It is said that coke no longer uses this secret ingredient though...


After we bid the guide goodbye and thank him for his vast and interesting guide... we took a walk towards the food court.  On the way I caught sight of this box of dog poo bags... While I like the idea of Botanic garden providing bags for dog owners, I would much appreciate if the owners bring their own bags, that is their responsibility... Of course such box is useful should owner use up their own bags due to certain reasons...


Had a fruitful day... would I come back again? Hmm to discuss in my personal blog...

One last question though, how do bananas grow? Answer can be found here.