Zoolympics 2009

It is the annual zoolympics event once again and is the first time I participated in it.



Seeing the table of "goods", it isn't very hard to guess where I am stationed in right? None other than Rainforest Kidzworld Stables!


Pull-A-Sack
The aim of the game is to let you understand how much burden a horse can carry.

For over 4000 years, horses have been transporting people and their goods. Till "the age of the horse"ended in the early 1800s, horses were essential for agriculture work. Horses were also used to pull all kinds of vehicles, ranging from carriages, coal barges and even fire engines! Although modern machines have taken the place of the horse, we still measure the pulling power of an engine in "horsepower".

There are 3 types of burden for different ages. Although most of them are children, sometimes the child is too young so we will allow the parent to accompany the child to pull together. And once, there was this teenage guy who was playing just for fun. Haha.


While visiting the docent on duty in Rainforest Kidzworld, I asked him more about the rabbit and learnt that carrot is actually the rabbit's dessert. And dessert is taken only in small portion haha. So their main course is usually veggies. Hmm..


Cute hedgehog!!


Guess this is food for what animal?


The goats haha.

Overall, the event ended so-so. As it was the 2nd day, so I'm not very sure the total performance. Just hope the results were good.

Noon duty cum NS tour

Sadly I forgot to take photo of the special animal visitors on duty that day. We had the jungle nymph, banded bull frog and giant millipede. But I couldn't remember much about these exhibits and it was really a busy noonday that I had no time to remember my camera.

The eggs were asking a lot of questions e.g.
1) Does the male jungle nymph fly?
Yes, the adult male Jungle Nymph do fly. Like most of the Phasmids males, it is more of the gliding motion compared to actual flying.

2) What does the chilean rose tarantula feed on?
On Tarantula, the Chilean Rose, all the other species of tarantula in our collections are fed with 2 to 3 adult crickets every 10 days. So are the scorpions.

3) Are the flying foxes bred in the zoo?
Flying foxes have been in the zoo for a more than 21 years ago. Thus record keeping was not as updated compared to the last 15 years and is unknown if they were captured from the wild.

The current flying foxes are all captive bred. To prevent inbreeding, we
do introduce unrelated bats from other zoos and we sometime swap the
bats with the Night Safari collection.

Oh and I had a fun time in the Night Safari. This time, I toured on my own so can take my own sweet time to see the flying squirrel FLY!!! Okok, not fly, is glide. If only I can glide.

Red and white flying squirrel
(Petaurista alborufus)
白面鼯wú鼠
Can glide over a distance of up to 400m.

Sorry, but it was tough trying to catch it without flashlight plus I admit I'm a lousy photographer.  Hmm though it still hurts when CL said I alwaz produce blur photos onli.. :'(


Porcupine! I remember someone owe me an interesting pic of it.. gonna bug the photographer later.


Can you see the giraffe sleeping? Haha, and if you always wanted to know how does a giraffe sleeps, well you got your answer. They will sit down and sleep. And if you want a clear photo, follow this link.

Alien Invader

Lately there has been a new tenant in the pond. It had introduced itself to Grass that it is a Red Ear Slider.

Red Ear Slider was a turtle pet for a young girl for the last 5 years. As the girl got older, her study load and other commitments increased. Slowly the girl found it increasingly harder to take care of Red Ear Slider (which in the first place has been a tedious husbandry task). After serious considerations, she decided to release the Red Ear Slider at the pond in her nearby park.

The first day Red Ear Slider joined the pond, it frantically slided off the rocks and went into hiding. Everything seemed foreign to it. And its master will not be around anymore to protect it from dangers. While hiding in its shell, Red Ear Slider suppressed the strong urge of crying and indulging in self-pity.

After a few days, Red Ear Slider acclimatise to the environment easily due to its innate ability. In fact due to its strong instincts of survival, Red Ear Slider came across as an aggressive tenant. Its arrival disrupted the natural food chain in the pond as it preyed on the local species. Afterall, it was never meant to belong in the pond.

In the end, Red Ear Slider was given a nickname, "Alien Invader" and was shunned off by the remaining local species. It had no choice but to lead a solitary life for its remaining days (which is long given the average lifespan is about 20 to 25 years).

Grass later shared with me that if one were to put the blame for Red Ear Slider's fate, it would be the girl's fault. First for not being able to commit for the pet's lifetime. And second, for carelessly disposing it to a nearby pond instead of contacting the relevant authorities to learn the best way to set the turtle free without harming other species.

That day, I learnt how serious the consequences could be when you set your pets free into the wild carelessly.

Image source: Wiki

Author's comment:
It's been a long time since I wrote my first short story about plastic bag. After that I did not have much creative juice in me. Until my docent mate shared with me the tale of the red ear slider. If not for her, I probably will not pay so much attention when RMBR guide was explaining why there is an Alien Invader section.

While writing this story, I did a little research and found out that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon was also sending a message to the public to tell them please do not throw your pet turtles in the sewage carelessly else they might mutate. I wonder how many knew the hidden meaning?

It is sad that because of man's fault, these pet turtles suffered such misunderstanding of being aggressive and invasive. Thus I wanted to write a story to show the other side of the sad tale. And I named it Alien Invader, giving due credits to my friend, RMBR and the rest of the society who had been involved in the research.

And I want to reiterate that if you want to owe a pet, remember to take care of it for its lifetime. And should you really become unable to do so, remember to contact the relevant authorities and not set it free carelessly into the wild.