WildFilms (Old blog)

Wildfilms has moved!

2007-04-07T17:45:00.000+08:00

Well actually, just the blog.

A new blog has been set up at wildfilms.blogspot.com. But this one will remain where it is.

Why a new blog? Mainly, I wanted to make some changes. It was just too scary to do it to the old blog which has so many wonderful entries and stories. I didn't want to risk messing it up. It was just a lot easier to start a new one.

Also, there's some missing photos and other problems with this old blog because it was hosted on a server that died and I didn't do enough backup to get it fully restored. Having the blog on blogspot will hopefully avoid this problem. I just didn't know how to transfer the old one.

The two common features in the above excuses, is of course that I'm just dead lazy :-)

Really sorry about an inconvenience caused.

The misadventures continue on the new blog. See you there!

Sisters for all Seasons

2007-04-02T12:54:00.000+08:00

Wildfilms and beachfleas arrived at Sisters in spectacular sunlight. The water was so clear we could see the reefs growing right below the jetty!

Of course, these reefs have always been there, even when we can't see them due to the usually murky waters!

Excited to begin, we hurried to the lagoon. But the weather suddenly turned! A strong wind started up, and dark clouds gathered.

Regardless, wildfilms goes to work. Here is Alvin with Heidi, our new HD cam in her spiffy yellow Storm Jacket. She's been out with us for a while now, and seems to be settling nicely down to the horrible things we make her do.

Meanwhile, Chay Hoon braves the wind rushing through the coconut trees, and the high water, to try to catch something with Princess (our temperamental underwater housing).

Our landscape shots of the city skyline now cannot avoid the giant wheel...sigh.

Elsewhere on the island, a family was quitely fishing.

They too tried to ignore the weather.

Alas, all our denial was to no avail and the rain finally fell. But only long enough for us to have a break. Of curry puffs, and beer (courtesy of Robert H.). Just at minimum tide, the rain stopped so we could have a quick look at the reefs before the tide turned.

Meanwhile, a bunch of beachfleas finally managed to find the ellusive monkeys that constantly raid our bags and belongings whenever we are on the island.

There were are about 10 of them. With grandmas, mums and babies! Shy and nervous, they stayed high among the graceful Rhu trees.

We wanted to stay for sunset, expecting a spectacular one. But it was rather muted end to the day over the two Sisters. Our shores are beautiful regardless of the seasons.

As we were waiting for the boat to take us home, a rat scurried on the lightless jetty. We have so few photos of rats and it would be good to know what kind of rats are found on our islands. So I tried to take a shot of it, using the last bits of a currypuff as bait. We all tried to wait quietly and indeed, the rat shortly came around to make a dash at the bait. But alas, the boat came before I could get a photo of the rat!

Well, perhaps next time...

Me is a Hemingway cat!

2007-03-18T11:03:00.000+08:00

Halo, me is Tootsie, one of Ria's three cats. Not wanting to lose out to other tech savvy cats (see here , here and here), me have decided to make my first post on the crew's blog. See how intelligent me is.....me waited for the crews to be out, with lovely Kimmy and silly Hades nowhere insight, me blog. **Hahaha....*cough*....me mean....Meowmeowmeow....they will never know me can blog** ;O)

So what shall me put on my first blog entry? *Think*.....okay, me shall blog about my uniqueness, my PAWS!

You see, me is a cat who has more than the usual number of toes on my paws compared to lovely Kimmy and silly Hades. And me just found out that me is called Hemingway cat from the current issue (April'07) of The National Geographic magazine. See me here on the left and the page from the magazine on the right. See my PAWS! It's the same as the cat on the page!

We are called Hemingway cat because of Ernest Hemingway's love for my kind of cats. There's also a term for my kind of abnormality, it is called polydactyl. Here's more information about Polydactyl cat.

Now...now...when will me get a chance to appear on a magazine? Meow(sigh).....guess for the time being, me can only get myself on the magazine like this;

Wild love on Sentosa's shores

2007-03-18T00:38:00.000+08:00

Ron and friends were out on Sentosa today. We were joined with the Republic Poly sea cucumber team led by Amy, and also Teresa and Tia.

While the sea cucumber folks and Siti checked out echinoderms and seagrasses via the short cut, the rest of us took the 'adventurous and character building' longer route.

The tall cliffs and weird rock formations along this route were awesome. Chay Hoon christened the rocks 'Petra Pink'. Ley Kun waxed lyrical about them endlessly. Andy pointed out the rock pools that were full of amazing animals!

As we turned around the corner to the reef proper, we were astounded by the countless floating white specs on the water among the seagrasses of Sentosa. The white specks look like styrofoam and were sprinkled on the water all around us. Some gathered together in large flotillas.

The Tape seagrasses (Enhalus acoroides) were blooming like crazy!

The little white specs are the male pollen that float on the surface. The 'frilly portion' of the male pollen repels water while the opposite end is attracted to water. Chay Hoon demonstrated this with little pollen 'standing' up on her wet hand!

The female flowers, we observed, had water repellent petals (see the curvy water around the petals). The petals closed together when the flower is submerged. But when the flower peeked out of the waves, the petals floated upon the water surface to expose the innermost portion. Probably, only the innermost portion between the petals is NOT water repellant.

This must be how male meets female! Ah! Mystery of Seagrass Love finally explained.

The little male pollen are produced from bracts that appear at the base of the seagrass (left). While the female flower is held up on long stalks, to reach the water surface. When pollinated, the female flower turns into a large furry fruit (right).

Just when we thought we had seen it all, Siti calls us over to see a fruit that had just opened up to release its little seeds! Wow, I've never seen this before!!

Sentosa is of course more than just seagrasses. The reef flats have lots hard and soft corals.

Today for some reason, the coral rubble was colourful with all kinds of encrusting lifeforms.

The Republic Poly team will no doubt blog about the sea cucumbers they saw. While we await a more delicious and R(A) rendition of seagrass love by Budak on his blog.

It may not appear like much from a distance, surrounded by busy shipping and artificial beaches, but this little hidden shore on Sentosa is very much alive with natural marinelife.

We hope it will remain that way for all Singaporeans to enjoy.

Big hungry smelly snakes

2007-03-08T19:31:00.000+08:00

Slithery, slippery and stinky was the theme of the last two evenings. I was out with Sijie and his fearless Snakehunting team at Pasir Ris. And WOW, did they find some really humungous snakes! And they were smelly too! I mean the snakes (which also made the some of the snakecatchers very stinky too, more on that later)

Here's the team from Tuesday (sorry, tall people got cropped out as it's hard to frame photos in the dark). They were in the midst of groping the big snake to see if it had eaten.

Shoop tries her hand at doing the 'snake massage' to check for dinner in the snake. Sijie's study requires only snakes that have been eaten. Sijie also shows team members how to tell the gender of the snake and other anatomical details. Of course I know snakes have things like a heart, lungs and stomach, but it's hard to imagine all that packed into the long, skinny, squirmy body.

And the team from Wednesday evening also caught a few BIG fat snakes! And Nor Aishah was back out in the field, fully recovered from the stingray incident with TeamSeagrass.

Some unusual behaviour observed include this snake attempting to eat an obviously dead and rotting fish head. Apparently, these snakes are not known to scavange.

More low-class behaviour was also observed. As one particular snake patiently went about trying to deal with its catch, another snake snuck up and tried to swallow the same fish from the other end!!

And here's one contented snake as it went about the serious business of swallowing its dinner. Although the fish looks too large for it, the snake managed to swallow the entire thing!! Whereupon, Sijie swooped down and promptly added the diner and dinner into his collection for study.

Snakehunters obviously don't read signs very well. But since we were out there at low tide, the warning doesn't quite apply. The rocks, however, were very slippery, and there were MANY rocks.

Shoop gently caught this really Big Mama who was calm and docile.

Later on, Shoop caught another Large Snake that did the propeller job and smeared Shoop thoroughly with stinky goo. Fortunately none of us were near her at the time of the incident. Shoop really smelt bad after that!

At the end of the trip, Shoop got cleaned up. Nevertheless, I sniffed Shoop very hard before I let her into the car. And still made Shoop sit on a poncho just in case. The stink of snake goop stays on forever if it gets onto upholstery. Alvin sat in the car in the next day and when asked, proclaimed that the car didn't smell any worse than it usually did. Hmmm...

Dickson also shared his adventures that night on his blue heaven blog.

The Snake team is out again this evening. But I've chickened out. But Dickson has again shared more about those doggies on his blue heaven blog

Glorious Hantu!

2007-03-05T20:02:00.000+08:00

It was a gorgeous blue-sky afternoon and beachfleas and wildfilms were back on the shores! What a welcome change from the rather drippy and damp outing at St. John's the day before.

At first glance, the Hantu shore doesn't look very promising. With the industrial installations at Pulau Bukom in the background.

And work on the reclamation of Terumbu Bayan is ongoing.

The massive sea wall is steadily being built out of giant rocks and huge piles of sand.

But just around the corner, outside the seawall, the reef flats are teeming with life! Leathery corals weird and wonderful flop all over the coral rubble.

Sijie's sharp eyes spot a little drama, as a ribbon worm snags a shrimp much larger than itself! This seemingly harmless worm has a prehensile stinging proboscis that can paralyse its prey and grip it tight. The prey is then consumed whole...eeks. Within seconds, the shrimp stopped struggling and its eyes turned opaque. We didn't stay to watch the end of the gruesome scene.

We also startled a swimming crab chomping down on its freshly caught lunch. A rather large and pretty halfbeak! The fish was still alive!

The ground is thick with living animals. Everywhere, there are flowery carpets of tiny little colonial anemones of various colours and sizes.

A variety of corallimorphs also coat the rubble. They come in a dazzling variety of patterns and colours!

Soft and hard corals grow side by side.

Tiny little mushroom corals no bigger than a 20-cent coin cluster next to larger ones. Mushroom corals are hard corals that become free-living as adults. That is, they are not attached to the bottom and can actually move around, but slowly.

Here are two other kinds of mushroom corals. They are also commonly seen on Hantu's reefs.

A variety of colourful corals crowded the reef flats. All very much alive!

There was a request for a giant clam. And soon, we spotted one.

No trip is complete without the obligatory slug sightings. Among those seen were a phyllid (left) and the enchanting Glossodoris atromarginata (right) with its constantly rotating feathery gills.

Meanwhile, other team members spotted octopuses, a huge ball of baby eel-tail catfishes, more Giant reef worms, and anemone shrimps in the many large anemones on the reefs.

Chay Hoon (of course) found a frogfish which promptly became the star of the video shoot. In a supporting role were various little fishes that played the part of the frogfish's dinner. The little frogfish could really eat a lot! Other performers included a pair of octopuses quarreling over a hairy crab. Ron and Helen found a snake in the grass on the way back! See Ron's tidechaser blog for all the gory details!

What a fabulous day out at Hantu! Let's hope the reclamation off the island goes smoothly and things settle down so that this delightful reef can recover quickly.

Soft corals at St. John's

2007-03-04T10:56:00.000+08:00

As another intrepid bunch of beachfleas headed out yesterday, the weather turned wet.

Regardless, we valiantly pushed on. Upon arrival at the jetty, Chay Hoon did a lucky draw of ponchos from the 'Gucci Bag' (our little bag used to prop up the video cam during field shoots, which is usually stuffed with old ponchos). She found enough ponchos for those who OBVIOUSLY did not read grumpy instructions about proper field preparations.

One unlucky person had to use the very beat up poncho that had long been downgraded to groundsheet because it was full of holes. It didn't smell too good either from being in a plastic bag for probably 2 seasons. Well, that's what you get for not bringing your own wet gear :-)

We had quite an international team with people from South Africa, France and the U.S. It's a pity Ron wasn't with us to guide them. He was instead having a great time guiding at Pulau Semakau, as we found out from his tidechaser blog.

A very soggy team headed out to check out St. John's shore, usually densely packed with corals. On this trip, we felt there was quite a bit more sand on the lagoon bottom than usual. And we noticed there was a landslide on the coastal area facing the lagoon.

I decided to focus on the softies as the water was a little too high to photograph the hard corals on the reef crest.

These tiny little corallimorphs encrust the coral rubble with their brightly coloured discs.

St. John's reef flat is festooned with all kinds of soft corals. Sometimes carpeting large areas of the bottom. These leathery soft corals come in bizarre shapes. Some like ruffly flat omelettes. Others remind of pink surgical gloves. Yet others like bunches of brown furry grapes.

They are living animals comprising tiny polyps that basically look like anemones, with a long body and a ring of minute tentacles. These polyps live together in a colony with a shared leathery tissue.

For some reason (possibly the continuous and annoying drizzle), there were LOTS of Giant reef worms (Eunice aphroditois) out and about. I saw four of them, each shooting disconcertingly out of their hidey holes to forage nearby. These very long and scary-looking worms are vegetarians. But they can give a nasty bite if they are disturbed.

With creepy tentacles and a gazillion little legs down the endless length of its body, it has a face that only a mother could love. But it does have a lovely irridescent body. It is identified by the white rings near its head.

Of course slugs were discovered, long black sea cucumbers considered, all kinds of hard corals pondered upon. Mr Budak found a squirmy worm eel! More about his encounters on this trip on his budak blog

Alas, the tide soon turned and we had to leave before it became really dark. So we didn't catch the night shift of octopus etcetra.

Morning tides are much more exciting, when the nightshift is out partying and the shores are at their best. Can't wait for them to start next month!

Chek Jawa & Friends

2007-02-24T16:18:00.000+08:00

I thought I was still early when I reached Changi Poiint Ferry Terminal
& when I reached and saw Ria
Ria gave me the stunned look & exclaimed "OH! Cynthia is here!"
My first response was like "Er..Am I not supposed to be here?"
Which was actually one of my hunches that someone could have forgotten about me to Chek Jawa today
& it seems like it is

We had a pretty big group today
Dr Dan's group, Team SeaGrass and WildFilms

Chek Jawa had changed alot
Or maybe it's just me who haven been there for long...
They are building the boardwalk to the outer coast and round the coral rubble to the other side...
and constructions are ongoing
It kinda looks weird to me to have concrete boardwalk instead of those wooden ones as in Sungei Buloh
I thought those are closer to the nature
But nevermind that

Chek Jawa smells good
No dead stench that Ria mentioned previously
Meaning
IT IS ALIVE!
Barnacles (Balanus spp.) & False limpets (Siphonaria spp.)
Shrimps outta focus but we still know it's there...
Big fat juicy green mussels (Perna viridis) that will end up in your dish one day...
Goby
Cute Hairy Seahare (Bursatella leachii)
~~Mass of headlice!~~ Cute Hairy Seahares!

Team SeaGrass were doing their seagrass monitoring at different sites along their transect

& of course, WildFilms also did our work

We know who didnt do their work! Just find us for the tapes!

I think everyone pretty much enjoyed themselves
& to celebrate this happy occasion
We had Yu-Sheng!

& cheered loudly
"More nudibranchs! More sea stars! More seagrasses!"

That is one new kinda Chinese New Year Celebration
& of course, a new kinda wish for the New Year
We hope to see that happen!
Do you?

Snake hunting with Sijie

2007-02-23T21:52:00.000+08:00

A few of us were out on Wednesday evening at Pasir Ris for Sijie's snake project. Together with Murrati, Helen and Andy, I tottered over a very rocky shore over murky waters to try to catch some special snakes. Unlike the other projects where the aim was just to bag as many snakes as possible, Sijie only wanted snakes that had eaten.

It was difficult to watch so many snakes slitter by well within reach and not catch them. We waited patiently for snakes to have their snacks.

Of course, JUST as I was trying to get a better footing on the very slippery shore to avoid falling head first into the water, a snake had to splash by with a fish! I fired off a few frantic shots before the snake swam off to a distant wall opposite us. Sigh.

Later on, Sijie spotted another snake on the wall with a fish. The clever snakes bring their victims out of the water before trying to swallow them.

And swallowing seems to be a BIG problem. Especially if the fish is many times bigger than your mouth! This snake tried to swallow its catch for half an hour or more before finally giving up. It must be tough not to be able to chew your food. Imagine having to swallow something like an entire steak whole. I now better appreciate my chewing teeth. However, precariously clambering over the super slippery rocks made me envious of the graceful snakes. Sometimes, having legs is not much use.

As we approached the end of the study period, we were finally allowed to catch any snake we saw. But the tide was rising fast and snakes were soon out of reach. If the snake has not eaten, Sijie releases it. Sijie shows us how to check a snake without getting bitten or smeared by the snake's 'defensive' gunk...which smells really bad!

The team caught three snakes that have eaten! This one had obviously just swallowed a fish.

Pasir Ris mangroves were wonderfully alive. The trees thick with crabs, and all kinds of other animals on the mud. But we didn't really have time to explore much. Perhaps another time.

Sisters Island with Dr Dan

2007-02-20T11:46:00.000+08:00

Wildfilms had a special day out at Sisters in the company of Dr Dan Rittschof from Duke University and his students, all just flown in from the U.S. This is the third year that we've had the honour of being out in the field with Dr Dan. And we all looked forward to it!

Ron was Guide in Attendance and gave an excellent introduction to our favourite shore, despite the desultory drizzle. While Dr Dan shared interesting sexy stories about crabs and hermit crabs. To find out more, you'll just have to join one of Ron's guided walks at Semakau or Chek Jawa! We've got a lot of good stories from Dr Dan to share with our visitors now.

The wildfilms crew quickly found a spider conch. James alerted us to a Blue-spotted fantail stingray (Taeniura lymma) trapped in a pool. And of course, myriad worms and slugs were discovered and discussed. But what Dr Dan REALLY wanted to see what a Giant Top Shell (Trochus niloticus). Ron found one and I found another, but he wasn't impressed. They weren't big enough!

As the tide fell, we waded out to the reef flat just outside the sea walls. Lots of corals and other reef life to explore!

And what do we have here?! Dr Dan with a bowl of sea cucumber! Both were discovered on the shore (bowl and cuke).

It's the Long black sea cucumber (Holothuria leucospilota), commonly seen on our reefs. We explained that some Singaporeans have a rather cruder Hokkien common name for the creature...ah hem. The poor sea cucumber didn't quite like being in a bowl and started to eject white sticky threads, a defensive behaviour. So we put it gently back under the rock where it and its friend were hiding. The threads stuck to Dr Dan's fingers for some time after.

After a little tour on the outside of the seawall, we stopped for a bit of a snack on curry puffs ("What's a curry puff?" our new friends ask. After struggling to describe it, it was decided the best way to find out was to just eat one!) And lovely home-made biscuits Dr Dan got from Siva.

The drizzle had stopped and after a glorious sun set, it was time to head out for Round Two and to check out the night shift on the reef.

The wildfilms crew tend to focus on slugs and ignore things with a back bone. But the sharp-eyed students were determined to find a stonefish.

And what fishes they found! Dr Dan spotted at least three of these strange eel-like fishes. And one of them was eating an octopus!!

In a few minutes, it gobbled down the octopus that was obviously alive and kicking (with all eight arms) . I have no idea what kind of fish this is!

All kinds of prickly, icky, scary, fuggly fishes were closely observed to ascertain whether they were stonefishes. Mostly beginning with someone yelling in the dark "Is THIS a stonefish?" It was quite unnerving. It got even more disturbing when suddenly everyone started spotting stingrays around them. It was a sign to move out to shallower waters. Where MORE fishes were discovered.

This prickly fish is a flathead (Family Platycephalidae). It's probably the Fringe-eyed flathead (Cymbacephalus nematophthalmus), because it has delicate golden 'eyelashes'.

Toadfishes, scorpionfishes were also examined with morbid fascination. Meanwhile, glittering silversides, needle-like half-beaks, blue damselfishes, cardinalfishes and other fishes flashed by.

Two cute little pufferfishes were also seen. They were probably the Yelloweye puffer (Arothron immaculatus), which we've not seen before!

It takes experience to be able to handle slippery, jumpy fishes without hurting them. Putting them in a pot helps everyone have a closer look without trampling or stressing the fish too much. Dr Dan calmly shows us how it's done.

On the way back, we got to see the Lunar New Year fireworks over the city. What a wonderful night out!

Thank you Dr Dan and new friends for showing us a new side of our Sisters Island!

More photos and stories of our outing on Siyang's urban forest blog and Ron's tidechaser blog

Escape to Tanah Merah

2007-02-19T09:54:00.000+08:00

Wildfilms planned to visit Changi this holiday period but were aghast to find the entire stretch of the beach jam-packed with campers. From Changi Point to Changi Ferry Terminal. Almost every inch of space was filled with tents and, as Andy put it 'a gazillion people'. Cars were lined up along the coastal road, reducing it to one lane. Laundy was hanging out among the trees and happy people everywhere.

After picking up Andy from the carpark, we decided to head away from the rush and visit Tanah Merah.

The shore there had lots more people than we usually encountered. But at least it wasn't like Orchard Road.

Rain was building up but the kids continued to play on the vast sandy shore unperturbed.

The shore is densely covered in sand dollars and button shells. All very much alive.

Button shells have a leaf-like foot and tiny beady eyes on stalks. They were vigorously hunted by moon snails that were out in force.

Alvin came upon a little drama. This hermit crab is obviously patiently waiting for the tiny whelks to clean out the dead occupant of the shell that it has 'choped'. Behind it (upper left corner) is a smaller hermit crab in a really banged up shell, waiting to take over should the first in the queue decide the shell is not up to par.

Speaking of par, we came across a vast number of golf balls scattered on the sand. In an effort to entice Alvin to film the golf balls, we launched ala David Attenborough in hushed Voice of God mode "And here we have...the secret gathering of mating golf balls!" "A rarely observed sight, little is known about this annual ritual". Dr Andy adds "The yellow ones are the females, ripe with eggs". Alas, Alvin had a look and walked away in disgust. Later we saw a man stuff his pants pockets with the golf balls.

There was quite a lot of rubbish. Andy picked up a large hub cab!

Just as we were about to go home, a surprise! One single sea star. We've never seen them on Tanah Merah before, and I searched the whole shore and couldn't find any. We are perplexed. Perhaps it was 'released' by someone? It's very odd.

Once people on the shore realised we were shooting marine life, little kids started bringing us what they found. From tiny hermit crabs to wee fishies. One of the little girls wanted to bring the sand dollars home and we tried very hard to persuade her not to. "You don't know what to feed them, they will die"..."and smell bad" Andy added. A father dug out a large grouper from a pipe and proceeded to haul it home. There were several people casting drift nets on the shore as well as across the monsoon drain. And I saw a couple dilligently scrapping off every bit of life from under the rocks on the high shore. Sigh.

There's indeed a lot more that needs to be done in raising public awareness of our shores.

CNY eve at Sekudu

2007-02-18T20:35:00.000+08:00

'Twas a quiet but good day out on Sekudu yesterday afternoon, away from the frenzy of CNY preparations no doubt happening everywhere on the mainland.

Sekudu has always been one of my favourite destinations, a small island, just a short boat ride out from the Changi Village jetty. There were always interesting finds on the teeming reef flat - slugs of all description to satisfy the Wildfilms' resident slimophile, and that was where we found that file snake before! Hence, it was with a sense of trepidation with which I went; after reading all the latest posts about the massive destruction on the Northern shores caused by the torrential rains last month and the resultant dip in salinity.

Thankfully enough, other than being engulfed in mounds of sea lettuce, it looked pretty much like normal, with many of our weird and wacky friends still out and about, despite the blazing afternoon sun, which came out after a brief shower.

So amidst the clacking, splashing, and the usual babble of the reef, I managed to chuckle at (not one but) two toadfish croaking and flopping, tickle a dance out of one of the many crabs around, play with my favourite slimy friends (this time it was the hairy sea hares that seemed to be everywhere on the reef), and observe more bizarre fishes in action (Ria found a cute little polka-dotted yellow boxfish, and Chay Hoon later found a fat black pipefish with pretty markings on its side). Ria in particular was quite heartened to find the anemones looking alive and well. As Sekudu is just opposite to Chek Jawa, these healthy animals will help to repopulate the devastated shore!

Island escape - looking decidedly greener than usual.

Bursatella leachii - the hairy sea hare. Egg mass can be seen in the same picture, at the upper right corner (the grey stringy stuff).

Ostracion cubicus - the yellow boxfish, a juvenile less than 2cm in diameter, which I found quite endearing due to its peculiar body shape, and the way it seems to float around through the water like a little balloon.

Unknown pipefish - black, with lighter spots along its side, forming a pretty pattern.

Generally healthy-looking anemones (except for the odd bleached one, like the yellow one in the top left corner) that will help to reseed Chek Jawa.

Who's the real predator?

2007-02-05T15:46:00.000+08:00

2 years ago while we were out at Chek Jawa
We saw a baby octopus wriggling its tenacles franatically in the swallow water
"Weird movement" we all thought.
Until we realised it was caught by a crab, struggling to set free

How bizarre.

Yesterday while we were out at Pulau Hantu
Same scenario happened.
But
It's a snake!

"Ouchhhh" groaned Baby Yellow-lipped sea krait (Laticauda colubrina)

It caught my attention when I noticed something blue & black snake-like animal twisting on the algae-covered sponge
& my legs turned almost weak upon confirming that it is indeed a venomous reptile
Even though it is of 3cm long in diameter

FYI, I am ophidiophobic (snake-phobia). Think my close encounter with the monitor lizard at Sentosa has not make me brave enough still.

Despite so, as WildFilms mission is to 'Shoot First, Ask Questions Later', I immediately fetched the camera and caught it on tape.

Look how beautiful it is...

Right, where's the crab?
Hidden in the sponge, pinching hard on the snake
Can you see the pincer?

And all along I thought octopus and snakes eat crabs as stated everywhere in journals, magazines, Discovery Channel, wherever. But it has been twice that I saw crab being the predator of their 'supposedly-predator'.

Not only did the Earth has gone hay-wired, so does the food-chain I believe.

Northern Shores: health check

2007-01-23T18:53:00.000+08:00

Yesterday, wildfilms and Siti dropped by Changi to see if the mass deaths on Chek Jawa was also happening there.

Our favourite patch of seagrasses on Changi was ominously quiet. To our relief, we didn't come across heaps of dead sea cucumbers and sea anemones like we did on Chek Jawa.

But we didn't see any live sea cucumbers though. And saw only one small, yellowish sickly carpet sea anemone in the murky water.

There seemed to be an unusually large amount of mangrove debris floating in with the waves: mangrove seedlings, leaves and twigs. Washed down from upriver?

We also saw five clumps of large, juicy water hyacinths. These are freshwater plants and they look recently washed into the sea. On the high shore, I could gather a good assortment of mangrove seeds and seedlings just by looking in a small area.

TeamSeagrass member Andy Dinesh shared this about the bulbous water hyacinths "I saw quite a few (about 10 separate clumps) floating by whilst on the ferry to Belungkor on Saturday 20th Jan morning. They seemed to be coming from up the Johor River. Probably flushed out by the receding floodwaters?"

There were some dead fishes, but not more than usual. They look freshly dead.

But the peacock anemones and sea pens seemed alright. We saw the number that we usually do at this tide height and time of the day.

What joy when we spotted several sand stars (Astropecten sp.) busily roaming over the sand! And the usual groups of tiny hermit crabs annoying one another.

The seagrasses were lush and fine. Some patches of Fern seagrass (Halophila spinulosa) and lots of Spoon seagrass (Halophila ovalis).

Pasir Ris

Today, Debby Ng of the Hantu Bloggers also shared this info:

"Incidentally, I was at Pasir Ris on Friday with the kids and did a salinity test. The mud was unusually barren, mostly crabs and snails. Anemones had died and no sea cucumbers or sea hares as there usually are. The salt test read 22ppt as compared to the usually 30-35ppt."

We really hope the effects of the deadly deluge will pass quickly and our beautiful Northern shores will get well soon.

Death Note from Chek Jawa

2007-01-22T17:01:00.000+08:00

I could smell it in the air…

After reading Adelle’s blog entry, I had already prepared myself for the worst. But stepping into Chek Jawa itself and seeing everything with my own eyes, I realised that no nature-lover would every be adequately prepare to witness this.

How many of you reading this have been to Chek Jawa? How many of you can remember the graceful carpet anemones dancing among the seagrasses? The cute little ball sea cucumbers that burrow into the sand? The common seastars that move around with their little tube feet? The colourful sponges that decorate the coral rubble? The salty smell of the sea as you stepped onto the sand bar?

But yesterday, I could only smell death.

The bits and pieces of white-coloured stuff you see above were not tissue paper left by some irresponsible visitors. Yes indeed, they were tissues, but animal tissues. I felt like I was stepping into a graveyard, except that the dead were not buried…

Chay Hoon said it reminded her of the tsunami, where hundreds and thousands of corpses were left to rot.

Indeed, death was in the air, in every breath we took. For the remaining photos below, you may click on each of them to see how the animals may have looked like when they were alive and healthy.

We used to have to dig out these burrowing ball sea cucumbers. But yesterday, they were every where, but lifeless. Frankly, I would rather that they were alive and burrowing. I wouldn’t mind taking time digging them out. Really, I wouldn’t mind…

There used to be thousands of carpet anemones among the seagrasses. Occasionally, you would see swimming crabs darting among the seagrasses, flashing their claws every now and then, and sometimes, a few unlucky ones got to close to the carpet anemones and became the latter’s meal.

Yesterday, I didn’t see any swimming crabs. I did see many carpet anemones, or rather, what’s left of the anemones. There were several lucky ones that looked like they were really unhealthy. The rest were dead, rotting, and torn into pieces, somewhat like the one below.

Previously, it was difficult to find even one sandfish sea cucumber as they burrow. But yesterday, we were spoilt for choice - except that they were all dead and colourless.

These sea cucumbers were supposed to be edible if properly prepared. During the Chinese New Year period, which is now, the prices can be obscenely high. I was never too fond of sea cucumbers. Or rather, I mean I love sea cucumbers when they are alive and in their natural habitat, but not as part of my diet, though I do understand there are others who love sea cucumbers in other ways. The decaying smell of the rotting sea cucumbers was still lingering in my nose as I was typing this. I don’t think I’ll be having any sea cucumber this Chinese New Year.

Has anybody seen SpongeBob SquarePants? This could probably be how he would look like when he is dead.

And SpongeBob’s friend, Patrick, the seastar did not fare any better.

That was a dead knobbly seastar.

The coral rubble area used to be full of colourful sponges, and every now and then, you will be able to find a few red, orange or beige knobbly seastars. But yesterday, everything was black.

When I touched one of the dead sponges with my metal chopsticks, it disintegrated into black powder. It was like watching some horror movie, where the victims or monsters were reduced to dust.

By the way, have you eaten abalone before? In the market, they sometimes sell a cheaper alternative – volutes.

The above is a noble volute served in its shell, soup included. I saw another dead noble volute with a clam stuck to its foot. From what we understand, noble volutes feed on clams. It was depressing to see so many dead volutes, but at least I think this one didn’t die with an empty stomach. Or perhaps both the volute and the clam died before the former finished its meal? I guess that would remain a mystery that we can never solve.

Looking at all these carcasses every where, saying that I'm depressed is certainly an understatement. Those who have visited Chek Jawa, especially the guides, will probably understand how I feel now. If you have not visited Chek Jawa before, please visit Ria's Online Guide to Chek Jawa.

What causes this massive killing? It is the rain?

We do know that most marine creatures can’t survive in fresh water, and the drastic rainfall over the past few weeks had certainly flooded Chek Jawa with lots of freshwater. And the Johor River was made an unwilling accomplice by bringing more flood waters into the Johor Straits.

But like what they asked in the movie “One Last Dance”, who is the real murderer? The one who fired the shots, or the one who wrote down the names?

Or perhaps the rain is the bullet, but there must be someone who pulled the trigger.

And I think we all know who is, or rather, who are behind all these crazy weather patterns.

What comes around, goes around.

Perhaps it is really time to think about how we have been mistreating mother earth, and how we can salvage the situation, before it’s really pay back time…

Happy New Year from Sisters Islands

2007-01-03T09:13:00.000+08:00

The wildfilms crew and intrepid beachfleas celebrate the new year with a trip to Big Sisters Island. Both Big and Little Sisters Islands have some of the best reefs that an ordinary person can visit at low tide.

Treading carefully to avoid damaging corals, and also Mr Stonefish, we check out the reefs...

Hard corals are animals! In fact, a colony of countless tiny animals called polyps. The polyps produce a hard skeleton. Hard corals grow slowly as these tiny animals multiply and add tiny skeletons to the colony. Here's a look some forms of our hard corals...

Clockwise from left: This lovely pastel Pavona coral has a typical arrangement of delicate stripey lines with short tentacles. A baby blue Hydnophora coral has little cones surrounded by their short tentacles. The yellow Pocillopora coral seems furry with its little blue flower-shaped polyps over a yellow base; while this bright green Galaxea has polyps that make star-shaped skeletons.

Big Sisters is a great place to see Mushroom corals (Family Fungidae). Unlike most other hard corals, a Mushroom coral is typically one giant polyp! They start out as tiny disks attached to a hard surface (like the row of cute tiny mushroom corals on the left photo), but as they grow bigger, they become 'free-living'. These guys can move around! Siti was telling me that an experiment showed mushroom corals can really kick ass and bully other hard corals that are literally stuck to a rock.

Enormous Mertens' carpet anemones (Stichodactyla mertensii) are common on Sisters Island. Ron saw a few with 'Nemos' (False clown anemonefishes), but I couldn't find any.

Among the feathery soft corals, a hairy crab is almost overlooked. The lagoons and reefs of Big Sisters are just crawling with life!

Siti and I remember our TeamSeagrass responsibilities and dutifully check out the island for seagrasses. There was a patch of Tape seagrass (Enhalus acoroides) and it was blooming! And it JUST blossomed. The three frilly white petals only last one day. What a treat! There was also teeny tiny Spoon seagrass (Halophila ovalis) which intrigued Siti very much.

Ron found a beautiful Spider conch (Lambi lambis)! It was very shy and peeped nervously out of its pretty pink shell.

The conches (Family Strombidae) have big eyes on long stalks that can peep out of the shell. The Black-lipped conch (Strombus urceus) is another conch. These snails are listed among the threatened animals of Singapore due to habitat loss and overcollection.

A sea snake and other marvels were encountered by the duck and leafmonkey.

Ron also found a flathead (a fish) and saw a stingray!

Joseph Lai, meanwhile did a survey of the coastal plants and discovered rare trees and plants! "Sisters' Island's impressive tree-population has no comparison in Singapore, except perhaps, Pulau Jong" Joseph says of his findings, which are posted on his eart-h.com website.

Alvin and Chay Hoon are hard at work...here stalking the Acropora goby that live in branching Acropora coral. This is the first time we are using Princess Ursula (as we respectfully address the tempramental underwater housing), since she got a hole drilled into her for some additional controls. She swam through with flying colours and didn't spring a leak. In fact, Alvin feels the hole in her head seemed to have improved her temper.

As the sun sets and the tide turns, we raise a toast to this beautiful little island. With heartfelt wishes that it will remain unspoilt. And always be there for all Singaporeans to appreciate and enjoy.

More about Sisters Islands and our unique City Reefs

Lazarus: hoping for a resurrection

2006-12-24T11:44:00.000+08:00

Wildfilms and a motley bunch of beachfleas had a quick look at Lazarus Island yesterday. This is our first visit for a long while.

The rocky shore facing St. John's is strewn with an assortment of colourful, wave-worn pebbles and stones. The sea relentlessly carved the cliffs into wondrous shapes, showing off the layers of colourful sediments. Coastal plants cloak the hillside. A natural and priceless work of art, eons in the making.

Joseph Lai made a preliminary survey of the coastal vegetation and has made some exciting discoveries.

Among them, probably the last Changi Tree in the Southern Islands. And what a majestic Sindora wallichii it is. It has a wide crown, is about 18m tall with an estimated girth of 270 to 300cm! Two other rare plants he saw include a rare ephiphytic shrub and a mistletoe.

See Joe's Flora of Lazarus on his www.eart-h.com website for a full list of plants with photos, and also photos of the beautiful rock formations on the island.

Seagrasses being recently very much in our minds, we were delighted to find patches fresh green Spoon seagrasses (Halophila ovalis). There were also Sickle seagrass (Thalassia hemprichii) and Needle seagrass (Halodule sp.). But large chunks of seagrasses had their underground stems and roots exposed, suggesting something is dislodging them.

Wildfilms focused on the rocky shore and rubble area to try to document the shore life there. Some of the usual shore animals, such as this beautiful Branched tentacle sea anemone (Phymanthus sp.), were common there.

I disturbed a busy little Marine spider (Desis sp.) who skittered over water, scrambled over rubble and rustled through seaweeds in its hunt for dinner.

The special find for the day was this nearly transparent flatworm that slithered rapidly over the sand. There's a teeny tiny little goby infront of it as well (lower right corner) which I totally didn't see until I processed the photo (as usual). We thought we should name this flatworm the Ahchoo flatworm. As in "Aaah Chooo!! Oh dear, did I make that? Or is that a transparent flatworm?".

There was also an encounter with an octopus, which apparently stressed both the observers and the observed.

There were a few living hard corals. But we did not see any of the huge soft corals that used to plaster the shore like big fried omelettes. Some photos of the Lazarus shore taken in 2002 are on beachfleas and Dr Chua Ee Kiam's simply green site

In fact, the shore seemed very quiet. Perhaps it was the recent deluge (most marine creatures don't agree with freshwater)? Or perhaps something more? There is a huge floating structure opposite the rocky shore that was not there in the past. It looks like part of some sort of fishery enterprise. The currents rushing under the bridge between St John's Island and Lazarus Island is also something different.

It is rather sad to know we traded gorgeous living reefs and shores that any Singaporean could visit, for a $60m reclamation project on Seringat-Lazarus-Kias, ostensibly to create something that millionaires might want.

This effort included the production of a 'natural beach' which involved the import of 1,000 coconut trees, dumping enough soil to fill 5,000 lorries and measuring two storeys high when piled up, and 36 cubic metres of water every day to keep the plants growing. The Lazarus 'natural shore' project won the landscape company a gold award from the Landscape Industry Association.

Ironically, this project buried the living reefs at Seringat and Kias and probably affected the shores on Lazarus. Priceless habitats that nature took millenia to build. That were ours without cost.

But nature is resilient and the Lazarus shores may yet recover. If it is left alone and given time to recuperate. We can only hope for a resurrection.

Melibe! Melibe! Melibe!

2006-12-04T09:29:00.000+08:00

"Hey Ron, there's a nudibranch here!"

One of the visitors shouted to me, and I walked towards him.

"Eh... this is actually a flatworm," I said.

I was guiding a group of 11 people at Semakau. Despite the wrong identification by the visitor, it's still a good start. We had not even gone into the seagrass lagoon, and we already found a flatworm! And it's not the usual brown one with white spots, but one with stripes.

And half way across the seagrass lagoon, I saw something long and big creeping among the seagrass...

It's a huge synaptid sea cucumber! Probably between 1 - 2 metres long, and I actually had a problem trying to find its front and end.

Call me sua ku. I've seen synaptid sea cucmber before, and do know that they can get really long, but have never seen one so big myself before.

Now, today certainly looked like a day of surprises!

We get the usual jorunna, discodoris, chromodoris, the spotted brown flatworm, noble volutes, sandfish etc etc... but no knobbly seastar (apparently some of the other guides found two on the left side of the coral reef, and we managed to see them in the end.)

My eyes were tuned to looking for knobbly seastars when..

"Ron, can you come over to see what's this?"

I walked towards the visitor. There was some translucent reddish brown thing trapped in a pool of water hardly bigger than itself, just beside a rock.

Using my chopsticks, I picked it up and put it into my container. It's about 10cm long, I think.

As I pour some water into the container, 2 lumps detached from the "thing" and floated in the water...

"This is definitely a sea slug, the 2 lumps that it has shed are called cerata..."

"And hey, you can see it has a hood in front..."

(I could hardly contain my excitement at this moment as I explained to the visitors...)

"... like a melibe! This is not something I've seen before. Let me check with another guide."

"Chay Hoon, I found something. Need you to identify for me!"

I rushed towards Chay Hoon, who was like at least 50 metres away when I yelled at her. Probably Chay Hoon could sense from my voice that it must be something special, and also rushed towards me.

Looking into my container...

"Ron!" She exclaimed. "You have found a melibe!"

This was certainly a moment that simply couldn't be described in words...

YES!!! After all these years (ok, kind of exaggerated, it more like the past 2-3 years?), WE HAVE FOUND A MELIBE!!!!!!!!!!

Ok, it's found by my visitor, not a wildfilm crew, but hey! Whatever it is, finally, we have found a melibe!!!

Ever since I joined Wildfilms, we have been talking about finding the melibe. Ria was always teasing us that we'll probably find a tiny slug on the melibe, but miss the melibe all together!

The previous record of a melibe was found at Changi, and I had assumed that eventually we will probably find it there or some where in the northern islands.

But ironically, just sometime back, I remember telling someone that we have been finding all kinds of new things in Semakau, and since we also have lots of seagrass and seaweeds in Semakau, perhaps for all you know we can find a melibe here as well. And how true this turned out!

The melibes I've seen in photos are usually greenish in colour, while this one is kind of reddish brown.

Unfortunately, it shed its cerata when I picked it up. Did some research on the web, and it says that some melibes shed their cerata when they are disturbed, some what like the polybranchia. Just to satisfy myself, I've cheated here and done some photoshop work and "attached" the cerata back. Probably this could be how it looked like before I disturbed it :P

Will be going to Semakau again on Tuesday and Wednesday. Hopefully this time round, I can find another melibe - a more complete one this time round with all its cerata in place :)

Sentosa shore: wild and free

2006-10-22T13:07:00.000+08:00

There is a stretch of wild shore on Sentosa, where marine life flourishes wild and free.

The waters on this shore is among the clearest in Singapore. We don't really know why.

The shores abound with living hard corals in myriad forms and colours.

Some hard corals literally glow in the dark! Giving an eerie greenish glow at sunset (without batteries).
We encounter these most often on Sentosa.

There are also amazing soft corals that look like something from outer space. They can be enormous! Reaching 1m wide or more. And come in really strange shapes: some look like a bunch of surgical gloves, others like bizarre leafy lifeforms. But they are not plants! They are colonial animals, like hard corals. But instead of a hard skeleton, they share a common soft tissue, which can be leathery.

The shores are dotted with amazing sea anemones.

Crab and shrimps find a happy home here. Lots of hiding places and lots to eat.

Anemone shrimps settle among the tentacles of giant carpet anemones. Brightly coloured crabs advertise their toxic nature: "Eat me and Die!", while others like the hairy crab are well camouflaged. Hermit crabs need to protect their soft backsides inside an empty shell. This tiny black hermit crab is only commonly seen on Sentosa.

All these yummy little creatures attract fishes of all shapes and sizes. Eeltail catfishes often swim in balls of many individuals; tiny ones in the hundreds, as they get older in smaller numbers. The beautiful butterflyfish is almost always seen on every trip. Well camouflaged pufferfishes are not so easily spotted.

The first time I saw a sea snake was on Sentosa. The elegant creature ignored me as it gracefully wove its way among the corals to check out crevices for a tasty titbit. Although highly venomous, this snake is gentle and like other snakes, will not bite if it is left alone.

Most people don't really like worms. But those on our shores can be gorgeous.
These feathery creatures are worms! They are very shy and will disappear at the slightest sign of danger.

For some reason, shore guides and wildfilms crew LOVE slugs.
Some are tiny, others as big as your hand. There are lots on Sentosa!

For those who prefer their slugs with shells, there are plenty of pretty snails on the shores too.

Seaweeds can be very strange indeed. On Sentosa, they come in all shapes and colours.

All the wonders of this wild shore on Sentosa can be appreciated by an ordinary person.
No need to swim, no need to dive!

And all that you see are wild and natural. No robots.

...and free. Of charge, of cages.

More about Sentosa's shores
Volunteers for the Sentosa seagrass transect (yes, Sentosa has lots of seagrass too)
More photos of Sentosa's shores
List of Sentosa's plants and animals.
Besides the amazing marinelife, the natural cliffs of Sentosa are also home to now rare plants. See Joseph Lai's list of these on his eart-h.com
Media reports on plans for the Sentosa IR

For a fallen wildslinger

2006-09-06T10:37:00.000+08:00

Who'd thought he'd pass on with his love for nature pierced straight into his heart? I still remember when I first saw him on TV, the bugger was reveling in mud trying to catch a wild boar (and managing to grab only its hind legs before the little piglet struggled free) - and I thought WOOOHOOOO! A man after my own heart! He'd be one of the REAL men out in the wild down and dirty with the critters themselves.

He's what I call a wildslinger - like a gunslinger, only that his domain isn’t in a spaghetti western but in real grit and muck of the wilderness. His guns aren’t Colt Peacemakers; he shoots with his cameras, his grubby hands and his heart for nature.

Blatant disregard for his own safety not withstanding, he was a refreshing figure after hearing so many boring disembodied voices on the documentary, or even peeps who try to put their faces on the screen but still end up pansy as ever, like Jeff Corwin (cant hold a candle to Big Stevie!). Other than Attenborough, he'd be the only other guy I love to see on the telly tackling critters (coz unless you have crawled through a termite mound or jumped on a croc you don’t make the list).

Some people find fault with the seemingly callous way he handles critters (read: irritate the crap out of them). But look closer and you can see how much he treats them with respect. One must take risks anyway, and Steve was just taking them as they came. It is a lot to say if you handle crocs a lot more than the average guy and have never been mauled by them - he's careful, alright. Getting stabbed in the heart with a stinger, or even anywhere else is just pure bad luck lah. And all this was done for a cause, too. In tackling critters, Steve tackles conservation issues with that in-you-face,damnnit way. He does what he preaches. He may seem flamboyant, but personally, I think he really loves what he does, and as he continues doing what he loves and does best, there my heart goes to him.

I must confess, this is greatly distressing and saddening. No amount of turtles* will bring a fallen wildslinger back.

Thus passes one legendary Wildslinger. He'll be missed, but they'll be others, and they'll continue walking the path Steve so paved with his life alongside nature. We’ll think of you when we’re trudging through forests, or when we’re stuck in the mud filming our own critters.

Peace to thee, Steve.

Steve Irwin, prodder of critters (and he loves them very much!)
22/02/1962 - 04/09/2006

(Picture procured with thanks from here)

*As tribute to Steve, a whole host of MSN messenger users have taken to putting in a turtle in their nicknames, only for the lack of a crocodile icon.

Critter of the week #2

2006-09-06T06:50:00.000+08:00

Welcome to the 2nd instalment of Critter of the Week.

Unfortunately, no one tried to guess what entry #1 was. Maybe it was a wee bit too hard, what with the lights going here and there and everywhere... Anyway, it was a nudibranch laying eggs. We're not too sure what nudibranch it was, but Ria probably has some photographs.

Here's another not-so-successful take of another wacky marine creature for your perusal. Please feel free to guess what it is. ;)

Please note that all pictures and video material on this website, unless otherwise stated, are the property of WildFilms, and should be used only with permission for anything other than personal viewing.

Sungei Buloh Volunteers 10th Anniversary

2006-08-27T01:10:00.000+08:00

Spent Saturday night out with the first nature volunteer group that I joined. It is now 10 years old! Bravo!!

To celebrate, we were treated to a whole host of special events. I couldn't make it for the day festivities, and only snuck in for the night walk, led by Krish who shared all kinds of stories with us.

Jac and I re-lived the good ol' days when we used to explore every corner of Buloh together, and shoot the place to death. Jac was the senior guide there when I first joined and it's been yonks since we've spent time together at Buloh.

There were spiders galore!

Jac spotted several Ornamental tree-trunk spiders (Herennia ornatissima). The female is much larger (12-15mm) compared to the male (5-6mm) and she builds an orb web only a few mm above the bark with a silken cup in the centre of the web. We saw one having her dinner.

During the day, the Red tent spider is usually well hidden inside the dead leaf that she puts into the middle of her tent web for this very purpose. At night, she is a bit more outgoing. For some reason, Jac and I forgot the
name of the spider. We knew we'd slap our foreheads as soon as we got home and looked at the little spider book. It's Cyrtophora unicolor, Jac! *slap forehead*. This one is busy wrapping up her dinner in silk. In the upper right corner, you can see one of the little thieving spiders that squat in her nest, and also steal a little nibble of her prey. Apologies once again to the volunteers for blinding everyone when taking the photo.

When you see two ants dangling off a silken thread, you should know that something is up to no good. And it's the Ant-like crab spider (Amyciaea lineatipes) that mimics ants. And eats them! This one seems to have sucked out quite a bit out of the victim already. Eew! There were other hunting spiders out searching for dinner as well.

There was a spider with a very pretty butt. Possibly a lynx spider?

And other little insects. Besides the not-so-favourite mossies.

The short-horned grasshopper that looks like it's been dipped
in chocolate is a delight to encounter. As well as the amusing little katydid
with that typical "whazzup?" quizzical expression.

Little moths are just amazing when you take a closer look at them.

Chrysalis are so well camouflaged!
One under a blade of grass was bright green,
while another on a twig looked just like a shrivelled leaf.

At night, you really get to see the action. This little bagworm was busy munching
up its dinner. During the day, these larvae usually hang immobile,
their little bags making them look like twigs or bits of rubbish.

On the mangrove boardwalk, we got a really good close look at
the tree climbing crabs. These crabs are only really active at night,
when they climb right to the tips of branches.

The humungous tiger orchid near the Outdoor Classroom was in full bloom.
Each blossom was as big as my hand!

For me, the biggest treat was of course the Puff-faced watersnakes (Homalopsis buccata) at the Aquatic Pond. There are tons of them there! But they only come out at night. Fortunately, there were plenty of sightings without us having to make a virgin sacrifice, as earlier contemplated. Krish had an interesting personal story about them, but you'll have to ask him about it yourself.

The adult (above) is handsomely marked,
though a little duller than the juvenile (below).

For better photos of this beautiful snake, including one of it feeding on a fish,
see Kwok Wai's wildlife singapore website page;
and for all the details of the snake, see Chee Kong's slog blog entry.

While everyone was busy looking for snakes, most overlooked
the little frog that floated quitely among the duckweeds.

Jac spotted a sleeping tailorbird. We didn't want to wake it up
so we shot it without the flash. It didn't move at all.

Volunteers do really get to have a special experience of our wild places!

For more about other delirious night outings at Sungei Buloh,
see these previous posts on the wildfilms blog

Seeking Serpents at Sungei Buloh

Snakehunts at Buloh

Wild Things in the Business Times?!

2006-08-23T14:27:00.000+08:00

Darwin came across this in today's BT. A photo of Chay Hoon (with The Now Much Loved Orange Box) and Marie in background. Both manfully braving the mosquito-infested growths at Pulau Semakau.

It appears this photo symbolises getting off the beaten path.

Other than that, it has absolutely nothing to do with the actual topic of the article.

The photos were originally taken by the New Paper team who came along with us last year on our Semakau Mangrove Survey in Jun 05 which was later covered in the New Paper in Jul 05