Singapore Animal Welfare Symposium

I’m a panelist for Session 3: Wildlife protection

• What is the extent of the illegal wildlife trade in Singapore?
• What steps can we, the public, take to wipe out this trade?
• What more can be done to tackle the illegal wildlife trade here in Singapore, and in the region?

Talk to public on the freshwater crab project, Sat 10th May 2008: 2pm

To celebrate Earth Day and World Biodiversity Day this year, NParks Conservation Division is organising a four-week Biodiversity Talk Series. Jeffrey Low goes first on 22 Apr 2008.

Biodiversity Talk 06
“The status and biology the Singapore Freshwater Crab, Johora singaporensis,” by N. Sivasothi.

Function Hall, Botany Centre, Singapore Botanic Gardens
10th May 2008: 2.00 pm

About the talk - True freshwater crabs have evolved to be completely independent of the marine environment and possess unique characteristics as a result. Many large freshwater streams are home to endemic species and Singapore Island is no exception. The freshwater crab diversity here has been well reported as a result of Peter Ng’s studies in the 1980’s. One crab in particular, was especially celebrated – the endemic Singapore Freshwater Crab, Johora singaporensis. Since that taxonomic examination, little else has been revealed about the crab, partly due to concerns about impacting the small but endangered population. In a recent study, aspects of the population biology, distribution and status of J. singaporensis were studied. This talk discusses the historical discovery, reports highlights of the recent study and discusses conservation implications for the future.

About the speaker – N. Sivasothi is an instructor at the Department of Biological Science more interested in otter and mangroves but Inadvertently spent a lot of time in freshwater and peat swamp habitats in the early 90’s on zoological expeditions with Peter Ng. This recent examination of the freshwater crabs in Singapore by both was due to the supervision demands of honours student Daniel Ng.

Notice the subtle swipe at Daniel? He has to be present so I’ll have to be polite.

Ya Wen’s essay published in ST

Toddycat Ya Wen’s essay for the 2007 Oxbridge Letter-Writing Competition bagged the first prize.

She wrote a letter to Minister of Education Tharman Shanmugaratnam about the competition for University places, entitled, “Tackling the quality-vs-quantity dilemma.”

See The Straits Times, 25 Mar 2008.

Labrador Rocky Shore yesterday

We conducted a guided session for Toddycats and an invited bunch of SPS students from Science Faculty yesterday. Click for links to photos:

Pedal Ubin today

Photos from the Pasir Panjang workshop

The RGS training for the Pasir Panjang workshop I conducted are finally up. Well Cheng Puay has been suffering from an eye infection, poor chap, so cannot tekan him.

You can see me clutching my Vicks cough mixture bottle - the tail end of my flu was petering out then. We were lucky with uneaten fruits that morning.

We hatched this idea during the Pasir Panjang Guides plant workshop which Cheng Puay was helping out in. Was pretty painless since he wrote up the proposal and I just had to turn up and teach.

Wonder what the ladies will do with the information. They are bound to be more creative in their delivery so I am looking forward to their version of the tour.

I’ll write the long story (eventually) on the Toddycats blog.

A comfortable Sunday walk

We walked 35 people last Sunday to Bukit Chandu; it’s always nice having the company of people who are willing to wake up for a 7am walk!

I stayed at home during the two days of CNY hols and that helped me recover enough to do the walk. It helped that the weather was warm and dry - the right conditions for me to function. So no signs of the chest cold reappearing after the walk.

This session has the least structure of any walk the Toddycats conduct. But the group has been together long enough to comfortably handle the various demands; the narrative is only one.

Cranwell Bungalow

We revisit soon…