The annotated budak

WildSingapore's news feed on blogs, events/outings and news related to nature and conservation in Singapore. Click on the news categories for a list of headlines and links.

Don't miss the boat! Biodiversity Talks at the Botanic Gardens

In conjunction with Earth Day and World Biodiversity Day 2008, NParks is holding a series of biodiversity talks on natural habitats in Singapore. All are free and most are at the Botanic Gardens Botany Centre (near the entrance opposite Gleneagles Hospital):

Saturday, 3rd May 2008
Secret Shores of Singapore
Ria Tan
2pm, Function Hall, Botany Centre, Singapore Botanic Gardens

With a special focus on Cyrene Reef!

From Changi to Tuas, Sentosa to the Sisters Islands and beyond. Nemos, sea snakes, living corals and more. Ria will also share about some of the threats to our shores, and the many ways ordinary people CAN make a difference about our little-known shores. For a sample of the photos in the talk, see the wildsingapore flickr site.

Ria is not a scientist and is just an ordinary person who has been photographing the shores for the last 7 years. She is also co-author of the Chek Jawa Guidebook and Southern Shores guidesheet. She also volunteers as a guide with Chek Jawa, Pulau Semakau as well as wildfilms, the Naked Hermit Crabs and TeamSeagrass. She contributes to several blogs including wildfilms, wildsingapore news, wildsingapore happenings and the singapore celebrates our reefs blog.                                                                           

Tuesday, 6th May 2008
Seagrasses: Not just for Dugongs!
Siti Maryam Yaakub
11am, Function Hall, Botany Centre, Singapore Botanic Gardens

Mention ‘Seagrass’ and most people think: Food for dugongs! Seagrasses have long lived in the shadow of other more charismatic marine habitats like coral reefs and mangroves. But did you know that Singapore is home to extensive seagrass meadows and more than half the species of seagrasses found in the Indo-Pacific? Learn more about the role seagrasses play beyond that of ‘dugong food’. Join Siti for an insight into what seagrasses are really about and the wacky people who have embraced these green wonders of the ocean.

About the speaker: Siti Maryam is a Senior Biodiversity Officer with the Biodiversity Centre of NParks. She is a marine biologist by training and was one of the co-founders of TeamSeagrass, a volunteer group that monitors the health and status of Singapore's seagrasses. When she is not counting seagrass, Siti enjoys reading, tennis, experimental cooking and swimming with fish.                                                   

Saturday, 10th May 2008
The status and biology the Singapore Freshwater Crab, Johora singaporensis
Sivasothi N
2pm, Function Hall, Botany Centre, Singapore Botanic Gardens

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.

N. Sivasothi is an instructor at the Department of Biological Science more interested in otters 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.                                                

Tuesday, 13th May 2008
Life - To Give or Not To Give
Karen Teo
11am, Function Hall, Botany Centre, Singapore Botanic Gardens

Acts of compassion turns sour. Come May every year, domesticated animals are illegally released into the nature reserves and reservoirs in the hope of giving them life. But little do many realised that 90% of these domesticated animals end up tragically dead. In an urbanised society like Singapore, the existence of our native flora and fauna hang on a very thin thread. What can we do, as inhabitants of this planet, to save the extensive biodiversity that Mother Earth has so lovingly nurtured over millions of years?

Karen Teo works as a Senior Outreach Officer in Central Nature Reserve, National Parks Board. As an ex-teacher, she is passionate in nature conservation and marrying her teaching skills to share with all the importance of protecting what little natural heritage we have left, through talks, exhibitions, workshops etc.                                                                                                                                 

Saturday, 17th May 2008
Mad About Moths for Kids
Cicada Tree Eco-Place
2pm, Tanglin Core Information Counter, Singapore Botanic Gardens
*This interactive session is limited to 30 children. Please RSVP to lim_wei_ling@nparks.gov.sg by 9th May 2008.

Cicada Tree Eco-Place will conduct Mad About Moths for Kids to share its fascination with our less-known friends, moths. We will offer two concurrent 1.5 hour sessions on moths called Mad about Moths—one for adults and one for kids.

Mad about Moths for Kids will teach kids aged between 5 and 9 how to recognize moths, the differences between moths and butterflies, the life cycle of a moth, why moths are important members of our living planet, and what we can do to make a difference to moths! Children will also get a chance to take quick walk in the Gardens to see some butterflies so as to learn the major differences between moths and butterflies. This session will be fun and engage a young learner.

Cicada Tree Eco-place is a new non-profit, non-governmental organization that promotes nature, culture and eco-living through environmental education. Founded in Singapore in 2007, and managed by volunteer educators and environmentalists, it is named after a native freshwater swamp plant whose habitat is locally endangered, Ploiarium alternifolium (Cicada Tree or Riang Riang).                                                

Saturday, 17th May 2008
Mad about Moths: Emperor Moths & Friends from SE Asia & the Amazon
Dr Preston Murphy
2pm, Classroom 3, Botany Centre, Singapore Botanic Gardens

Dr Preston Murphy will talk about "Mad about Moths: Emperor Moths & Friends from SE Asia & the Amazon" to highlight the beauty of moths in Asia as well as in South America. This talk, targeted at adult nature lovers, will focus on the diversity of large moths and dispel the myth that all moths are dull in colour and unattractive.

Dr Preston Murphy is former President of Lectret Precision Pte Ltd., Singapore, and continues to consult with the company on communications products. He and his wife Mireille are avid eco-travellers and have been to places as wild as Papua New Guinea to look for the birds of paradise. He is a passionate nature photographer, specialising in moths and butterflies.

What nubile Nonyas wear

Kebaya-inspired designs from the house of Bebe Seet at the Peranakan Museum Opening Festival.

Bibiks in the old days wore loose-fitting baju panjangs (long dress) similar to these, which resemble fussier interpretations of what makciks might wear to a kenduri. Later nonyas adopted shorter and more form-fitting kebayas, turning an Indo-Malayan costume into a richly embroided suit with European lace and Oriental motifs. The broad arms on this outfit are a modern touch, as traditional kebayas usually have narrow sleeves, the better to dine with delicate fingers.   

For some, the Nonya's kebaya is a tropical counterpoint to the qípáo – a display of feminine shapes in a sheer fabric of bourgeois respectability. For modesty's sake, the light voile or organdie used to create the outer garment comes with a matching camisole or brassiere. An ornamented brooch (up to three in true blue designs) called the keronsang fastens the front of the kebaya.   

The Peranakans favour colour combinations of relative contrast, frequently juxtaposing tones that seem non-intuitive or even incompatible to a contemporary aesthetic. Lavender is overlayed on ochre. Powder pink accompanies chinois green. And olive tops display sarongs of vermillion and gold. This affection for vivid shades also marks Nonyaware, which features kamchengs and utensils with exuberant finishes of enamel that easily distinguish Peranakan porcelain from the plainer patterns of Chinese ceramics.   

A special guest at the museum was Lim Swee Kim, a Penangite in her 70s who has been sewing since she was twelve. According to Mdm Lim, it takes three years to learn the basics of making a kebaya but a lifetime to get it right. The embroidery work is reckoned to be the life (or death) of the artisan, as its design and execution entails an ability to bring out the contrast of colours between the fabric and the embroidered patterns, the fine and fragile detail of the motifs and convey a seamless sense of unity. Using a foot-powered Singer, Mdm Lim gave demonstrations of her technique. Having drawn and traced with a pencil a design on the voile, she stretches the fabric taut using a hoop. Solid blocks of colour are sewn with satin stitch, while threads in multiple shades provide transitions of colour and depth of texture. Mdm Lim still holds sway over from her shop, Kim Fashion, in Georgetown, Penang.

To make one kebaya, a tailor needs about 1.75 m of voile, which is a sheer, plain weave fabric made of highly twisted yarns of cotton. Its delicate lightness belies a resilience that allows kebayas to be handed down across generations, with some decades-old outfits appearing to have been newly sewn. Mdm Lim is said to favour the material sold by the merchants around Arab Street in Singapore. 

The models here were demonstrating how one ties the sarong but for some reason my duck got too distracted to learn the technique. Kebayas are usually worn with a batik sarong, a rectangular cloth that forms a tube into which the lady steps, pulls up and grips at the waist. The loose end is folded right over left and secured with a belt. And to complete the outfit, nonyas would don a pair of kasut manik or beaded slippers (the ladies at the show wore heels to keel) featuring toe covers with a velvet base and silk-stitched Rocaille beads of coloured glass.

I was thinking, it'd only be nice to send the ladies some pictures. That'd involve asking for their number though, which I was about to do when my duck was suddenly assaulted by a rabid rabbit...

Source: Datin Seri Endon Mahmood, The Nonya Kebaya: A Century of Straits Chinese Costume, Periplus Editions, 2004.

Enigma of a puzzle

We saw this jig-saw box at the 'Junk to Jewels' special exhibition at the Peranakan Museum, which features personal memorabilia from Babas and Nonyas who managed to keep their heirlooms intact. It seems this particular game was never concluded and the owners never knew what the result would have looked like if all the pieces were to fall into place. And instead of the regular cuboid shapes with predictable notches and tabs that mark modern day puzzles, this antique consists of odds and ends that don't really give a clue to where they might fit. Perhaps it's better that way, for the resolution of this Edwardian enigma might well herald the colours of kingdom come...

Drama queens

Flea market film

The Thieves' Market at Sungei Road yields a unique shopping experience for the island's bargain-hunters. On the bare tarmac under trees too young to offer half a shade, goods that have seen better days are displayed on canvas sheets and makeshift tables by gold-toothed crones and bare-backed uncles. Stroller and shopkeeper scrutinise each other with mutual suspicion, as wares and worthiness are scanned with eye power.

On offer are discarded books, notes of non-legal tender, wind-up cars, faded hand-me-downs, shoes that have outlived their soles, tunes in magnetic tape and objects of utter uselessness in everlasting plastic and eternal porcelain. Inspecting these singular offerings are construction crews, ladies in shaky clogs and a rambling sangha of two. Sometimes there is even a duck, whose arrival draws the dubious attention of foul sorts who attempt to peddle dark bodies on what they assume to be fleecable birdbrains.   

Like slaves to serviced apartments, the fair continues with no regard for hours. But in the cool end of the Sabbath, a screen had been erected to distract more fortunate guests from foreign lands, who while away the evening with a show of low fidelity on a leaf litter of grass and garbage. We who thrive in boxed offices have long forgotten the drama and delight of such nights in decades past. And there are few and fewer reminders of life as it was lived and loved in this city where the past no longer has a future.

Barnacles?

Bugs in the bathroom and botanic gardens

Beetle that waved at my duck while he was being watered.

A goondu told me it's a sac spider. Heard these have very nasty bites.

Shield bug nymph and Lycosid (?) spider at the Botanic Gardens.

Probably a soldier fly (Stratiomyidae). A number of this nearly inch-long species were perching on broad-leafed shrubs by the path, pretending to be wasps.

Knob knob

A closer at the knobbly sea stars of Cyrene reveals that the knobs are actually purplish to brown. In the photos you can also see the madreporite, which is a dark porous spot that acts as a sieve to regulate the movement of water in and out of the animal's vascular system. 

The sea stars on the reef also display much morphological variability. Some are dumpy like cartoon characters, others are sleek and sharp with hotrod colours. The circle of knobs on the central disc and ridge of the arms range from well-spaced evil looking 'thorns' to limp toppings on a poorly-baked cookie. Small teacup sized animals are cute and squat, while somewhat larger specimens seem to be suffering from the gawky trauma of adolescence. The drab star above looks a bit different from the rest though, with a well-define pentagonal line on its aboral surface. 

Maybe we'll find knobbly brittle stars too one day! Or wilder, hydra-like monsters resembling 'shaggy rugs covered with bear traps'...

Home on the green

On the tentacled folds of a carpet anemone, this male shrimp sat facing his slightly larger partner, who carries a bopyrid isopod in her gill chamber. Clinging with jointed legs, they seemed to be performing a bobbing dance, rocking to and fro and swaying slightly more than the water warranted. On their cnidarian home, the pair enjoy comfort and relative safety in a soft bed of stinging tentacles that serve as sentinels and on occasion snacks for the transparent crustaceans.

The size, shape and extent of the white markings on the carapace and orange spots on the telson appear to to be unique to each individual, with the white stripe that joins the tiny eyes being the main chromatic constant. Their emerald hosts, in sizes from tea saucer to dinner plate, occupy sporadic pools on the seagrass lagoon of Cyrene, where the  fringing reef captures sediment to elevate the sea floor and offer visiting monkeys a brief glimpse of life below the waves. Unlike free-ranging crabs and prawns that duck to shelter at the approach of a shadow, these glassy frames with their delicate claws tinged with purple remain bold and betray no signs of distress on this island of sinking hope.