Click here to subscribe

wildlife WondersWRS quarterly magazine

Click here to find out

SERVICE LEARNING &VOLUNTEER PROGRAMME

Click here to find out

WILDLIFETIMES

CONSERVATION & EDUCATION

MAR / APR 2013

The tokay gecko is a species found throughout Southeast Asia in both urban and naturally forested environments. For hundreds of years, it has been traded as traditional medicine and most recently, as pets.

In 2009, reports of tokay geckos being used as a cure for HIV/AIDS began in Malaysia rapidly increased its trade. This puts enormous pressure on the species which can lead to their extinction. However, TRAFFIC - the wildlife trade monitoring network - says that such medicinal claims are unfounded and is an elaborate hoax. In late 2011, Wildlife Reserves Singapore and WWF-Malaysia funded TRAFFIC to investigate the tokay gecko trade.

At a public talk on 12 April 2013, Dr. Chris Shepherd, Deputy Regional Director for TRAFFIC, launched the report and presented data from his findings to support a CITES II listing. As a CITES II listed species, trade is closely controlled. An export permit or re-export permit issued by the country of export or re-export is required. This allows the authorities to track the shipment of tokay geckos more accurately and determine

Conservation Perspectives: Tokay Geckos

Aid For Asian Elephants

Elephant Parade Singapore, an awareness and fund-raising campaign, featured some 150 elephant sculptures, of which 25 were displayed in the Singapore Zoo. The sculptures were auctioned off and part of the proceeds went to the Wildlife Reserves Singapore (WRS) and Wildlife Reserves Singapore Conservation Fund (WRSCF) for the use on regional and local elephant conservation projects.

The Elephant Conservation Seminar, sponsored by WRSCF with funding from the Elephant Parade, was held to showcase the four major elephant projects in the region and provided an opportunity for the public to learn more about the plight of Asian elephants and conservation work that are being done in the field.

Regional elephant conservation projects are funded by WRS. The recipients of the funds were ElefantAsia, Laos; Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), Sumatra; Veterinary Society for Sumatran Wildlife Conservation (Vesswic), Sumatra; and Management & Ecology of Malaysian Elephants (MEME), Malaysia. They were chosen based on their commitment to the conservation, welfare and healthcare of the Asian elephant.

Inaugural National Mobile Trail Competition

Native Critter Chatter

Leopard cats are about the size of domestic cats but they have longer legs, webbed toes and distinctive leopard-like prints. They are largely solitary cats which can often be found in trees hunting small mammals, birds, amphibians and reptiles. Widely distributed, they range from the Amur regions of the Russian Far East to the Sunda Islands of Indonesia.

Today, the leopard cat is Singapore’s last native wild cat. This cat is extremely rare locally and little is known about them here. Previously, leopard cats were thought to have been extinct on the mainland until roadkills were spotted in 2001 and 2007. A study led by Marcus Chua from NUS has recently recorded a small breeding population in Pulau Tekong and confirmed their presence around the various nature reserves on the mainland. These concerted efforts to

Above: As an initiative in reducing elephant-human conflict, WCS introduces chilli fence and spacers as one way of detering elephants from destroying village crops.

PHOTO: DAVID TAN

the compatibility of the species’ utilization and survival. Listing helps to stem the illegal trade of tokay geckos.

During the seminar, Dr Chris Shepherd also reached out to the public to raise the awareness of the species’ plight and educate them in ways that they can help.

Supported by Banyan Tree Global Foundation (BTGF) and Wildlife Reserves Singapore Conservation Fund (WRSCF), the 2-hour talk was attended by 50 students and professionals.

Below: Established by Vesswic, elephant rides work as a sustainable and eco-friendly form of tourism in Tangkahan to help the community develop an alternative source of income and support for the protection of elephants.

Funds allow ElefantAsia to provide captive elephants in Laos with free veterinary care and maintain national elephant database.

A MEME conservation drone being released as a cheap and effective way of allowing scientists to study elephant habtitat utilisation patterns and social behaviour from onboard drone cameras.

The funding will help in efforts to reduce illegal poaching, develop sustainable and eco-friendly tourism, study elephant habitat utilisation and social behaviour, reduce human-elephant conflict, and promote veterinary care.

PHOTO: WCS

PHOTO: VESSWIC

PHOTO: MEMEPHOTO: ELEFANTASIA

study the leopard cat should help improve our knowledge on this small wild cat and hopefully, bring it back from the brink of extinction.

If you do spot a leopard cat in need of help, please contact Nparks at 1800 4717300.

Help! Our wild friends are in peril and they need your help!

Run on down to Zoolympix 2013 at the Singapore Zoo. The animals are under threat from the impacts of human activities and it is up to you to turn things around.

Test your wits and skills in a battle to save the planet as you combat human destruction as a Rescue Ranger. Stopping evil sun bear smugglers and netting the rubbish in the river are some of the things you can expect to do in six different game stations around the Singapore Zoo.

Zoolympix 2013: Be A Rescue Ranger

Date: 1 – 9 June 2013Time: 10am – 4pmRegistration: $3

However, you must hurry! There is not much time left!

In between rescues, pounce onto the face painting booth and get painted to show your support for the animals. Take the time to also head down to the awareness booth and seize the opportunity to meet native animals and learn how you can save them!

Leopard cats are excellent swimmers and can colonise off-shore islands.

The mLearning@Zoo trail competition, in partnership with IDA, vendor LDR and Samsung, was organised in November last year to encourage students to use MOE’s Learning-On-The-Move software to design mobile learning trails at the Zoo. This concept of students designing mobile trails for students is the first of its kind in Singapore. Students were tasked to design trails based on one of the three themes: Math@Zoo, Science@Zoo or Inter-disciplinary@Zoo.

Winners of the Primary School Category were Zhonghua Primary School coming in first place and Pei Chun Public School clinching both second and third place with two different group entries.

Winners of the Secondary School Category were River Valley High School, Balestier Hill Secondary

Students from Zhonghua Primary School trying out the mobile trail designed by their school mates at Wild Africa.

As rumours of the medicinal claims spread, tokay gecko population numbers rapidly dropped due to trappings.

Be An Eco-Warrior, Be A Docent

WRS Docents are a group of hardworking volunteers , who selflessly dedicate their time to educate the visitors about wildlife conservation

The first batch of 37 docent recruits for 2013 started their 8-week training in February. Wildlife Times caught up with two of them, Catherine Chung and Su Shi Yan to find out what inspired them to do their part for wildlife conservation.

As a teacher, Catherine is an educator at heart and feels that her duties as a docent are merely an extension of what she loves to do in life. This keen adventurist spends her weekends diving and trekking. Catherine hopes to share the wonders of Nature and wildlife with the visitors so that they too, may be inspired, to do their part to protect biodiversity.

On the other hand, Shi Yan finds it to be a good break from her work as a Project Manager. “I have good memories of Zoo and Night Safari when I was young, and it seems like an interesting way to volunteer my service and time.”

These two eco-warriors are due to graduate in May 2013. Catherine will be stationed at the

School and Holy Innocents’ High School coming in first to third place respectively.

The competition is one way to promote the use of IT in wildlife education.

Catherine is currently undergoing the final phase of her docent training at the Singapore Zoo.

Conservation Cove in Singapore Zoo while Su Yan will be sharing her knowledge at Bird Bonanza in Jurong Bird Park.

If you would like to be a docent, visit http://education.zoo.com.sg/docent.html. WRS Docents Recruitment is now open! Closing date for applications is 8 July 2013. For more information, contact veu@wrs.com.sg

Dragonflies Find A Home At The Night Safari

As part of efforts to promote conservation and to create awareness of native wildlife, Night Safari collaborated with students and teachers of Madrasah Al Arabiah Al Islamiah to conduct a preliminary survey of the diversity of dragonfly species in three moats: Bongo exhibit pond, Naracoorte Cave pond and Bat Eared Foxes moat.

The project involved classroom sessions to teach the students how to identify different dragonfly species and a month-long twice-weekly survey by 20 secondary school students.

The survey produced encouraging results with sightings of a few uncommon species such as the Asiatic Blood Tail and Indigo Dropwing, found at the Bongo moat and the Naracoorte Cave respectively.

Right: Students and teacher from Madrasah Al Arabiah Al Islamiah conducting a survey of dragonfly species at a pond at Naracoorte Cave.

United in preventing the extinction of the Sumatran Rhino

With fewer than a hundred left in the wild, the Sumatran rhinoceros is, without a doubt, at the brink of extinction. In response to the alarming persistent decline of this species, the Sumatran Rhino Crisis Summit was convened under the umbrella of the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Species Survival Commission (IUCN SSC) at the Singapore Zoo from 1st to 4th April 2013.

More than 130 rhino conservationists, scientists, and representatives from all over the world gathered to forge a global two-year emergency action plan for the Sumatran rhino. An agreement was reached between the Indonesian

The smallest rhinoceros in the world continues to face a very large threat to their existence – poaching.

The rhino crisis summit allowed key members to discuss on possible conservation initiatives and resulted in an agreement for Indonesia and Malaysia to collaborate and help their native animal.

and Malaysian governments to join efforts in saving the critically endangered species. With implementation and joint international efforts, there is hope for a brighter future for the Sumatran rhino. In conjunction with the conference, a seminar was held at the Singapore Zoo to highlight the plight of the Sumatran rhino to WRS staff and members of the public.

Asiatic Blood Tail

PHOTO: DAVID TAN

Indigo Dropwing