Where Discovery Begins

Water is Blue?!

2010-11-26T22:05:00.012+08:00

121st Discovery Posting:

It has been about six long months since my last posting on this blog. The reason behind this hiatus is not because I have stopped going for nature related trips but of my slackness and laziness in updating the blog.

Anyway, have you ever looked into your cup or bottle of plain water to see the colour of the water you have been drinking? Have you ever wondered what colour is the water you are drinking or seeing around you?

Like me, most of us would probably conclude that water is colourless just by looking into the cup or bottle of water.

However, a sudden curiosity about the colour of water hit me and off I was doing some research on the internet. And the results I got back raised my eyebrows a bit.

Yes. As the title of this blog posting suggests, water is blue! I will try to provide a simple explanation of this using the readings I've found.

To put it simple, water is blue because of its molecular structure and its behaviour from the molecular structure.

First, let us look into water, or more specifically pure water's molecular structure (H2O). This structure involves hydrogen bonding and this structure of it (I'm not really sure about others as I do not an expert on chemistry) causes vibrational transitions.

In my opinion, just imagine the hydrogen and oxygen atoms are small metal balls attached to one another by strong springs and the idea of vibration would come easier.

The behaviour it exhibits because of the vibrational transitions would be easier to understand.

The resulting behaviour is that water absorbs red light well but not blue light. That's why large volumes of water like a swimming pool, the seas/ocean would appear blue in colour. Now you may be wondering, "Hey, my cup of water looks colourless. So isn't water colourless?"

You might not be wrong as studies point out that only pure water is blue in colour. Don't be alarmed because not drinking pure water doesn't mean it is not fit for drinking. This is because the water agencies might have added other stuff into your drinking water. That, however, is another story.

A simple experiment, as from what I read, to test that pure water is blue is to by looking at a white light source through a long pipe, filled with purified water, that is closed at both ends with a transparent window.

That's about it before I bored you to death. If you are interested, I have included the website I've read from.
Reference links:
Main site I read from: http://www.webexhibits.org/causesofcolor/5B.html (in-depth reading)
1) http://www.webexhibits.org/causesofcolor/5.html
2) http://www.discovery.com/area/skinnyon/skinnyon971003/skinnyon.html#blue (simple and interesting reading)
3) http://www.dartmouth.edu/~etrnsfer/water.htm (in-depth reading)

In my search of information, I also chanced upon this video from youtube.

Of course, there are authoritative websites which state water is colourless.
The reason they believe water is colourless is mainly based on the concept that water is a strong absorber of red light and a weak absorber of blue light. Well, the theory is right though.
Here are some of the websites I have found:
1) http://science.nasa.gov/earth-science/oceanography/living-ocean/ocean-color/
2) http://www.hko.gov.hk/education/edu06nature/ele_water_e.htm

What is Coral Bleaching and What it means for the Corals

2010-06-14T20:52:00.005+08:00

120th Discovery Posting

Recently, an probably alarming amount of coral bleaching has been sighted and reported in Singapore and around the region. I will give a short list of blog posts with reference to some of these sightings at the end of this posting.

Coral Bleaching might not ring a bell for some discoverers/readers (my own friends included), so I have decided to dedicate a post on this issue.

First off, if you have ever been to the shores or watched shows that features corals, you might have noticed that corals are brownish/greenish in colour (picture below).
However, it is important to note that the original colours of corals are not like that. Their original colour is more whitish or I could say white. Two main reasons for the colours would be coral fluoresence (a link will be provided at the end of this posting which will explain more about this) and the presence of zooxanthellae (a kind of algae) in the polyps of the corals.

Now it is important to note that the zooxanthellae and corals share an important relationship. The corals provide a place or home for the zooxanthellae to stay in while the zooxanthellae will give the extra food it makes during photosynthesis to the coral. So basically, it's a "you scratch my back, I scratch your back" or "I help you, you help me" relationship.

So what is coral bleaching?
Well, first, it has nothing to do with bleach or dyeing... =P
Let me try to make it simple for everyone.

Imagine you are the zooxanthellae living in a polyp of a coral colony and these past few days, the water has been really hot and you cannot stand it (and there is NO fan or air-conditioning in the polyp). So what would you do?

Would you leave the polyp and get out in the open water to 'cool' down?

Yes, that's what happens, NOT the 'cool' down part though, I think...hahaha

So when you and many of your neighbours, the zooxanthellae leaves the coral, the coral will lose the brownish colours and show their original colour, white.
Now here's another important point, you, the zooxanthellae, can provide up to 90% of the food that the coral needs. So what might happen if you and your neighbours leave the coral?

Yes, the corals might die!
Another thing to note is that sometimes, after you and your neighbours (you are still a zooxanthellae) leave the coral. Other people, I mean zooxanthellae which can tolerate heat better might move into the coral.

Okay, even if you are not interested in corals and coral bleaching, here's something to make you sit up. One main reason that corals bleach is due to the increase of water temperature. The impact of this is not only the death of corals and the other organisms it supports. The increase of water temperature in our seas/oceans also means the ice caps will melt faster which leads to the increase of sea levels. Sitting up now? =D

Before I end, I would like to highlight that the increase of water temperature is NOT the only reason for coral bleaching to occur. There are other factors as well, I will leave some links for your own reading if you are interested to find out more and read more in depth about coral bleaching.

Here's a video from youtube that explains coral bleaching.

Here are the links that explain coral bleaching:
1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coral_bleaching
2) http://www.marinebiology.org/coralbleaching.htm
3) http://saltaquarium.about.com/od/aboutcoraldiseases/a/aacoralbleach.htm

Here's the link that explains coral fluoresence
1) http://mountain-n-sea.blogspot.com/2007/12/coral-flourescence-and-other-attributes.html

Blog Links that report Coral Bleaching
1) Wildshores
2) http://tidechaser.blogspot.com/2010/05/extensive-coral-bleaching-at-semakau.html
3) http://wondercreation.blogspot.com/2010/06/snorkeling-at-tioman.html

Inter Tidal Walk @ Semakau on 2 Jun 2010

2010-06-09T21:56:00.013+08:00

119th Discovery Posting

Another late and over due posting about the inter tidal walk last week. On 2 Jun 2010, I was free to help do guiding for the Project Semakau. This time round, I was assigned to guide a group of students from Boon Lay Secondary School.

Our morning that day didn't start off well. This was not because of the students nor teachers in my group but the weather. It was drizzling quite heavily when we reached the island. Luckily, there was no lighting alert, therefore, the walk would continue. However, all the groups would have to walk under the drizzle to the inter-tidal area as the drivers had not arrived on the island yet.

Despite the rainy weather, spirits were still quite high. I reckon this had to do with the amount of high energy the participants had. Hahaha... Anyway, the day got better as it went on. The first of it was a rainbow that appeared as we approached the forest trail.The second great thing that happened was that the rain cleared as we started to walk onto the inter-tidal area. Here's the group photo at the seagrass meadows (picture below).I did not really take a lot of photos during this trip and some of them did not turn out well, so I'm only posting the ones which you could get a good look at.

First off is this juvenile cushion star, first 'discovery' (picture below).
I guess the most interesting thing to my group about sea stars would be that they have no brains... that's why Patrick in the Spongebox show is so err.. silly...hahaha.

The other organism I would like to feature in this short post would be the knobbly sea star (picture below).
And here's the group photo with the 'star' of the walk (picture below).I have to apologize for the late and short post as I was slacking for the past few days and right now I have to rush out some work matters with regards to a project I'm doing at my workplace. PS: I hope all my group participants, Coral Reefs, enjoyed themselves last week cause I did. Thanks for another great experience =D

Why are rainbows in an arc-shaped?

2010-06-07T18:43:00.005+08:00

118th Discovery Posting

I am sure that many of you have seen a rainbow in the skies above you before. But have you ever wondered why are rainbows shaped in an arc? Personally, I am not sure of it myself and I was made curious about the answer by one of my participants in a recently guided inter tidal walk who asked his son this question when they saw a rainbow over at Big Sisters' island not long ago. As a result of this curiosity, I decided to do some simple research on the internet and do up this blog post.
The first thing to note is that rainbows are caused sunlight passing through raindrops and by refraction, which is the bending of light as it passes from one medium to another. I would not go through the exact science of how to explain this as I have found websites that does this explanation better than I can. You can find the websites below.

It is interesting to note that a rainbow is really circle in shape than the arc shaped or semi circle shape we usually see. The reason why we don't see the whole circle is because the earth blocks our view. And the closer the sun is to the horizon, the more of the circle we see. So this means that the best time to see a longest rainbow would be either during early morning after sunrise and evening time before sunset. =D
Great websites that explains how a rainbow is formed and why is it in a arc.
a) http://science.howstuffworks.com/rainbow.htm
b) http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=why-do-rainbows-form-inst

Side note:
Rainbow Connection by Kermit the Frog. Enjoy! =D

Inter Tidal walk @ Big Sister's Island on 30 May 2010

2010-06-03T21:07:00.005+08:00

117th Discovery Posting

Personally, I have been to Big Sister's Island for less than the fingers on one hand. So it was a great chance to both visit and introduce other people to this small little island to the south of Singapore through a guided inter tidal trip.

Sidenote:
If you would like to read more about Big Sister's Island, you may visit http://www.wildsingapore.com/places/sisters.htm
I need to mention that this was also the first public guided trip on Big Sisters organised by RMBR and I was guiding a group of rather experienced participants as most of them have to been other shores with us.
To start off, the first 'discovery' is something which I really like, feather stars (picture below)!
As their name suggests, their arms are a little like feathers, handle with care as they may break easily. I have seen them in many different colours besides red. They include black, yellow, white, etc. They are also related to the sea stars being in the same echinoderm phylum.

As we moved towards the coral reefs, a participant spot this school of juvenile catfish, second 'discovery' (picture below).Like other fishes you may find in the sea, juvenile catfishes are often seen in a group or what we call as a school of fish. They do this as a predator will find it harder to pounce on a group for food than compared to an individual, this is otherwise known as safety in numbers. Interestingly, as the cattail grows bigger, their group gets smaller and they are usually found alone when they are adults. As they have poisonous spines, it is not advised to touch them. One reason, I guess, why they are called catfish is because of their whiskers, these are usually to help them find food in murky waters.

If in case you are wondering, a cat's whiskers help it to find its way and move around. A little similar to the function of the catfish's whiskers.

Now, it is to be noted that Big Sister's Island has one of the nicest looking coral reefs where one can come really close up into (picture below). And my group, coral reefs, did spent a certain amount of time admiring at it. As we moved on, we came across this leaf slug which our hunter seeker has found for us, third 'discovery' (picture below).The leaf slug is named so mainly because of its colour which resembles a leaf. I reckon another reason which it is named as such is because that it is able to retain the chloroplasts of the seaweed it eats. These chloroplasts which it manages to retain will continue to carry out photosynthesis inside the slug and provide it with extra nutrients. Cool, isn't it?

Just to sidetrack a bit, we had this little joke about if we could do the same, would we be green in colour as well...hahaha

Moving on, our hunter seekers also found us a flatworm, fourth 'discovery' (picture below). As their name suggest, flatworms are really flat. This can help them to squeeze or move into narrow and small spaces to find food and at the same time to hide from their predators. At the same time, being really flat means that their bodies are easily tore when handled, so please handle them with them or don't handle them at all. One really interesting thing about them is that flatworms are hermaphrodites. In really simple terms, this means that a flat worm is both a guy and gal. In specific terms, flatworms have both the male and female reproductive organs.

And the last organism I am going to feature is this bohol nudibranch, fifth 'discovery' (picture below).First off, they are sea slugs. They are called nudibranchs because they have naked gills. Notice the flowery like thing near the center of the picture? That's the gills for this nudibranch. They may look like easy prey, they are however not. They protect themselves in different ways like producing distasteful substances, toxins and even acids. It is important to take note that these protective methods vary from species to species. Some of them will advertise themselves to be 'not nice to eat' with their really colourful bodies while some, like this bohol nudibranch will try to camouflage themselves.

As we were still wondering around the shore to look for more things, dark clouds and strong winds came in quickly and threaten to drench us, so we had no choice but to end the walk prematurely and leave the shore quickly.
Luckily, it did not rain eventually and the visitors has some time to take a short picnic and relax on the island.
Before I sign off, I would like to say thanks to all Coral Reefs, my group for the day. I hope the 3 first timers enjoyed themselves as I did not really give much details about the things we've seen that day and of course not forgetting the rest of my group.

Last note:
As a result of the passing rain clouds, we caught sight of a really beautiful rainbow which I would blog about in the next post, so do come back soon to check that posting out. =D

Survey on another part of Semakau

2010-06-01T18:43:00.003+08:00

116th Discovery Posting

Last Saturday, a small group of Project Semakau volunteers, including myself, went off in the early morning to do a survey on a different part of Semakau where we don't usually do our surveys.

In this blog posting, I will give a peek into the various organisms which we saw.

First 'discovery' would be a cryptic sea star (picture below).
Interestingly, this kind of sea star has not been seen on other places in Singapore other than Semakau. They are usually found under or on stones near the mid-water mark so sometimes we might have to turn stones over to find them. They are known to feed on algae and small animals found on the surfaces of stones.

Still in the area of the mid-water mark, the second 'discovery' would be this onch slug (picture below).
Compared to the cryptic sea star, the onch slug is much more common. The only reason why you might not see them as often is that they are pretty well camouflaged. They also feed on algae found on stones and unlike other sea slugs, the onch slug does not live underwater. Instead they are able to breathe air through their simple lungs and when the tide is high, they would burrow into mud or sand, trapping an air bubble to breathe in.

After suffering numerous sand fly bites near the rocks, we finally moved into the sandy parts of the area and we encounter this cute little spotted moon crab, third 'discovery' (picture below).
The moon crab is actually quite common on our shores. They however do hide buried in the sediments and are more active during the night thus you might not have seen them before. To help to bury themselves quickly into the sand, all ends of their legs (excluding the claws) are shaped like a paddle.

As you might have already read/know, we found a long drift net in the area and a number of things including three black tip reef sharks became victims of the net. Here's another victim, a big fish, I'm not good with the identification of fishes. And at the side was a red swimming crab trying to scavenge the dead fish (picture below).
As most of us had very little sleep the night before as we spent our night over on the island, the rising of the sun did provide us with some injection of energy into our lethargic bodies (picture below).
The last animal we encounter before we went to document the three dead black tip reef sharks was this dog faced water snake, fourth 'discovery' (picture below).The dog face water snake is another animal which is quite common to Singapore. They are usually seen in mangroves and sometimes the inter tidal area. They are much more active at night and spent the day mostly in hiding. Please do not try to handle this snake if you came into close contact with it as they are mildly venomous. You just need to move away and not disturb it and it would not attack you as it is mostly docile.

That about ends this blog posting and do come back in a few days as I still have back logged blog postings to make. =D

Sad Scene of Sharks @ Semakau

2010-05-30T21:55:00.005+08:00

115th Discovery Posting

Saturday morning was a morning with mixed emotions. On one hand, I have finally gotten to see a really close up view of the black tip reef shark on our reefs, which was a highlight of this trip down on the inter-tidal area of Semakau. On the other, it was with a sad note that I saw them, three of them to be exact, dead.

The cause of the sharks death was most likely (in fact, we are 99.99999% sure) due to a net that some irresponsible and heartless fisherman had spread and left behind in the inter-tidal area.
Others have written more in detail about our feelings and the story of how we encountered the sharks and the aftermath. You can read them on:
a) http://tidechaser.blogspot.com/2010/05/blacktip-reef-sharks-trapped-in-drift.html
b) http://ppt-backtobasics.blogspot.com/2010/05/murder-at-pulau-semakau.html
c) http://starting-from-zeroo.blogspot.com/2010/05/blacktip-reef-sharks-trapped-dead-in.html
With already so many posts on this sad event, I thought that in this post, I should focus more about the known facts of the black tip reef shark.

First off, I believe many of you (I refer to people who reside in Singapore) would not have believed that we can find sharks in our waters. So after this unfortunate incident and reading this and other blog posts, I believe we have contradicted this belief if you had it.

So what do we know about black tip reef sharks? First, they are known to be found in the tropical coral reefs of Indian and Pacific Region and of course, the indo-pacific seas. So it is not a odd sight to spot them in Singapore as we still possesses a number of reefs in our waters.

They prefer to stay around shallow and inshore waters. And we can usually spot them on land by their exposed first dorsal fin when they swim around in shallow waters. If you are not sure what I mean by that, think of JAWS and how the characters in these shark movies know that a shark is approaching.

At this point, it is important to point out that Black tip reef sharks seldom pose as a threat to humans unless you rouse them. They are also known to be quite timid, so it may swim away if you approach it. But please do not disturb them, because as mentioned, they might attack if being disturbed.

They are also known to stay within close areas to where they are found (most of the time), it is estimated that this distance is about 2.5km. So the ones which died and were found by us are most probably residents of the area. =(

Black tip reef sharks are also known to either live individually or in small groups. So that explains why did we came in sight of three of them.

Sharks are important to the ecosystem as they pose as one of the top predators. Top predators are important are they help to keep the ecosystem in balance.

Let me post a simple example to explain this better, let's say the black tip reef shark feeds on a fish which feeds on sea grass and only the black tip reef shark eats this kind of fish. Take note that sea grass meadows offers shelter and food for many other organisms of our seas. So if the black tip reef shark is removed from the food chain, the population of this kind of fish will be left unchecked and they will eat all the sea grass and therefore lead to a collapse of the ecosystem.

To read more about the importance of top predators, you can visit:
a) http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13939039

I will stop here as this post is getting a little wordy. So if you are interested to read more about Black tip reef sharks, you can visit:
a) http://marinebio.org/species.asp?id=90
b) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blacktip_reef_shark

As a final thought before I sign off, this is why Project Semakau is important to us, including you.
The aim of Project Semakau is to propose to our government to gazette Semakau as a marine park. This is to protect a part of our natural heritage for our future generations and as well as making sure marine animals such as the black tip reef shark has a place where it can safely reside it.

Project Semakau Outreach Walk on 4 April

2010-04-12T20:36:00.005+08:00

114th Discovery Posting:

This is quite a belated posting on an inter-tidal walk on Semkau for the outreach program for Project Semakau. I will make this a short posting as there are other things that are waiting for me to complete.

First and Second 'discovery' would be a cowrie (above) and heart cockle (below) found in the picture below.
Cowries have a really beautiful shell and in the past, Polynesians have used them as some cowries as a form of currency. Till today, some people still collect them, not to use as money, but to sell them for money.

For the heart cockle, it would be easy to guess how they got their common name, their shape. Interestingly, their valve openings are located down the center of the 'heart', so when they open up, it looks a little like a heart break. =D

Third 'discovery' is the green ceratosoma nudibranch which seems to be in season in Singapore in the first few months of the year (picture below).
Fourth and Fifth 'discoveries' would be the cushion and knobbly sea star which my group, herons (if I remembered correctly) took a picture with (pictures below)Do apologize to all Herons, students from Jurongville Secondary, for such a late posting. Nevertheless, I had a great time with you all despite it being a rainy morning. =D

Extra:
For more details on this trip, read RY's blog entry: http://tidechaser.blogspot.com/2010/04/rainy-semakau-walk-on-4-april-2010.html

Hantu on 2nd April 2010

2010-04-05T21:48:00.010+08:00

113th Discovery Posting:

The evening low tides for us to visit the shores have come and past. From now till September, it is time for us inter tidal goers to wake up at sometimes insanely early hours just to catch the tide. And over the last long weekend, I woke up from 4am to 5am for three straight days of inter tidal walk. Here's the first of them,

On Good Friday (2nd April 2010), RMBR conducted its first guided inter tidal walk on Pulau Hantu for public participants and I was the guide for the group, nudibranch.

One of the few animals that captivated my group was the fiddler crabs. Here's one of them, first 'discovery' (picture below).
The fiddler crab you see above is a male fiddler crab. We tell the males apart for their one large pincer that is almost to the same size as their bodies. Females, on the other hand, have two small pincers and they are used for feeding. For the males, because they cannot use their large pincer to feed themselves, they depend on their one and only small pincer for them to feed themselves. However, this is not to say that their big pincer is entirely useless. Their big pincer, in fact is used to attract female fiddler crabs and to intimidate other males.

Moving on, our second 'discovery' was this jellyfish found by our hunter seekers (picture below).Some jelly fishes or jellies (since they are not related to fishes =P) are seasonally abundant. According to our observation, this (above) is one of them which you can find in numbers especially in the first few months of the year. By the way, jellies have stings, and some can cause bad reactions (if you are unlucky, maybe death), so never handle a jelly with your bare hands.

Our third 'discovery' ' was this really little brittle star which I held in my hand for a little while (picture below).As their name suggests, they are really brittle, they can break their arms if they feel danger. They are also not often seen as they hide either under rocks, within sponges or on other animals. Oh, they are also related to sea stars. To be more specific, they belong to the echinoderm phylum like the sea stars and they are the largest group of creatures within this phylum.

Belonging to the group of nudibranch would mean that seeing one of them would make the trip even more interesting for the group. And boy were we lucky, we saw a total of 4 different species of nudis (pictures below). Fourth 'discovery'.

Here's the lined chromodoris nudibranch (picture below) phylid nudibranch (picture below)Polka-dot nudibranch (picture below)Black-margined glossodoris nudibranch (picture below)
If you are wondering, nudibranchs are sea slugs and they belong to the phylum of molluscs (a familiar animal found in this group would be snails). Now you might be asking, where's the shell for a nudibranch if they are related to snails? Actually, they do have shells. But it is only when they are young. When they are older, they lose their shells, one kind of defence, to get another form of defence, venom or stings depending on the species of nudibranch. So never handle a nudibranch for your own safety. =D

The last, fifth 'discovery' is the feather star (picture below). It looks much better than this if it's submerged in deeper water.
As their name suggests, their arms are a little like feathers, handle with care as they may break easily. I have seen them in many different colours besides red. They include black, yellow, white, etc. They are also related to the sea stars being in the same echinoderm phylum.

Finally, here's a group photo of all the nudibranch (picture below).Before I end, it's thanks to all who came and Kimberly who was my OJT and helped a lot during this trip =D

Extra:
a) Read RY's entry for this trip: http://tidechaser.blogspot.com/2010/04/first-intertidal-walk-at-pulau-hantu-on.html

A Walk into the Mangroves

2010-03-07T21:12:00.005+08:00

112th Discovery Posting:

About 2 years ago, I attended a sharing session on a study done on face-banded sesarmine from a professor. I cannot remember the name of the professor but I do remember that he mentioned that he studied these crabs in Mandai Mangroves. And from then onwards, I held this hope that I would get to see these crabs up close and also visit Mandai Mangroves. I never managed to catch a sight of these crabs in my mud 'dips' in mangroves and never could find out the exact location of Mandai Mangroves until today...

Today (7th Mar), with the guide of some friends, I had the chance to explore the Mandai Mangroves and find the face-banded sesarmine crabs.
Sidenote:
Will focus more on animals this posting since I did not really take photos of plants. =D

As we walked into the mangroves, one of the first few organisms we spotted, First 'discovery' will be mangrove horseshoe crabs (picture below).
One of the misconceptions we might have about the horseshoe crab is that it's a kind of crab due to its name. Actually, the horseshoe crab is more related to spiders and scorpions. An interesting fact about the horseshoe crab is that it has existed on Earth even before the dinosaurs! And if you are wondering if that pointy tail of it is as dangerous like the tails of stingrays, you need not worry. Their tails are not for stinging but for helping themselves to flip over if they end up underside down.

If you are interested to read more about them, click here.

The second organism, a small one was first spotted by RY. It is a mangrove big-jawed spider if I am correct (picture below). Second 'discovery'.
They are spiders commonly found in our mangroves. You might not spot them as they stay motionless on a leaf or branch and their stick/branch-like appearance. Although both genders of this kind of spider has big jaws, the males jaws are particularly elongated and are equipped with a spur each. They help them in locking the jaws of the female during mating.

After about a slow walk into the mangroves, I finally come across the face-banded sesarmine crabs (pictures below)! Third 'discovery'!Their name is as such due to the bright green or blue (I think I saw yellowish ones as well) band on their faces. Very interestingly, the bands on their faces can reflect light! And a study suggests that the different colours of their bands plays a role in sexual recognition. It is reported that the males of these crabs (to be more specific: 2 species) have more intense blue facial bands while the females have more green facial bands.

To read more about them, click here.

In conclusion, Mandai Mangrove is a really nice mangrove where you can find a great number of crabs and a number of mangrove plants (including rare ones). However, it is not for the average urban dweller, as you will get really muddy and even sink then stuck in the mud at times. And of course, the stink of mud after the trip and mosquito bites. All other things aside, it is a great mangrove. =D
Thanks to everyone who made it for the trip. I bet all of us had a nice and muddy time! =P

Semakau over the last weekend of Feb

2010-03-02T20:33:00.006+08:00

111th Discovery Posting

It has been a mini hiatus from blogging recently and now I'm back!

On this recently passed weekend, I visited Semakau twice for two different reasons. Both were for Project Semakau, however the Saturday trip was for a transect monitoring session while the Sunday trip was for a guided trip for schools where I was to be a hunter seeker.

This entry is a summary of some of the things which I found or saw.

First up is something which I managed to spot for 2 days in a row, the spider conch (pictures below). First 'discovery'.
Normally, it is quite hard to spot the spider conch as they are well camouflaged amongst the reefs or rubble area. Their camouflage can come from the algae growing on their shell and even sand which covers it. Once flipped over, you can see that its shell is actually really pretty. That is why people collect their shells and at the same time, people collect them for food. Additionally, places for them to live in are hard to come by in Singapore now due to development. So due to these reasons, they are now considered uncommon in our waters.

Another uncommon marine organism in Singapore is the knobbly sea star. Semakau is one of the few places where one can find a significant number of them. Here are some of the knobbly sea stars I saw on Saturday (picture below). Second 'discovery'.
The knobbly sea star's name is as such because of the knobs present on its body. It is believed that these knobs deter predators from eating them. However, fishes like the puffer fish are known to eat them.

The knobbly sea star is also somehow one of the highlights of Semakau or any other inter-tidal walks. This is because they can grow up to about a width of 40cm wide, so they can be a 'BIG' star.

Beside the knobbly sea stars, you can also find cushion sea stars on Semakau. Here are some juveniles (picture below). Third 'discovery'.
Here's a 'adult' sized cushion star (picture below).It's always a joy to see a big cushion star as they are more commonly seen by divers in deeper waters. For the juveniles, they probably like to hide in the seagrass area before moving deeper into the reefs once they are of the right size/'age'. They have been reported to feed on organic particles found in the sediments, immobile animals and even on corals.

And of course, not to forget the common sea star (picture below). Fourth 'discovery'.All sea stars (which I know) has a water vascular system. This is like our blood circulatory system where blood is pumped all around our body. But instead of blood, the sea stars pump sea water around their bodies. So it is best to handle the sea stars in sea water if you want to touch them.

The last thing I wish to write about is this nudibranch which I have never seen in Singapore. It's a Varicose phylid nudibranch (Phyllidia varicosa). Fifth 'discovery'.The phylid nudibranchs are said to be one of the most toxic nudibranchs. It is said that if they are stressed or feel endangered, they will release a toxic chemical into the waters near them. This toxic can kill a whole fish tank of fishes if ever released into one. So to be on the safe side, don't ever handle this nudi.

That's about warps up this posting. Thanks for reading and everyone who were on the trips on both days for making it another great weekend out.

Extra:
1) KS's entry for the Sunday trip: http://wondercreation.blogspot.com/2010/02/two-new-nudi-sightings-for-me.html

Starry Starry Semakau on 2nd Jan 2010

2010-01-03T12:09:00.005+08:00

110th Discovery Posting:

It was another day out at Semakau. Most of the group went to explore the normal route with their friends, LK was off to locate some rare plants, while a small group of us had one main objective in mind: that was to find the galloping sand star spotted last time.

We were not disappointed as I managed to spot one not long after I started combing the area which I last saw one. Our first 'discovery' (picture below).
As mentioned below, this galloping sand star is special not only because it can move by jerking or leaping (we didn't really saw this occurring because we did not had the luxury of time to observe it for long). It is also special because previous specimens has only been found through dredging. Thus plus this time, it is only the second time that anyone in Singapore has seen/recorded (according to what I know) it in an inter-tidal area.

As we walked around, we came across numerous upside down jellies, here's one of them, our second 'discovery' (picture below).Upside down jellies are upside down because of the fact that it harbours algae in its body and by being upside down, the algae will be able to do photosynthesis. So what's the big deal? The deal here is that, the algae will share any extra food to the jelly while the jelly provides a home for the algae. Basically what I call a "you scratch my back, I scratch your back" relationship. =D

Our great luck continued as Marcus soon spotted another galloping sand star (picture below). Both of the galloping sand stars we saw didn't look in great condition. Hopefully they will recover and be healthy again when we see them again.

It was really a great day out as we also came across 3 sea cucumbers which were never-seen-before in Semakau, I decided against posting the photos of them on this posting as R had better photos of them. I'll provide the link to his posting at the end of this posting so all interested discoverers can take a look at them =D
Moving around the area, we also came across a few hell fire anemones, here's one of them, our third 'discovery' (picture below).They are named hell fire anemones because of the fact that your hand will feel as if it's on fire if your hand comes into contact with it. I don't have any personal experience to back this up. But on a second thought, I don't think it's an experience I would want to have if possible...haha

The last time when I was around the same area, I came across a number of bigfin reef squids around the area. So I decided to try my luck again and I was not disappointed. Here's two of them, fourth 'discovery' (picture below) It has been said that squids are probably the fastest moving aquatic invertebrates with some reaching up to 40km/h but the ones we saw were quite still. Maybe it was their break time? haha

Some people like me tend to mix up squids and cuttlefishes, so one good way to tell them apart is to look out for fin. An all round fin is a cuttlefish while the squid's fin is a triangular flap at the tip of the body which acts as stabilisers.

To read more about them, you can go to http://www.wildsingapore.com/wildfacts/mollusca/cephalopoda/squid.htm.

This trip just seems to get better as the night approached. I say this because I spotted a total of 20 plus knobbly sea stars as I walked around (picture below). Basically, I spotted one for average every five steps I took. Wow.

To top it all up, the evil knobbly, Pentaceraster mammilatus, came into view as I changed direction to head back. Woohoo! Fifth 'discovery'! A Pentaceraster was last seen on Semakau about a year ago, so it's great to discover another one on Semakau. =D

This trip surely lines up as one of the top trips I had on Semakau and it was all with great weather and company!

Extra:
Read http://tidechaser.blogspot.com/2010/01/3-new-sea-cucumbers-at-semakau.html for the 3 sea cucumbers which are new records for Semakau.

Pulau Hantu on New Year's Day 2010

2010-01-01T23:50:00.006+08:00

109th Discovery Posting:

Today (now: yesterday) is (now: was) the first day of 2010 and I was out on an inter-tidal area with friends at Pulau Hantu.

The inter-tidal area on the island itself isn't really huge but it does have a variety of 'attractions'. First, there are some mangrove trees which one can get really close up and observe their aerial roots (picture below).
Second, you are able to find some marine organisms found in some other inter-tidal areas in Singapore. Take for example, our first 'discovery', a common sea star (picture below). If you follow my postings, you will find that I sometimes bemoan the fact that despite being named the common sea star, this species of sea star is actually not common in Singapore. This is probably mainly due to the loss of habitat. However, in the past few months, they have been spotted at Sentosa and more recently, many in numbers at Tanah Merah (a reclaimed shore). I hope this is a sign that they can really become common.

Second 'discovery' would be something that you 'die-die also can see' unless something drastic happens (for example: water pollution), touch wood. Anyway, I am referring to corals. Here's a flowery soft coral (picture below).They are nice to look at but bad to touch. They will not break of course, but they can sting you, so it would be a good idea not to touch them. Anyway, do take a closer look whenever you come across one of these as you might come across tiny animals that can live on this kind of soft coral. I didn't really take a close look this time, but you can see some examples from this link.

Our third 'discovery' is also a coral. This is a mushroom coral (picture below)Mushroom corals are corals with a ... er ... two differences from other corals. One, unlike other corals which are attached on the ground/substrate/rock, the mushroom coral when as a adult lives unattached to those mentioned. Two, unlike corals which are mostly made up of many individual animals (named: polyps), mushroom corals are made up of either one polyp or sometimes a few.

Next up, our fourth 'discovery', a flat worm (picture below). As their name suggest, flatworms are really flat. This can help them to squeeze or move into narrow and small spaces to find food and at the same time to hide from their predators. At the same time, being really flat means that their bodies are easily tore when handled, so please handle them with them or don't handle them at all. One really interesting thing about them is that flatworms are hermaphrodites. In really simple terms, this means that a flat worm is both a guy and gal. In specific terms, flatworms have both the male and female reproductive organs.

Does this (picture below) look tasty to you? I bet crab lovers will drool over this...
However our fifth 'discovery', the red egg crab, is a crab which crab lovers should avoid as they are poisonous and more importantly, their poison CANNOT be wiped out by cooking.

Our sixth 'discovery' may look like a flatworm which you have seen earlier, however this is a nudibranch (picture below). To be more specific, this is a Bohol nudibranch, Discodoris boholiensus.As mentioned, you might have taken this as a flatworm. No worries, this happens to us sometimes as well. So how can we and you not make this mistake. Here's a site for help: http://www.wildsingapore.com/wildfacts/glossary/flatwormslug.htm

And lastly is the highlight of our trip, the seventh 'discovery', a....SEAHORSE (picture above and below)!I believe you might already know that an interesting fact about the sea horse is that the father carries the eggs of its young, in other words, get 'pregnant'. But do you know that seahorses are actually related to fishes but not horses. There are many more information about them, you can read them at http://www.wildsingapore.com/wildfacts/vertebrates/fish/syngnathidae/hippocampus.htm.

That about concludes this posting. Would like to thank R for organising this trip and all who were also there. It was another nice although short trip. =D

Day over at Ubin on 19 Dec 2009

2009-12-21T20:39:00.005+08:00

108th Discovery Posting:

On the recent Saturday (19 Dec), I together with a group of nature volunteer friends visited Ubin for a lesson on Birds (thanks to LK for inviting us along) and exploration around the island (thanks to the NParks staff, especially Adelle for hosting us).

It was an early start to the day for all of us as we had planned a morning bird watching session (picture below).
Upon arrival, M pointed out to me this signage found on the jetty on Ubin (picture below). We did had a small laugh over it as there was something wrong about the signage. Can you spot it? I guess there may be a letter printing mistake as it should read: "No Camping Allowed on Jetty".

Anyway, back to the trip. After our bird watching session (no photos as my camera only has a limited optical zoom) in the morning, we set off for our afternoon walk around session. This was nearly canceled as a heavy storm was ongoing on Ubin in the afternoon. Luckily for us, it stopped around 3pm and we went on with our program.

Not long after we set off, M pointed out this (picture below) to us. Can you spot it? Clue: It is green and quite long. Here's a closer look at its head (picture below). First 'discovery' and it is a oriental whip snake.First off, the oriental whip snake is a mildly poisonous snake, although it may not be kill us with its bite, it would still be best not to handle it or any snakes at all. It is commonly found in forested and rural areas and most encountered by us while it suns itself on plants along the forest edge.

For more information and pictures, you may visit: http://www.ecologyasia.com/verts/snakes/oriental_whip-snake.htm

Later in the evening, we were also given a chance to explore the Chek Jawa inter tidal area. It was somehow a highlight for me for the day as I have not stepped on the inter tidal flats of this place for about a year plus ever since helping KS with his project. Here's some photos of the place itself (pictures below)Notice the Chek Jawa boardwalk on the background. Some critters we saw include the second 'discovery', sand stars. Here's one of them (picture below)Some call this (above) the plain sand star. Well, one reason is because there is another kind of sand star. The painted sand star (picture below), third 'discovery'! As you can see, their appearance differs a bit. But you can find long spines along both sides of its arms. Their similarities goes on, they are more commonly seen in our northern shores and are more active when it is dark or near dark. If I am not wrong, they feed differently from the common sea star, which you can find on Chek Jawa as well. For the common sea star, it would push its stomach out from its body to feed while the sand star would usually just ingest or swallow them whole.

Next up, third 'discovery', sand stars (picture below)!They may not look like sea stars, but do you know that they are actually related? Yes, sea stars, sand dollars, sea cucumbers, sea urchins, brittle stars and feather stars all belong to the group of animals which we call enchinoderms. A bit too scientific? Well, then just look closer at the picture above, do you see a star shape? This isn't a good guide to identify animals belonging to this group though.

Anyway, the name sand dollars came about mostly because they resemble dollar coins and at the same time are mostly found in sand bars. They might not alive to you, but if you ever have the chance to handle one, you will feel that they have tiny little spines that can tickle you when you touch them. But do remember not to remove them from sea water for long, as it would stress them.

One more thing which we saw a number was this, a peacock anemone (picture below). Fourth 'discovery'.
They are good to look at and bad to touch. Why? This is because peacock anemones can sting you with stings in their stinging cells. Besides that, do you notice that they have a layers or rings of tentacles? One is the outer, the other is the inner. The function of the outer layer is to gather food from the surroundins towards the inner layer and then the inner layer would transfer food to its mouth. Works like a bit like a conveyor belt, don't you think so?

As we explored, we moved towards the coral rubble area. But alas, the tide wasn't low even for us to even step into the place. So for safety reasons, we decided to just look around the other places in the area. I did however get a nice sunset shot nearby the coral rubble area (picture below). =D As we moved on, we came across this small little biscuit sea star (picture below). Fifth 'discovery'.Like other sea stars, it is best not to take biscuit sea stars off from sea water. But if you do, do return them back after a quick look, as they need sea water as we need blood. This is basically because they circulate their bodies with sea water.

Sixth 'discovery' is one sea cucumber which I think that hasn't been properly IDed yet. But at the moment, I think we are calling it the smooth sea cucumber (picture below).The last featured animal and seventh 'discovery' is a noble volute (picture below).These creatures are probably one of the largest sea snails you can encounter on our shores. This is because noble volutes can grow up to about 10 plus cm long. However, they are threaten as they are collected for their beautiful shells as well for food.

Well, that about wraps up this post. Thanks again to LK for organising and Adelle for hosting us and of course all friends who make it another great day out. =D

1st time encounter with this Star on Semakau

2009-12-06T22:40:00.006+08:00

107th Discovery Posting

Probably one reason that I continue to enjoy going for inter-tidal walks is the joy of discovering something which I have never seen before. And this happened recently on Friday night when we (a few Project Semakau volunteers and myself) went for an exploration walk at Semakau after we did some bird and insect surveys.

In the beginning, I thought that this was a biscuit or cake sea star (photos below).
But after R pointed out that this could be a galloping sand star (Stellaster equestris), I decided to give it a double check. To my joy, R was correct. According to David's Lane, A Guide to Sea Stars and Other Echinoderms to Singapore, the galloping sand star has "variable amounts of dark-pigmented patterning on the oral surface." This was observed on the oral side of the sea star we've seen (photo above). So this is a 'first' for me! Rightfully, the first 'discovery' of this posting.

Not only did we manage to see one of them, but two! Here's the second one (photo below).
I almost forgot to mention that this could be the first time anyone in Singapore has seen it in the inter-tidal area as previous specimens has been only found through dredging. Thanks to R for pointing this out! Oh, by the way, unlike most other sea stars which move by gliding across the substrate, this sea star is able to move by jerking or leaping.

During our walk, we also managed to spot the usual big sea star suspects, the knobbly sea stars. Here's two of them and the second 'discovery' (photos below).Initially, I thought the third 'discovery' was a gong-gong. But R pointed out this was a Strombus marginatus, thanks again! (photo below)I did a quick search and found a recent paper on this shell, here's the link (you can check out the pictures if you're not interested in reading it): http://rmbr.nus.edu.sg/nis/bulletin2009/2009nis379-384.pdf.

It was quite a fruitful night as we across came across a number of squids, here are some photos of them below.It has been said that squids are probably the fastest moving aquatic invertebrates with some reaching up to 40km/h but the ones we saw were quite still. Maybe it was because it was night time or rest time?

Some people like me tend to mix up squids and cuttlefishes, so one good way to tell them apart is to look out for fin. An all round fin is a cuttlefish while the squid's fin is a triangular flap at the tip of the body which acts as stabilisers.

To read more about them, you can go to http://www.wildsingapore.com/wildfacts/mollusca/cephalopoda/squid.htm.

Well, it was a great night out and we were out again on the shores on the night after (sat). You can read about them @
a) http://tidechaser.blogspot.com/2009/12/last-project-semakau-survey-of-year.html
b) http://mantamola.blogspot.com/2009/12/night-trip-to-semakau.html

Semakau Inter Tidal walk on 18 Oct 2009

2009-10-19T21:16:00.005+08:00

106th Discovery Posting:

Finally, after almost a month of non inter tidal outings, I'm back out at the shores again. Yesterday, I was back out on one of my favourite shores and island in Singapore, Semakau, doing guiding. Have to give a special mention to my group, the fiddler crabs, because they are mostly compromised of people who I have seen during the nature explorers' trip to Tioman Island during the September school holidays. Seeing them does brings back memories of that trip...

Anyway, past memories aside, here's one of the first few things we saw during the trip. The first 'discovery' of this posting an olive whelk (picture below). Something really common but I have not seen before or probably never taken note before.
Like all whelks, the olive whelk is a scavenger. Well, for example, if you died on the natural shore (touchwood) and no one removes your body. Scavengers such as whelks will come and 'clean' you up. Get what I mean? =D

Dead bodies aside, let's take a look at some live ones captured on photographs...hahaha (picture below).Our second 'discovery' for this posting would be common sea stars (picture below).Although their common name is common sea stars, they are actually not really common on our shores due to over collection and especially habitat loss. Maybe we should call them "uncommon sea stars" instead...=P

Okay, back to the trip. Next up, third 'discovery' is the really pretty juvenile cushion star which we have been spotting for the last few months (picture below). It looks healthy and has been slowly increasing in size over the past few months, which is great news. It's pretty amazing to know that cushion stars can grow to about the size of our heads or even bigger if given a good environment with sufficient food. Just to let you know, cushion stars of these bigger sizes are usually seen during diving trips.

However, you don't need to get wet to see all the beautiful marine organisms. An inter tidal walk along the shores can also bring you surprises comparable to diving trips. Take for example, this noble volute which spots a good looking shell, our fourth 'discovery' (picture below).
Due to its attractive looking shell, the noble volute has been harvested and its numbers have plummeted as a result.

Colourful creatures do stand out in the shores where it's usually brown and green around. For example, this nudibranch, the fifth 'discovery' (picture below). In the natural world. creatures with colourful colours are usually 'bad' to eat or what we say as warning colours. The result of eating them could lead to poisoning or even death in worst case scenarios. Probably that's why the nudibranchs grows up losing its shell. Cause it doesn't really need a shell to protect itself, its colours are already a protection or warning to others.

We also had the great luck to see our one and only unknown sea star on Semakau and probably in Singapore as well. Sixth 'discovery' (picture below)!
Our hunter seekers also found us one of the resident knobbly sea stars on Semakau (picture below) for our last station.And after a little coaxing, I managed to get my group to pose for a group shot with the knobbly (picture below) =D.All in all, another great day despite being real hot in the beginning. And it's great to see the familiar faces from nature explorers, I hope it would not be too long before I see you all again! =D

Colourful crabs plus an insect and a plant @ Chek Jawa

2009-09-26T21:25:00.004+08:00

105th Discovery Posting:

Today, together with volunteers guides from Naked Hermit Crabs (NHC), we visited Chek Jawa for 2 purposes. The first purpose was to guide people who have signed up to join the Naked Hermit Crab monthly guided walk on the Chek Jawa boardwalk. The second was explore Chek Jawa for a short while after our visitors left. Side tracking a bit, for those who are interested to find out more about the monthly guided walks on the Chek Jawa boardwalk, please visit for http://nakedhermitcrabs.blogspot.com/more information.

Anyway, during the guided walk and also our own exploration, we saw the really pretty and colourful fiddler crabs found alongside the boardwalk in the mangroves of Chek Jawa. My photos of them are not really clear as my camera possesses only a 3x optical zoom. I should get one with more optical zoom soon... anyway, here are some photos of them (pictures below).
During guiding, I came across this really well-camouflaged insect on a leaf. I have no idea what insect this is, probably someone can help me out? (picture below)And before our guided walk started (you can see that my order of photos are in a reverse chronological order...hehehe), we were looking at this plant and wondering what this plant is. I do remember that I have the ID of this plant somehow in my computer. After searching, I believe this plant is called Chassalia curviflora (picture below). More pictures of this plant can be found @ http://www.natureloveyou.sg/Chassalia%20curviflora/Main.html.

Well, that's about it for this post. I'm not going to feature all the things which I have seen during this trip as one, I did not take photos for everything and two, you can visit http://nakedhermitcrabs.blogspot.com/2009/09/another-fabulous-day-out-on-chek-jawa.html for a detailed blog entry for the walk.

Lastly, thanks to all my participants in my group who came for the walk and I hope you had a great time as me. =D

Semakau Inter-Tidal Walk on 19 Sep 2009

2009-09-20T00:03:00.007+08:00

104th Discovery Entry:

It is the time of the year again when the lower low tide of the day changes from the morning to the afternoon/evening.

This also means that we (inter-tidal nature guides and explorers in Singapore and probably also around the region) don't need to wake up at unearthly hours just to 'catch' the low tide. This luxury will last us for about 6 months before we return to the cycle of waking up SUPER early again. Anyway, it's great that the 'evening tides' are here.

Now back to the main focus of this post. Just yesterday, together with other RMBR nature guides and 50+ participants, we went for an evening inter-tidal walk at Semakau.

So our first 'discovery' of the day was this juvenile horseshoe crab (picture below). They are really interesting not only because that they have blue colored blood and it is also because they have existed on earth longer than us and the dinosaurs. Although we call them crabs, they are not actually crabs but more related to spiders.
Moving on closer to the seagrass meadows, we found three things which our hunter seekers have found for us. And two of them were flatworms, and that's the name for my group for the day! Second 'discovery' (picture below).As their name suggest, flatworms are really flat. This can help them to squeeze or move into narrow and small spaces to find food and at the same time to hide from their predators. At the same time, being really flat means that their bodies are easily tore when handled, so please handle them with them or don't handle them at all. One really interesting thing about them is that flatworms are hermaphrodites. In really simple terms, this means that a flat worm is both a guy and gal. In specific terms, flatworms have both the male and female reproductive organs.

After glancing at 'ourselves', we waddled across the seagrass meadows and I stopped everyone for a stuck-in-the-seagrass-meadow group photo shot (picture below). Here's the wacky version (picture below).After crossing the seagrass meadows, we immediately saw three garlic bread not ginger bread (I think I told my participants the wrong name for this yesterday, so sorry) or the sandfish sea cucumber. Our third 'discovery' (picture below).This kind of sea cucumber is one of the ones which are commonly collected as a Chinese delicacy. However, it would be good for you to know that it needs to be properly processed before it can be eaten as tests have conclude that sea cucumbers contain toxins.

In every guided walk to Semakau, we have to highlight and remind our visitors to mind their step as they might step on the mine, ops, I mean star field (picture below).
Star field refers to the community of common sea stars which lives on substrate of the inter-tidal zone of Semakau. Here's one of them (picture below).It was a star-studded star, as we saw not only lots of common sea stars, we also came across...

Not one but two juvenile cushion stars (pictures below)...The yet-to-be-identifed sea star (picture below)...At least 4 knobbly sea stars(picture below)...And so how could we miss the chance to take a group shot with the sea stars themselves (picture below).And while exploring around by ourselves, one of the boys found a cuttlefish hiding amongst the sea weed, GREAT JOB! And I managed to spot this really beautiful greenish sunflower mushroom coral (picture below). As I mentioned to the flatworms, mushroom corals are usually made up of one or a few polyps compared to a lot of polyps in a coral.

To round up, yesterday was really a cool walk in terms of the weather and the participants (and of course if we minus the mosquito experience =P). Although the clouds blocked our view of a great sunset, it did provide us with photo opportunities of a different style (picture below). Thank you all Flatworms again for providing me with another great guiding experience. See all of you around if possible. =D

Extra:
1) Read Tidechaser's entry for this trip for other interesting stuff: http://tidechaser.blogspot.com/2009/09/semakau-walk-on-19-sep-2009.html

Semakau Inter-Tidal walk on 23 Aug 2009

2009-08-24T20:35:00.005+08:00

103th Discovery Post:

As I left my house at about 4+am on Sunday morning, it was still drizzling and lighting flashed in the distance. The scene got me a little worried as we were heading out to Semakau yesterday morning (Sunday) and we would not be able to conduct an inter-tidal walk if a lighting alert has been given over the area.

Luckily for all of us, the clouds held on to its water droplets and this resulted with a cool and over-cast sky for a walk at the inter-tidal zone of Semakau.

Here's my group, puffer fish, standing on the trail which brings all visitors to the area through the sea grass meadows (picture below).
After crossing the meadow, we came across this creature staring at us with its pair of eyes (picture below).Our hunter seekers have managed to find us a spider conch, the first 'discovery' (picture below). Discovery Note:
1. As a result of their really nice shells, spider conches are not only collected for food, they are also collected for their shells.
2. Due to this collection, spider conches have been labelled as a 'vulnerable' on the Red list of threaten animals of Singapore.
3. That aside, the movement of spider conches is quite interesting. They make use of a curved, knifed shaped operculum or in short, a 'leg' or 'pole' to pole vault around.
4. The spikes that are found on the shell helps to prevent the spider conch are rolling around after making a 'hop'.
5. Read more about the spider conch @ http://www.wildsingapore.com/wildfacts/mollusca/gastropoda/strombidae/lambis.htm.

The following 'discoveries' of this posting will be star-filled. What do I mean?

First off, our second 'discovery', a juvenile cushion star (picture below) which we have been spotting for the last 2 to 3 months. Hopefully, we will continue to see it in our future visits. =D
Discovery Note:
1. They are more often seen during diving, so it is always a treat to spot them in the inter-tidal areas.
2. They have been found to feed on some species of hard corals. Their diet could also consist of immobile animals, organic particles found on sediments and sea weeds.
3. Read more about them @ http://www.wildsingapore.com/wildfacts/echinodermata/asteroidea/culcita.htm.

Despite being assigned to guide the last minute, I managed to spot several things on my own. Here's one of them, the six armed knobbly sea star which is slowly becoming the new star of our walks (picture below). Third 'discovery'.
Here are all the knobbly sea stars which we have seen for this trip (picture below).Discovery Note:
1. They can only be found on certain islands on the Northern and Southern side of Singapore, therefore, they can be considered as uncommon.
2. Interestingly, their knob patterns can be used to tell one knobbly sea star from another.
3. Like all sea stars, they require sea water for survival, so do not remove them from sea water if possible.
4. Read more about them @ http://www.wildsingapore.com/wildfacts/echinodermata/asteroidea/protoreaster.htm.

Another interesting find would be this yet-to-be identified sea star on Semakau (picture below). As I turned this sea star to view its bottom side, another surprise sprung on me. A tidy brittle star was on the under side of this sea star. It was a pity that I totally forgot to take a photo in the mist of my excitement. By the way, this is the fourth 'discovery'.It was one of the coolest morning walk compared to many other morning walks. What a great way to end the last morning walk @ Semakau. Next month, the tides will change and our trips out to the shores will start in the evenings... Finally, it's thanks to all puffer fishes for being such an attentive group. =D Here's a group photo of everyone (picture above) with the knobbly sea stars.

Extra:
a) Read Tidechaser's entry on this trip: http://tidechaser.blogspot.com/2009/08/semakau-walk-on-23-aug-2009.html
b) Read Manta's entry on this trip: http://mantamola.blogspot.com/2009/08/semakau-walk-on-23-august-09.html

Nature's Tale: You scratch my back, I scratch your back

2009-08-22T20:08:00.003+08:00

102th Discovery Posting:

You would have probably heard of the saying, "You scratch my back, I scratch your back". This saying basically means: if you help me, I will help you; we work in a cooperative relationship, etc.

This kind of relationship exist not only in our context but also in the natural world.

Let's use one classic example from our seas to illustrate this: the relationship between the clownfishes and carpet anemones...

Yes, you might be surprise to know that one can find and see clownfishes in Singapore's waters.
Below is a series of photos taken @ Semakau during today's morning there for Project Semakau (http://projectsemakau.rafflesmuseum.net/)

Clown or Anemone Fishes made famous by the Pixar movie, "Finding Nemo", is one of the few organisms/fishes which can live amongst anemones or to be more exact, the tentacles of sea anemones. This is pretty interesting considering the fact that other organisms/fishes would be stung and most probably killed by the sea anemones.
There are basically two theories to why the tentacles of the sea anemone would not sting the clown fish.

From http://www.wildsingapore.com/wildfacts/vertebrates/fish/pomacentridae/amphiprion.htm:
"One theory is that the fish smears mucus from the anemone all over itself thus preventing the sea anemone from stinging it. Another theory is that the mucus of the fish (All fishes are coverd in mucus) lacks substances that trigger a sea anemone to discharge its stingers."
Now let's dive deeper into the "you help me, I help you" or biologist use the term "mutualism" relationship between the two.

Information from: http://www.wildsingapore.com/wildfacts/vertebrates/fish/pomacentridae/amphiprion.htm & http://clownfishandseaanemones.blogspot.com/

Experiments and observations suggest that clownfishes can help to defend their host anemone from specialized tentacle eating fishes like Butterfly fishes. The "anemones might directly ingest particles dropped by the fish or absorb their wastes, which could provide sources of regnerated nitrogen, sulfur, and phosphorous in addition to small prey and plankton they capture."

The host anemone in turn "help" the clown fish by:
1) providing an enemy free space for clown fishes from its predators.
2) acting as a nest site for an anemonefish: the anemonefish lay their eggs on the hard substrate beneath the oral disc of the anemone, where they are tended by the male fish.

A study on done on this very topic also concludes that the presences of clown fishes affects the anemone's growth, reproduction and survival. Here are some of the details (from http://clownfishandseaanemones.blogspot.com/)

Anemones that harbored anemonefish grew nearly 3x faster than those that did not.
The average daily growth increment was similar for those anemones that hosted 1 or 2 adult anemonefish, and both these growth rates were significantly greater than for anemones that lacked fish.
Asexual reproduction was enhanced by the presence of anemonefish: anemones occupied by 2 fish underwent fission much more often (~2x expected rate) than those containing 1 (~expected rate) or 0 fish (~ ½ expected rate)
Anemones that harbored fish experienced a much lower-than-expected probability of dying than those lacking fish: of 14 deaths, 11 were anemones without fish, 2 were anemones with 1 fish, and just 1 was an anemone with 2 fish.

So these about concludes this posting. Thanks for reading. =D

For further reading:
1) http://www.wildsingapore.com/wildfacts/vertebrates/fish/pomacentridae/amphiprion.htm
2) http://clownfishandseaanemones.blogspot.com/

Semakau over the last weekend of July

2009-07-26T21:44:00.006+08:00

101st Discovery Posting:

Over this weekend (25th and 26th of July), together with volunteers from HSBC, schools and public, we conducted a survey for Project Semakau on Sat morning, had a BBQ and night exploration and an exploration inter-tidal walk on Sun morning.

In this posting, I will feature some of critters we encounter.

First 'discovery' would a knobbly sea star (picture below). I only managed to spot one throughout the trip, maybe it's because we are not surveying the side which has more knobbly sea stars. But still I found it strange, as by observation, the habitat is quite similar so by logic there should be more of them. Hmm... well, either there must be a good explanation behind this or I was just unlucky or 'cock' eye...hahaha. Anyway,
Discovery Note:
1. They can only be found on certain islands on the Northern and Southern side of Singapore, therefore, they can be considered as uncommon.
2. Interestingly, their knob patterns can be used to tell one knobbly sea star from another.
3. Like all sea stars, they require sea water for survival, so do not remove them from sea water if possible.
4. Read more about them @ http://www.wildsingapore.com/wildfacts/echinodermata/asteroidea/protoreaster.htm.

Second 'discovery' is a curryfish sea cucumber (picture below). If you ask me, it really looks like the sandfish sea cucumber turned to the dark side...hahaha...

*Update: this (picture below) may be instead a variation of the sandfish sea cucumber... maybe it's really one which turned to the dark side... too much star wars for me.... =P Discovery Note (this is only applicable for a curryfish sea cucumber):
1. Like the sandfish sea cucumber, the curryfish sea cucumber is also harvested for the restaurant trade.
2. According to wildfacts, this is one of the sea cucumbers that is harvested in Malaysia for 'Air Gamat', a local health tonic which is said to aid healing and other ailments. As a result to this, Langkawi now has low numbers of the curryfish sea cucumber.
3. Read more about this sea cucumber @ http://www.wildsingapore.com/wildfacts/echinodermata/holothuroidea/herrmanni.htm.

The third 'discovery' is something that usually occurs in season and right now, it is in season, and that is the upside down jellyfish (pictures below).

Here's the top side (picture below)Here's the underside (picture below)
Discovery Note:
1. The upside down jelly is usually found in its upside down position.
2. This is because there are algae living in the tentacles of the jelly. And these algae shares its food with the jelly in exchange for shelter and probably minerals.
3. Read more about this interesting jelly @ http://www.wildsingapore.com/wildfacts/cnidaria/others/jellyfish/upsidedown.htm.

Fourth 'discovery' is something related to the jelly, this is a leathery anemone (picture below) Discovery Note:
1. This is related to the jelly as they share the common characteristic of having stings which can leave you with a nasty rash or something even worse if you come into contact with them.
2. Like the upside down jelly, this anemone can harbor algae in its tentacles and the relationship they share is similar to the relationship shared between the upside down jelly and algae in them.
3. Do take note that not all jellies and anemones have algae living in their tentacles.
4. One of the way to ID this anemone is to look out for the pink tips it has on its tentacles.
5. Read more about this anemone @ http://www.wildsingapore.com/wildfacts/cnidaria/actiniaria/crispa.htm.

Fifth 'discovery' is a colony of animals, a hard coral (picture below).A close up view of the same coral (picture below).Discovery Note:
1. In simple words, corals are made up of a group of a particular animal called the polyp.
2. Now if you look at the photo (close up view) above, in each 'ring' lives one of this animal.
3. For your info, corals are related to jellies and anemones. Yes, they have stings too, so don't touch them.
4. Corals, jellies and anemones belong to a group of animals called cnidarians. If you are interested to read more about them, you can go to http://www.wildsingapore.com/wildfacts/cnidaria/cnidaria.htm.
5. Now you may be wondering why some corals have bright colours. This is probably due to bioluminescence.
6. Basically, the idea behind this is close why we apply sunblock when we visit the beaches, to prevent getting sun burnt. To be a little specific, this colouring they have prevents the corals from certain wavelengths of colours which could harm them.

Besides hard corals, you can also see a number of soft corals over at Semakau, here's some of them (picture below).
Finally, the sixth 'discovery' is a firefly (picture below)! I do apologize for the blur picture, I do admit I should have taken more photos of this really interesting insect.
Discovery Note:
1. Fire flies are able to chemically produce 'cold light' which contains no ultraviolet or infrared rays.
2. These lights which they produce are used either for attract mates or prey.
3. Although more commonly called fire flies, they are actually winged beetles and NOT flies.

Living Shores of Semakau

2009-06-27T21:01:00.011+08:00

100th Discovery Posting:

Visitors or participants to Semakau with RMBR would always be assigned to a group name (participants to St John Island's inter tidal walk and students participating in other shore walks organised by RMBR would probably get these as well). And if you have ever wondered where these names come from, the names are actually from a series of 18 badges. And these 18 badges features the flora and fauna that can be found on Semakau and also on other shores of Singapore.

In this posting, i will feature all the 18 badges and have tried to at the same time show you how the real animal or plant look like in real life. What do i mean by that? Just look at the picture below to get an idea.
This (picture above) is a land-hermit crab. I have never personally seen it at Semakau, that is probably because I never made any effort to look for one. This particiular individual is from Sister's island. Maybe I should spend some time to look for a land hermit crab over at Semakau when I have the time.

Next up is the mangrove badge (picture below).One can find a great number of mangrove trees on Semakau. The mangrove survey done during Project Semakau (still ongoing) has yield results informing us that Semakau is a home to some of the rarer species of mangrove trees found in Singapore, one example is the Avicennia marina.

And on Semakau and other places, you can usually spot a number of fiddler crabs near the roots of mangrove trees and around sandy areas (picture below). Another animal you might spot near mangrove trees would be the mudskipper (picture below)And sometimes if you're lucky, you might even spot a horseshoe crab (picture below).By the way, it would be good to note that there are 2 types of horseshoe crabs you can find in Singapore. One is the mangrove horseshoe crab, the other is the costal horseshoe crab. The most easy way to tell one apart from another is by feeling their tails. The mangrove horseshoe crab's tail is round in cross-section while the coastal one is triangular-like in cross-section.

Next up is the upside down jellyfish (picture below). They are mostly found in an upside down position as there are algae living mostly in the upside down section of their bodies. The algae would share any extra food it makes and in return, the upside down jelly fish provides shelter and minerials for the algae. This kind of 'you help me, I help you' relationship is also seen in other marine creatures such as corals and ... giant clams (picture below).In our safety briefings for any inter tidal walks, we would always ask our participants to let us (the guides) to walk first and want them to follow our trail. This is mostly because there are creatures out there which can cause one harm if stepped on. One example would be a blue-spotted fantail ray (picture below). It would give you a really bad sting using its one or two venomous sting on its tail.
There are also some interesting and nice looking shelled animals featured on the badges also. One of them would be the noble volute (picture below).The other would be the spider conch (picture below).And if you look closer at the badge and photo above, you would see that the spider conch actually has a pair of eyes!

Besides the two shelled animals, there are also other creatures which we and our participants find them adorable. One example would be a nudibranch, which is a kind of sea slug (picture below).
The seahorse (picture below)And the clownfish aka NEMO (picture below)Next up is the octopus (picture below). You might not know this, but octopuses are actually quite common on our shores. They are just not seen so often as they are more active in the dark.

And of course, how could the stars of any inter tidal walk, the Knobbly sea star, be missed out frmo the series of badges (picture below).
Right now, although I have the whole collection of all 18 badges, I do not have the photos or nice photos of all the them. Some of them inculde the puffer fish (picture below)The great-billed heron (picture below)
And the hawksbill turtle (picture below)You might be wondering if there are any sea turtles in our waters. Let me answer give you the answer to the question. It is a big YES. Some of my friends have actually seen them with their own eyes on Semakau before.

So that is all the 18 badges for you. But before I end this post, you would find a series of group photos from the participants I've lead for yesterday and today. I've uploaded them so they could download them for memories and also as a memory for me. =D

Semakau Inter-Tidal walk on 12 June 2009

2009-06-12T21:52:00.005+08:00

Ninety Ninth Discovery Posting:

This morning, I visited Semakau land fill island again with RMBR volunteer guides and participants from various walks of life for another guided walk at the inter tidal area of Semakau.

And like yesterday, the sun greeted us as we walked leisurely towards the forest trail which would bring us to our destination (picture below).
Besides chasing our sleepy moods away, the sunrise also provided us a great photo opportunity (picture below).This scene (picture below) will be the sight and also our destination once one gets through the forest trail. The inter tidal area of Semakau.Today, the group I lead was called Upside down Jellyfish. And here's everyone standing in the seagrass meadow (picture below).
And after crossing the seagrass meadow, our first 'discovery' was marked out by our hardworking hunter seekers, two common sea stars, one on top of another (picture below). Discovery Note:
1. This unique positioning pattern is actually a part of the common sea stars' mating ritual.
2. The male, which is usually smaller in size, will be found on top of the female with its arms alternating with hers.
3. The common sea stars do not external reproduction organs. Therefore this behaviour is to increase the chance of exterior fertilisation.
4. Read more about this and the common sea star @ http://www.wildsingapore.com/wildfacts/echinodermata/asteroidea/archaster.htm.

As the tide today wasn't low enough for us to look at the resident giant clam, we did see the juvenille giant clam around the coral rubble area (picture below). Second 'discovery'.Discovery Note:
1. They are the largest living bivalve mollusc and also known as the bear's paw clam
2. They can weigh more than 227 kilograms and measure as much as 1.2 metres across, and have an average lifespan in the wild of 100 years or more.
3. An interesting symbiosis occurs between a unicellular green alga (Zooanthella ) and the clam. The algae live in the tissues of the clam's siphon and mantle; they are able to obtain the sunlight needed for photosynthesis because the clam lies with its valves opening upward and part of the thick, purple mantle extruding over the shell.
4. In addition, there are crystalloid vesicles on the mantle surface that let in sunlight, thus allowing the algae to live deep within the tissues. The clam uses the algae as a supplementary or perhaps even a major source of food.
5. Read more about them @ http://www.wildsingapore.com/wildfacts/mollusca/bivalvia/tridacnidae/tridacnidae.htm.

Our hunter seekers also managed to find 2 knobbly sea stars today. And this was after some hard work and much walking around (picture below). Kudos to our hunter seekers. =DWell, we never forget to take a traditional group photo with the knobbly (picture below).Next up, third 'discovery' is the sea slug which most of our visitors use the word 'cute' to describe it. A polka-dot nudibranch (picture below).Discovery Note:
1. 'Nudibranch' means 'naked gills'. The name comes from the flower-like gills found on the back of many nudibranchs. These nudibranchs use the gills to breathe.
2. Nudibranchs are related to snails. Little baby nudibranchs are born with shells, but they lose them when they become adults.
3. Most nudibranchs are carnivores, they eat immobile or small, slow-moving prey. Examples are sponges, ascidians, hard corals, soft corals, sea anemones etc.
4. To protect themselves, some produce distasteful substances, toxins and even acids. They advertise this with bright warning colours. Others are camouflaged to match their surroundings. Those that eat colourful creatures such as sponges or corals, may themselves be colourful to match their prey. Being small and flat, they can also easily hide in narrow places.
5. Read more about them @ http://www.wildsingapore.com/wildfacts/mollusca/nudibranchia.htm.

Fourth 'discovery' is another piece of finding from our wonderful hunter seekers, a sea horse (picture below). Discovery Note:
1. They are hard to find as they are well-camouflaged.
2. Do you know that a seahorse is actually a fish? Yes, it is, but instead of having scales, they have an inflexible armour of overlapping bony plates.
3. A seahorse cannot swim faster because it doesn't have tail fin and pelvic fins like other fishes, thus it is well-camouflaged. But they can make a short burst of speed if in danger.
4. They may look harmless, but they are actually quite voracious predators. It sits in wait and ambushes on any tiny animals that drifts or wander by.
5. They have a very simple digestive system (no stomach) thus they need to eat almost constantly. Baby sea horses are known to eat thousands of tiny shrimps in a day!
6. And of course, the most well-known fact of the sea horse is that the male can get 'pregnant', this is because the female seahorses lay eggs in the pouch of a male seahorse and it is in their where the eggs will be fertilized and then the male seahorse will carry them till the eggs hatch.
7. Read more about it @ http://www.wildsingapore.com/wildfacts/vertebrates/fish/syngnathidae/comes.htm.

As we headed back, we encoutered this long queue over at the sea grass lagoon. I wonder what was making everyone stop there? After some simple investiagation, i discovered that they were actually stopping to take a closer look at a spider conch. The fifth 'discovery' of this posting (picture below).Discovery Note:
1. As a result of their really nice shells, spider conches are not only collected for food, they are also collected for their shells.
2. Due to this collection, spider conches have been labelled as a 'vulnerable' on the Red list of threaten animals of Singapore.
3. That aside, the movement of spider conches is quite interesting. They make use of a curved, knifed shaped operculum or in short, a 'leg' or 'pole' to pole vault around.
4. The spikes that are found on the shell helps to prevent the spider conch are rolling around after making a 'hop'.
5. Read more about the spider conch @ http://www.wildsingapore.com/wildfacts/mollusca/gastropoda/strombidae/lambis.htm.

Lastly, the sixth 'discovery' is a juvenile cushion star spotted by the participants from KS's group (picture below).
Discovery Note:
1. They are more oftenly seen during diving, so it is always a treat to spot them in the inter-tidal areas.
2. They have been found to feed on some species of hard corals. Their diet could also consist of immobile animals, organic particles found on sediments and sea weeds.
3. Read more about them @ http://www.wildsingapore.com/wildfacts/echinodermata/asteroidea/culcita.htm.

In conclusion, today was another great day out, as the jellyfishes were an attentive and interested group. Thank you, everyone! =D

Extra:
a) Read KS's posting for this trip: http://wondercreation.blogspot.com/2009/06/semakau-public-walk-on-12-june.html

Semakau Inter-Tidal walk on 11 June 2009

2009-06-11T21:13:00.005+08:00

Discovery Posting Ninety Eight:

Together with a group of fiddler crabs (the group name for my group of participants), we stepped onto the Semakau land fill island to visit the beautiful inter tidal area. And as we made our way towards our destination on the island, the rising sun decided to give us a morning greeting by rising slowly behind us (picture below).
After a short trek through a forest trail, we reached the inter-tidal area and proceeded to make our way towards the reefs. And of course, I stopped the fiddler crabs in the seagrass meadows for a quick and wacky group photo (photo below). So our first 'discovery' of this posting is flatworms (pictures below)Discovery Note:
1. If you have a chance to look at them in real life, you will notice that their name is as such because they have a really flat body (probably some of you can spot this by looking at the photos).
2. Being flat has its advantages, being flat means that flatworms can easily move into any space. This allows them to hide or find food easily.
3. Do you know that flatworms actually have a central nervous system and a simple brain to help them co-ordinate their muscular system.
4. Flatworms also do not have a blood circulatory or respiratory system as oxygen can diffuse rather quicky across their skin and to the other parts of their body.
5. Read more about flatworms @ http://www.wildsingapore.com/wildfacts/worm/polycladida/polycladida.htm.

Today, our hunter seekers (guides who move off eariler than any group to locate interesting organisms for participants to see and also an important batch of people who help to make the guided walks an easier job) also managed to find us the star of the walk, the knobbly sea star (picture below).
With the star on-show, we just have to take a photo for memories with it (pictures below)The fiddler crabs pose... hehe (picture below)As we moved closer to the reefs, our hunter seekers found another two organisms nearby to one another. Here's one of them, the second 'discovery', a sunflower mushroom coral (picture below). Discovery Note:
1. Corals mostly live attached to something, a rock, the seafloor, etc. But mushroom corals, when large, live disattached.
2. However when they are young, they attach themselves onto things like rocks.
3. Another difference is that while corals are a group of animals living together (this animal is called a polyp), the mushroom coral is either made up of a single polyp or just a few polyps.
4. As their skeleton is really hard and sometimes spikey, and of course not forgetting that polyps have stings, it is best not to handle them with your bare hands.
5. Read more about sunflower mushroom corals @ http://www.wildsingapore.com/wildfacts/cnidaria/coralhard/fungiidae/heliofungia.htm.

And just nearby laid a sand fish sea cucumber, our third 'discovery' (picture below). Discovery note:
1. This is one of the species of the sea cucumber which humans commonly consume for food.
2. It is important to note that they need to be properly processed before eatting as tests indicate that they contain toxins.
3. We also call them the garlic bread sea cucumber due to its appearance.
4. Read more about them @ http://www.wildsingapore.com/wildfacts/echinodermata/holothuroidea/scabra.htm.

Well, that about warps up this posting for today. And oh ya, these were not all the organisms we saw during today's trip, it's just that I did not take photos for every organism. If you are interested to find out what other organisms we saw today, you can refer to the extras section.

Before I end, thanks again to the fiddler crabs for coming and I hope you had an enjoyable morning. =D

Extra:
a) Read KS's blog posting for this trip: http://wondercreation.blogspot.com/2009/06/semakau-public-walk-on-11-june.html
b) Read MY's blog posting: http://appreciateandlove.blogspot.com/2009/06/went-to-semakau-at-4-am-to-guide-group.html

Discovery @ Hantu on 7 June 2009

2009-06-08T20:35:00.003+08:00

Ninety Seventh Discovery Posting:

The time was near to 4am and a boat ferrying a batch of RMBR guides, including myself, docked at the jetty of Hantu. It has been almost a year plus since I last visited Hantu and therefore looking forward to this trip despite having to wake up at 1am plus.

So the first 'discovery' of the night, ops, i mean morning, are fiddler crabs. Here's a male fiddler crab (picture below).
And here's a female fiddler crab (picture below).Discovery Note:
1. Only male fiddler crabs have an enlarged claw. Female fiddler crabs, on the other hand, have two smaller claws.
2. The enlarged claw can be either on the left or right side.
3. The enlarged claw may be as large or even as heavy as their body and also it cannot be used to hunt, feed or effectively scare off predators. So what is it for?
4. It is used attract female fiddler crabs and intimdate rival mates.
5. The small claw is used for eating, so if you think about it, the females can eat twice as fast as the males as they have two small claws. This is logical as they need the energy for reproduction purposes.
6. Interestingly, fiddler crabs can change colours. They can appear different in the day and night and in some species, the male fiddler crabs have brighter when it's the mating season.
7. To read more about fiddler crabs, visit http://www.wildsingapore.com/wildfacts/crustacea/crab/ocypodoidea/uca.htm.

One thing which I really wanted to see on this visit was feather stars. The reason being that I haven't seen one for quite a while and according to KS, one can find them more easily compared to other inter-tidal areas we visit in Singapore.

And I wasn't disappointed, I saw almost 10 red feather stars in that morning. Second 'discovery'.
Here's how one look like when it's 'closed' up (picture below). And when it's 'opened' (pictures below). And as I walked back into the lagoon on Hantu, I come across a black feather star (picture below)!Discovery Note:
1. This is not really easy to find feather stars near shore areas. They are however more commonly sighted during diving trips.
2. Their long and spiny arms are quite fragile, so don't handle them if you see them.
3. They belong to the Phylum of enchinodermata, like the sea stars and sea cucumbers. Like the other enchinodermata, feather stars are symmetrical along the five axis, have spiny skin and tube feet.
4. Read more about them @ http://www.wildsingapore.com/wildfacts/echinodermata/crinoidea/crinoidea.htm.

The third 'discovery' is a fringe-eyed flathead (picture below). I'm not really good with fishes, so only after a check with KS, who was nearby, then did i know what this fish is. This also translates to more things to learn and read up on...hahaha Close up view of its head (picture below).Discovery Note:
1. If you look closely at the close up photo of its head, you will find that this fish has eyelashes!
2. The two times I've seen it on this same trip, both individuals were lying on the seabed. This might be a way for camouflage itself looking at its appearance.
3. Another reason for this appearance might be because it feeds on creatures that lives in the sea bottom.
4. Read more about them @ http://www.wildsingapore.com/wildfacts/vertebrates/fish/platycephalidae/nematophthalmus.htm.

After spending almost 3 hours plus, our trip ended as the sun rised above the horizon (picture below).Thanks to R and LK for organising this trip and everyone else who helped to keep one another awake throughout the trip...hahaha

The above were not all the things we saw during this trip, I just highlight those which I wanted to, if you are interested...
Extra:
a) Read KS postings on this trip:
http://wondercreation.blogspot.com/2009/06/hantu-underwater-world.html
http://wondercreation.blogspot.com/2009/06/burrowing-giant-clam-at-hantu.html
b) ST's post: http://mantamola.blogspot.com/2009/06/hantu-exploration.html
c) Last but not least, E's post: http://naturallyours.blogspot.com/2009/06/53-pulau-hantu.html

Otters @ Chek Jawa at Ubin on 4 June 2007

2009-06-04T18:46:00.005+08:00

Ninety Sixth Discovery Posting:

Let's jump into the most interesting thing for this posting quickly.

Today, I finally gotten to see otters! I was together with a group of staff of Coral Secondary School on the board walk near to the coastal forest when two heads suddenly 'popped' out of the water. And for one moment, I was wondering and pondering if they could be otters and didn't moved. But at the comment of one of the participants, "Could they be otters?", I decided to make a dash on the boardwalk towards them and upon coming closer to them, I saw two of them (otters) swimming around the waters below the boardwalk! Finally! I got to see otters in the wild!

Here's one of the two (picture below). Not really a clear photo, but you can make out the head.
And as I was photographing away at the pair of otters, my group shouted again to say that there were another group of otters! WOW! I turned around and looked. There was a family of them near the CJ front beacon!

Can you spot their heads? (picture below)Here's a cropped version of the same photo above to better show you where they were (picture below).It was a pity that they didn't got close enough for me to get a decent photo. Well, my camera isn't exactly top-notch too, just a water and shock proof camera with 3 x optical zoom. Nevertheless, I'm happy enough just to have caught a sight of probably 2 families of otters. =D

Discovery Note:
1. Judging from their appearance, it is highly possible that I have seen smooth otters today.
2. They are RARE in Singapore. So it is ALWAYS a joy to see them. =D
3. They are the largest otters you can find in Southeast Asia. And like other otters, they have shorter tightly packed underfur and longer guard hair which are water repellent.
4. Otters are very lean, their fur helps to keep them warm and provides a streamline surface.
5. Like other otters, they are excellent divers and swimmers and are able to swim for long distances and stay underwater for 6-8 minutes with a single breath.
6. It is interesting to note that when they swim, they close their ears and nostrils.
7. They like to eat fish but their diet also consist of things like crabs, frogs, water rats, etc.
8. They may hunt for food in their family groups, working together and using teamwork to catch their prey.
9. There are much more things about them which i didn't list here, if you are interested to find out more and view up close photos of smooth otters, visit http://www.naturia.per.sg/buloh/verts/smooth_otter.htm.

Oh, what a great day!!!

Semakau Inter-Tidal walk on 31st May 2009

2009-06-02T20:25:00.005+08:00

Ninety Fifth Discovery Posting

A late posting (again). Got to blog faster next time.

Anyway, just the past Sunday, 31st May, leading a group of puffer fishes (the name for my group of participants), we visited the inter-tidal area of Semakau.

Despite the hot and scorching weather, we still manage to see a number of organisms, and our first 'discovery' of our walk is this juvenile mangrove horseshoe crab (picture below).
Discovery Note:
1. I forgot to mention to the puffer fishes that horseshoe crabs are actually not crabs. They are more related to spiders and scorpions.
2. They are really ancient creatures as they have been around even before the age of the dinos. Wow.
3. Although horseshoe crabs have exoskeletons like crabs, the make up is different. The exoskeleton of a horseshoe crab does not include calcium but is made up of chitin and protein.
4. Their tails looks dangerous but they are not. Their tails are not used to sting people but used to help turn themselves upright if they are upside down.
5. Their blood used to be harvest as their blood contain a substance which can be used to test the presence of bacteria in human medication and medical tests. However, a team from NUS has managed to reproduce this substance in the labs without using horseshoe crab's blood.
6. Read more about horseshoe crabs @ http://www.wildsingapore.com/wildfacts/arthropoda/limulidae/limulidae.htm.

As the puffer fishes 'swam' across the seagrass meadows, I got them to stop halfway and pose for two group photos (pictures below). After crossing probably the biggest seagrass meadow in Singapore, a colony of common sea stars were there to greet our arrival. Here's one of them and our second 'discovery' (picture below). Discovery Note:
1. It has an interesting way of eating. Instead of putting food into their mouths like us, common sea stars stick or push out their stomach, greenish in colour, which is located on their underside to eat.
2. If possible, leave the sea stars in sea water. This is because like we need blood in our bodies, they need sea water in their bodies to look and be healthy.
3. Read more about them @ http://www.wildsingapore.com/wildfacts/echinodermata/asteroidea/archaster.htm.

The third 'discovery' is another species of sea star. The knobbly sea star (picture below)!Discovery Note:
1. They used to be found in huge numbers before our shores were developed. Nowadays, sightings of them are limited to only a handful of shores.
2. They can come in different colours, but colours usually range in shades of orange, red, biege.
3. Read more about them @ http://www.wildsingapore.com/wildfacts/echinodermata/asteroidea/protoreaster.htm.

And of course, we would not miss a group photo with the 'star' of our walk (picture below). Like previous months, we came across a number of noble volute which were laying eggs or close to their egg mass (picture below). Fourth 'discovery'.
Discovery Note:
1. As you can see, the shell of a noble volute can be really pretty. So people collect them.
2. They are also collected for food. Combined with the loss of habitats, they have labelled as 'vulnerable' in the Red List of Threaten Animals of Singapore.
3. Read more about them @ http://www.wildsingapore.com/wildfacts/mollusca/gastropoda/volutidae/nobilis.htm.

As the weather was really hot and humid, a lot of organism hid or burrowed themselves. So to spot more things, we looked into more tidal pools than usual. And in a number of them, we spotted fan worms. Here's one of them and the fifth 'discovery' (picture below). Discovery Note:
1. They might look like plants to some. But they are actually segmented worms, think earthworms.
2. The fan-like thing sticking out is actually the worm's head. The feathery-like things are modified tentacles called radioles.
3. These radioles help the fan worm to gather food. Food is any tiny food particies found in the water.
4. Read more about fan worms @ http://www.wildsingapore.com/wildfacts/worm/polychaeta/sabellidae.htm.

In other tidal pools, we also spotted the very beautiful red maiden's fan (picture below).
Discovery Note:
1. Another object which looks like a plant. But this is actually an animal.
2. To be more specific, this is a kind of sponge.

Our hunter seekers also manage to find this really interesting 6 armed knobbly sea star (picture below).
And also 2 juvenile cushion sea stars! Sixth 'discovery' (picture below).Discovery Note:
1. They are more oftenly seen during diving, so it is always a treat to spot them in the inter-tidal areas.
2. They have been found to feed on some species of hard corals. Their diet could also consist of immobile animals, organic particles found on sediments and sea weeds.
3. Read more about them @ http://www.wildsingapore.com/wildfacts/echinodermata/asteroidea/culcita.htm.

Before i end, I would like to thank all puffer fishes for making this another fun trip out despite the heat. =D

Extra:
a) Tidechaser's posting: http://tidechaser.blogspot.com/2009/05/filming-at-semakau.html
b) Manta's posting: http://mantamola.blogspot.com/2009/05/semakau-inter-tidal-walk-31-may-09.html
c) Urban forest's posting: http://uforest.blogspot.com/2009/05/semakau.html

Discovery @ Sekudu on 27 May 2009

2009-05-29T21:04:00.007+08:00

Ninty Fourth Discovery Posting:

This is a little late posting as I was busy with work the past two days. Anyway, despite having work commitments, I still managed to squeeze time to visit Sekudu or otherwise known as Frog Island. The answer to why this small island, yes, it is a little island about the size of a football field and is located about south of Chek Jawa of Pulau Ubin, is called Frog Island will be made known later.

In this posting, I will highlight some of the MANY organisms which my friends and I have seen during the trip.

'First discovery' is this ghost crab (picture below).
Discovery Notes:
1. The logic behind their name is that they are more commonly sighted during the night.
2. Another reason is that they move really fast, or one could say that in a glance of eye, they can disappear in front of your eyes.
3. Read more about Ghost Crabs @ http://www.wildsingapore.com/wildfacts/crustacea/crab/ocypodoidea/ocypode.htm.

Our second 'discovery' is not one but two blue dragon nudibranchs. To be truthful, I believe there were three sightings of blue dragon nudibranch. However, i only got photos for two of them (picture below).
Discovery Note:
1. For protection, some nudibranchs produce distasteful substances, toxins and acids. However, not all nudibranchs can do that. So as an alternative, they kind of make use of the food they eat for protection.
2. The blue dragon nudibranch for example, eats hydriods. And it is important to note that hydriods possesses stings that can hurt other organisms real bad upon contact. So when eating the hydriod, the blue dragon nudibranch also 'take in' the stings and 'transplant' it on their bodies as a form of self-protection.
3. The blue dragon nudibranch can also 'take in' zooxanthellae (algae) in their bodies. The zooxanthellae when photosynthesising can share its food while the blue dragon nudibranch provides it a home.
4. Find out more @ http://www.wildsingapore.com/wildfacts/mollusca/slugs/nudibranchia/ianthina.htm.

Third 'discovery' is a leaf slug (picture below).
Discovery Note:
1. Leaf slugs can also 'take in' things from the food they eat and make use of them.
2. Leaf slugs usually eat seaweed and they are able to retain the choloroplasts (the part which contains chlorophyll). These choloroplasts are able to continue photosynthesising in the body of the leaf slug and provides any extra 'food' to the slug.
3. The choloroplasts found in the bodies of leaf slugs in one main reason why they are mostly green in colour.
4. Read more about them @ http://www.wildsingapore.com/wildfacts/mollusca/slugs/sacoglossa/ornata.htm.

Next up, fourth 'discovery' are two carpet anemones (picture below). There are actually quite a number of carpet anemones on Sekudu. This is great as it is a sign that Sekudu is also recovering from the great flood that affected Sekudu and Chek Jawa in Dec 2007/Jan 2008. Anyway...
Discovery Note:
1. For self defence and preying purposes, carpet anemones have stinging cells in their tentacles which will release or 'shoot' small 'needles' when upon contact. So I won't really advise you to touch them although our skin might be 'thicker' than most marine creatures. This is to prevent you from getting stung.
2. They lack an anus, so they split out any indigestible food through its mouth.
Readbody tphy over.

Fifth 'discovery' is also an anemone. But this is a swimming anemone (picture below).
Discovery Note:
1. This anemone often looks like a ball of tentacles and it doesn't have a long body column that is buried in the ground like the carpet anemones or peacock anemones.
2. Instead, it may be perched on seagrasess. This anemone can swim by undulating its tentacles!
3. Read more about them @ http://www.wildsingapore.com/wildfacts/cnidaria/actiniaria/boloceroididae.htm.

Sixth 'discovery' is another anemone and this one is a peacock anemone. Another anemone which can be found in numbers on Sekudu (picture below). Discovery Note:
1. To see their full beauty, you will need to see them in a certain depth of water, like above.
2. The long small things around the ring of the anemone are actually tentacles, and there are two types of tentacles, one on the outer ring while the other on the inner ring.
3. The tentacles on the outer ring gathers food (plankton) are called the marginal tentacles and the tentacles on the inner ring (which are usually shorter) are called oral tentacles is for manipulating food into its mouth located in the center.
4. Their 'home' is a tube found below the mouth area, therefore they are also known as tube anemones.
5. Read more about them @ http://www.wildsingapore.com/wildfacts/cnidaria/others/ceriantharia/ceriantharia.htm.

Seventh 'discovery' are two different types of stingrays (pictures below).
First up is a mangrove whip ray.
And the other is a blue spotted stingray.Discovery Note:
1. The position of the eyes allows a stingray to see almost behind it.
2. The gills and mouth are found on the underside of the body.
3. It doesn't really have teeth—instead, the mouth is outfitted with two food-crushing plates.
4. Rays dart away when they sense trouble approaching. When caught off guard, these fish fend off predators with a flick of the tail, which is equipped with two venomous spines. Since its tail is so long, a stingray can even strike at animals directly in front of it.
5. The large tail spine of a stingray is dangerous and even deadly. The barbs in the tail are so large; people have bled to death from a sting. However, they will not sting unless you handle or step on them. So never handle them and allows follow your guide's trail on a guided walk.
6. Read more about them @ http://www.wildsingapore.com/wildfacts/vertebrates/fish/dasyatidae/dasyatidae.htm.

Eighth 'discovery' should be a peacock solefish (picture below). (*Newly added*)According to Ria, this might be a large-tooth flounder instead as its tail fin is separated from the dorsal and tail fin. Thanks Ria. Discovery Note:
1. The large tooth flounder is almost as flat as the peacock sole.
2. To me, it is not easy to tell them apart as I am not familiar with fishes.
3. However, a second examination via photos could help us with its ID. So it is important to take photographs of any sightings if possible.
4. Read more about peacock soles @ http://www.wildsingapore.com/wildfacts/vertebrates/fish/soleidae/pavoninus.htm.
5. Read more about large tooth flounder @ http://www.wildsingapore.com/wildfacts/vertebrates/fish/paralichthyidae/paralichthyidae.htm.

Ninth 'discovery' is a sponge crab (picture below). Discovery Note:
1. They are called sponge crabs as they usually have a living sponge on its top carapace.
2. It is not born together with the sponge if you are wondering. The crab uses its pincers to snap out a cap out of a living sponge to fit it over its body.
3. The purpose of this is for camouflage and protection from its predators (since sponges usually leaves a 'bad' taste).
4. To read more about it, visit http://www.wildsingapore.com/wildfacts/crustacea/crab/dromiidae/dromiidae.htm.

To top of these sightings, we also had a really starry morning. This is because we saw a number of sea stars during this trip (pictures below). Now before ending this posting, let me explain why Sekudu is also called Frog Island.

One reason is because that there is a rock on the island which looks like a frog (see the picture below).There is also a legend on this. It goes something like this:

Long before your time, 3 animals, an elephant, a pig and a frog lined up along the coast of Changi in a swimming race from Changi to Johor.
As they raced, the frog drown halfway through the race (I'm still wondering why, as I feel frogs should be better swimmers compared to elephants and pigs) and thus formed Pulau Sekudu.
Well, the elephant and pig didn't complete the race as well, in fact they drown a little further up from the frog drown, and so the two animals formed the island of Pulau Ubin.

This was a really great trip. Thanks to LK and R for organising and all others for making this trip another FUN trip. =D

Forgot to add that you will need a permit from Nparks to visit this Island. Thanks CH for the reminder. =D

Extra:
By KS:
a) Dollars and Sands of Sekudu: http://wondercreation.blogspot.com/2009/05/dollars-and-stars-of-sekudu.html
b) Back to froggy Sekudu: http://wondercreation.blogspot.com/2009/05/back-to-froggy-sekudu.html

By R:
a) Enchinoderms of Sekudu: http://tidechaser.blogspot.com/2009/05/echinoderms-of-pulau-sekudu.html
b) Sekudu on 27 May: http://tidechaser.blogspot.com/2009/05/pulau-sekudu-on-27-may-2009.html

Semakau Inter-Tidal Walk on 1st May 2009

2009-05-01T20:29:00.006+08:00

Ninety Third Discovery Posting:

Unlike the previous two mornings where storms raged above our skies, clear skies greeted us this morning. This prevented any disappointment to all shore goers, especially to the knobbly sea stars, the group which I was guiding today over at Semakau.

Here are the knobbly sea stars of the day with D, my 'lovey' assistant of the day, left-most person (pictures below).
Wacky Shot (picture below)One of first few things which are most prominent and stir our visitors' curiosity as one walks on the Semakau inter-tidal zone would be the sponges. Our first 'discovery' (picture below). Discovery Note:
1. The sponges you use at home nowadays are mostly made synthetically. But in the past, sponges are made from real living sponges.
2. Some bathing sponges which are on available are still made from living sponges though, you can tell the difference from the labels and of course, the price tag. =P
3. Not all sponges can be made into bathing sponges, so don't go around and pick up any sponge and use them to rub them against your body. This is because some sponges have sharp and poky spicules which can cause irritation and pain if contact is made. In other words, do not handle any sponges if possible.
4. Sponges can come in many different colours and we do not know exactly why. But there are some possible reasons mentioned by scientists: a) act as warning colours to inform animals that they are not good food, b) sunblock, c) due to symbiotic algae.
5. You can read more about sponges @ http://www.wildsingapore.com/wildfacts/porifera/porifera.htm.

Besides having good weather, we were also lucky enough to spot a well-camouflaged spider conch! Second 'discovery' (picture below shows the top side). The spider conch is really a sea snail with a beautiful shell. Look at its underside to understand why I say that (picture below).
Discovery Note:
1. As a result of their really nice shells, spider conches are not only collected for food, they are also collected for their shells.
2. Due to this collection, spider conches have been labelled as a 'vulnerable' on the Red list of threaten animals of Singapore.
3. That aside, the movement of spider conches is quite interesting. They make use of a curved, knifed shaped operculum or in short, a 'leg' or 'pole' to pole vault around.
4. The spikes that are found on the shell helps to prevent the spider conch are rolling around after making a 'hop'.
5. Read more about the spider conch @ http://www.wildsingapore.com/wildfacts/mollusca/gastropoda/strombidae/lambis.htm.

Awaiting at our next station was a small and cute animal, a stripped hermit crab. Third 'discovery' (picture below). Discovery Note:
1. Hermit crabs unlike the other crabs which are commonly seen do not have a hard carapace that can cover their whole body.
2. So they need an empty shell as a home to protect their soft buttocks. So before you want to bring home an empty shell you find along the shore. Think about the hermit crabs who cannot find a home.
3. As the hermit crabs grow bigger, they also need bigger shells to contain their ahem... bigger buttocks. So all sizes of empty shells are important to them.
4. Read more about them @ http://www.wildsingapore.com/wildfacts/crustacea/othercrust/anomura/hermit/hermit.htm.

Today the knobbly sea stars also had the chance to meet themselves! A knobbly sea star, our fourth 'discovery' (picture below). And of course, the knobbly sea stars of the day just have to take a photo with the real guy. =P (picture below)
All in all, everyone was cheerful despite the hot weather. And what really made the day for everyone was a sighting which I didn't manage to photograph. That is the sighting of dolphins!

Some of our guides did manage to get some photos and even videos of them. Here are the links:
a) http://wondercreation.blogspot.com/2009/05/dolphins-sighted-off-semakau.html
b) http://tidechaser.blogspot.com/2009/05/dolphins-at-semakau-jetty.html

Extra (Other blog posts on this trip):
a) http://wondercreation.blogspot.com/2009/05/semakau-walk-on-labour-day.html
b) http://tidechaser.blogspot.com/2009/05/semakau-walk-on-may-day.html

Discover Jong on 30 April 2009

2009-04-30T20:55:00.007+08:00

Ninety Second Discovery Posting:

Today, I had the chance to step on an island which I've passed and seen over many times on the way to Semakau Land-fill Island. This island is Pulau Jong. To get an idea why I've seen it many times to my way to Semakau, refer to the picture below.
Pulau Jong is a small and unhabitated island near to Semakau land-fill island. But they are not the cause of our interest in the island. Jong intrigues us as it not only possess a undistrubed coastal forest, it also has an inter-tidal area which is larger than the area of the island seen during high tide.

However to land on the island itself is not simple as it does not have any proper landing site, thus an amphidious landing would be one of the few ways available for us to land. Probably the picture below can give you a better idea. It shows our 'first' team which have just achieved a landing via a small boat.
Before the rest could follow, we were halted in our steps by mother nature. Storm clouds were approaching us and very soon Jong was overcasted by them (picture below).
Luckily for us, it was a passing storm and our very experienced boat captain soon informed us that it was safe for the rest to leave the boat and land on Jong.

And so my first photo of Jong on Jong...hahaha (picture below)I've heard from the others who have been onto the island that one could find many soft corals there and true to their word, Jong was covered with loads of soft corals. Here's a little bit of them (picture below). Here's a photo showing the marine transfer station over at Semakau in the back while a small part of the inter-tidal area of Jong in the foreground (picture below). Exploring around, I came across a few black margined nudibranch (Glossodoris atromarginata), polka-dort nudibranches (Jorunna funebris), a phyllid nudibranch (not sure of its species), some blue-lined flatworms, a blue-spotted fantail ray (which swam pass my legs), many hairy crabs, etc.

There are 2 special things I wish to highlight in this posting. The first one or 'discovery' is the giant reef worm (picture below).
Discovery Note:
1. Giant reef worms are commonly encountered on our southern shores. However, they are shy and will quicky hide at the sight or sense of danger. Thus, it takes great patience or luck to have a decent photo of one. This (picture above) was a lucky shot.
2. They are segmented worms and can grow to a lenght of about 1.5m.
3. You must not wish to handle this as they are known to give a nasty bite.
4. Read more about them @ http://www.wildsingapore.com/wildfacts/worm/polychaeta/giant.htm.

The second one or 'discovery' is a nudibranch which I've never seen before. If I am not wrong, this is a nudibranch from the Genus Bornella. Below is a series of photos of the same individual. Discovery Note:
1. From what i read from wildfacts, it states that they are said to be able to swim by flexing its long body from side to side. This is true as it was flexing away at the point of time when I came across it.
2. They are said to feed on hydriods. This means there is a possibility that they will carry the stings of hydroids as a result of their diet and for self defense. For your own safety, never handle nudibranches with your bare hands.

Overall, it was a great trip despite having a shorter time than planned to explore the area. Thanks to LK for organising this trip and of cos everyone else. =D

Side note:
Jong is mentioned in an interesting proposal, the Singapore Blue Plan 2009.
The Singapore Blue Plan 2009, in summary, is a proposal to the government and people of Singapore regarding about the conservation and rehabilitation of our coastal and marine heritage. And within this plan, Jong is proposed to be one of the places to be listed as "Marine Biodiversity Areas".

Right now, this blue plan is a draft and the planning committee welcome any feedback. So head over to http://dl-client.getdropbox.com/u/8936/Singapore%20Blue%20Plan%20Draft.pdf, download the draft and provide any suggestions or feedback.

Extra:
For those interested to find out what plants are found there, I found a list made by JL while I was searching information on Jong online.
Here's the link > http://www.eart-h.com/text/jong1.htm

a) Read KS's blog entry on this trip. It has loads of pictures on corals.

Semakau Inter Tidal Walk @ 12 April 2009

2009-04-12T20:15:00.006+08:00

Ninety First Discovery Posting:

Personally, this morning was quite a talkative morning as I leaded a group of Sec 2 students from Tampines Secondary. It was talkative because the group I was leading was talking amongst themselves almost on and on when I wasn't talking...hahaha.

Anyway, I'll feature some of the things we saw in today's walk. First 'discovery' are a group of sea stars found in a 'weird' position (picture below).
Discovery Note:
1. This unique positioning pattern is actually a part of the common sea stars' mating ritual.
2. The male, which is usually smaller in size, will be found on top of the female with its arms alternating with hers.
3. The common sea stars do not external reproduction organs. Therefore this behaviour is to increase the chance of exterior fertilisation.
4. Read more about this and the common sea star @ http://www.wildsingapore.com/wildfacts/echinodermata/asteroidea/archaster.htm.

Here are two photos of the very talkative upside downs with their feet submerged in water (group name for the day, actually it's a short form for upside down jellyfish) (pictures below).
probably 25% Wacky Version (picture below).We were quite lucky this morning that our hunter seekers managed to spot a sea urchin. This is because it has been a while since once was spotted during a public walk, for me that is. Anyway, this is the second 'discovery' (picture below).Discover Note:
1. Sea Urchins are usually covered with lots of spiny spines.
2. These spines are used for moving around and at the same time for protection against most predators.
3. These spines can cause pain if contacted upon, so do not handle them with your bare hands.
4. The orange dot you see in the picture above is actually the anus of the urchin.
5. The mouth is located on the underside of the urchin.
6. To find out more about sea urchins, read on @ http://www.wildsingapore.com/wildfacts/echinodermata/echinoidea/urchin/urchin.htm.

Next up on this post are nudibranchs, third 'discovery' (picture below).
Discovery Note:

1. 'Nudibranch' means 'naked gills'. The name comes from the flower-like gills found on the back of many nudibranchs. These nudibranchs use the gills to breathe.
2. Nudibranchs are related to snails. Little baby nudibranchs are born with shells, but they lose them when they become adults.
3. Most nudibranchs are carnivores, they eat immobile or small, slow-moving prey. Examples are sponges, ascidians, hard corals, soft corals, sea anemones etc.

5. Read more about nudibranchs @ http://www.wildsingapore.com/wildfacts/mollusca/nudibranchia.htm.

And after some hard work from our hunter seekers, people who set off first to look for marine creatures for us, they managed to find 3 knobbly sea stars, here's one of them (picture below).

Discovery Note:
1. They get their name from the knobs they have.
2. Although most of them are mostly red or orange in colour, beige or brown coloured knobbly sea stars have been spotted before also.
3. Can you believe that a knobbly seastar might be larger than your face? It’s about 30cm across! (look at the pictures below to get an idea)

4. As we need blood in our bodies to survive, sea stars need sea water to survive. So do not remove them from the water if possible!

5. Read more about knobbly sea stars @ http://www.wildsingapore.com/wildfacts/echinodermata/asteroidea/protoreaster.htm.

Finally, a traditional group photo with the knobbly sea star (picture below)

Well, although verbally, it has been a quite tiring morning, i did enjoy the company. =D
Thank you, upside downs for this 'entertaining' morning, remember to only make noise when needed and don't make more teachers erm... dislike your class. =P

Discover why the sky is blue

2009-03-29T17:42:00.003+08:00

Discovery Posting Ninety:

Have you ever wondered why the sky is blue?

To answer this question, we need to explore about a little about earth's atmosphere and light.

Earth's Atmosphere
According to Wikipedia, Earth's atmosphere (or air) is a layer of gases surrounding the planet Earth that is retained by the Earth's gravity. Dry air contains roughly (by volume) 78.08% nitrogen, 20.95% oxygen, 0.93% argon, 0.038% carbon dioxide, and trace amounts of other gases. Air also contains a variable amount of water vapor, on average around 1%.
Other particles such as dust, soot and ashes, pollen and salt from the oceans can also be found in the atmosphere.

Light
Light is made up of many colours. These colours include red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. At the same time, light is a kind of energy that travels in waves, just like sound. The colours that make up light possess different energy levels.

Violet, for example, possesses the highest energy and also, take note, the shortest wavelength. For the colour of red, it possesses the lowest energy and the longest wavelenght.

Why is the sky blue?
(From http://www.sciencemadesimple.com/sky_blue.html)
As light moves through the earth's atmosphere, most of the colours which have longer wavelengths pass straight through. Thus, little of the red, orange and yellow light is affected by the air.

However, colours with shorter wavelength is absorbed by the gas molecules. The absorbed blue light is then radiated in different directions. They then get scattered all around the sky. So whichever direction you look, some of this scattered blue light reaches you. And since you see the blue light from everywhere overhead, the sky looks blue.

Extra:
For a more detailed reading on this topic, please refer to http://www.sciencemadesimple.com/sky_blue.html.

Reference:
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth%27s_atmosphere

Discover Semakau Landfill Island @ 8 March 2009

2009-03-08T23:04:00.008+08:00

Eighty Ninth Discovery Posting:

Do you have any idea how much waste is being thrown away each year?

A quick check on NEA's website yielded this result. In the year of 2006, a total of 2.56 million tonnes of waste was disposed of at the refuse disposal facilities and approximately 2.33 million tonnes or 90.8% was incinerated while the remainder went to the Semakau Landfill. The incinerated waste also goes to Semakau Landfill. So where is this place call Semakau Landfill? But before I answer this question, let us look more in detail regarding about the incineration plants in Singapore.

To date, NEA (National Environmental Agency) operates four incineration plants. These plants are not only just buildings that burns waste. More accurately, NEA names them as waste-to-energy plants (WTEP). In simple terms, they are plants which are able to generate energy from the incineration activities. And as I am typing this, the construction of the fifth WTEP is ongoing.

For your information, these four WETP has a combined incineration capacity of about 8,200 tonnes per day and has contribute to two to three per cent of Singapore's energy needs, around 954, 237 Mwh, in 2006.

So why bother to incinerate our waste?
Well, it's simply because through incineration, we can reduce the volume of the waste by almost 90 per cent!

So if we do not have our four WTEPs, a landfill the size of 300 soccer fields would need to be set aside every year for our waste! But with incineration, supported by other waste minimisation and recycling measures, we can extend the life of our only landfill, Semakau landfill, beyond 2040.

*The above information was extracted and edited from http://www.nea.gov.sg/ar07/cleangreen-waste.html.

So back to the topic of Semakau Landfill. Where is it? To have a better idea of the location of Semakau landfill, refer to the picture below. Look out for the red circle.
From the map above, you can see that Semakau Landfill is an island and located at the south of mainland Singapore.It is currently Singapore's only offshore landfill for waste, or more accurately incinerated and non-incinerable waste disposal. The landfill covers a total area of 350 hectares, which translates roughly to the size of about 175 football fields. From what I gather, Semakau landfill is also the only offshore landfill island in the world!

To create the required landfill capacity, reclaimation work had to be carried out and the Semakau landfill today is actually reclaimed from two islands, Pulau Semakau and Pulau Sakeng. To get an idea, look at the photo below I grabbed and edited from Google Maps (picture below).From the map above, you might notice a grey road-like thing which is surrounding most of the island. That is actually a 7km perimeter rock bund which was built to enclose a part of the sea off Pulau Semakau and Pulau Sakeng. The bund is lined with impermeable membrane and a layer of marine clay to ensure that leachate from the incinerated waste is contained within the landfill area and treated at the leachate treatment plant. And as the island is quite a distance away from mainland Singapore, other ancillary facilities were also built on the island to ensure self-sustainability of the landfill operation.

An thing to note is that during the construction of the landfill, a rigorous marine monitoring programme was established to ascertain if the still extant reefs around the reclamation had been impacted and/or recovered. Silt screens were also erected to protect the coral reef on the western side of Pulau Semakau from excessive siltation. And as a result of these efforts, the remaining natural part of Pulau Semakau that was not affected by the landfill construction has retained its enormous intertidal area which is rich in biodiversity and comprises of several ecosystems. And it is this intertidal area which I often visit for guiding groups or Project Semakau.

Guided walks?
As a volunteer guide for Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research, I visit the intertidal area of Semakau about once a month to help in guided trips there. For more information about these walks, visit: http://rmbr.nus.edu.sg/workshop/semakau_workshop.php.

Project Semakau?
From: http://projectsemakau.rafflesmuseum.net/

Project Semakau is a community involvement and conservation project, driven by volunteer-based research led by the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research, National University of Singapore, to collect data on the biodiversity of Pulau Semakau so as to realise and enhance the island's value as a nature education and conservation site. Project Semakau seeks to raise public awareness and appreciation of the rich biodiversity of the island in the following ways:

Creating a detailed intertidal map of Pulau Semakau, to serve as the baseline for monitoring the biodiversity through a scientific survey with the help of volunteers from HSBC and other community volunteers.
Creating a free, online database of Pulau Semakau’s rich biodiversity for public use.
Identifying core habitats for regular monitoring using various transect methods.
Conducting guided walks for schools and the public with the help of the project’s volunteers.
Mapping out and targeting specific species of flora and fauna for detailed and widespread surveys with the help of scientific experts.

So how is incinerated and non-incinerable waste moved to Semakau Landfill Island?
First, they are brought from the individual WTEP to Tuas Marine Transfer Station situation. They are then loaded onto a barge and pushed by tagboats on a 25km journey to Semakau landfill island. This moving operation from Tuas to Semakau is done at night to maximise the usage of marine vessels and to avoid the heavier traffic in the day.

On arriving at Semakau, the barges move into a Marine transfer station and large excavators will unload the load onto large 35-tonne dump trucks or onto the tipping floor. And eventually, the load will find its way to the landfill cells, a place where the incinerated and non-incinerable waste is dumped into.

*Above information is extracted and edited from http://www.nea.gov.sg/cms/esd/brochure/TMTS.pdf.

So an intertidal walk at Semakau consists of...
Before going for the actual walk itself, participants and guides will have to walk through a kampung trail (picture below). Some people call it the kampung trail because there used to be people who lived on Pulau Semakau (and Pulau Sakeng) and this was a trail which was used by them before. The people who used to live there and on Sakeng were relocated to mainland Singapore before the project of constructing the landfill began.
Participants of the guided walks includes members of the public, school groups, etc. For the walk which was just over, WJ and me guided a group of teenagers from Boon Lay Secondary. Here are two group photos of the group (pictures below)., As this is already a long enough posting, I have decided not to blog about any of the marine creatures we saw during this trip. But if any discoverers are interested, you may visit http://wherediscoverybegins.blogspot.com/search/label/Semakau to look at all the different creatures I've seen on the various trips to Semakau.

Finally, a BIG thanks to the group of spider conches who remain attentive despite the hot weather. =D

Extra (Other Entries for this walk):
a) Tidechaser's: http://tidechaser.blogspot.com/2009/03/scorching.html
b) Manta's: http://mantamola.blogspot.com/2009/03/semakau-tidal-walk-8-march-09.html
c) E's: http://naturallyours.blogspot.com/2009/03/48-semakau-guiding-w-meiyi-giant-clams.html
d) MY's: http://appreciateandlove.blogspot.com/2009/03/semakau-after-so-long.html

Discovery @ Bukit Timah Nature Reserve

2009-02-23T17:56:00.006+08:00

Eighty eighth Discovery Posting:

Bukit Time Nature Reserve (武吉知马自然保护区), a place where one can climb/walk to the tallest point of Singapore (at around 164 meters), in terms of non-man-made structure, was our destination last Sat. However, our objective wasn't the tallest point but around the reserve to explore and learn about the plants found in the reserve. Together with the Central Catchment reserve, both places are great places to learn about plants which occurs in primary and secondary forests as they house around 840 species of flowering plants and 80 fern species.

And our first 'discovery' of the day is a plant which flower looks like a mini microphone, the petai ,Parkia speciosa (picture below).
Discovery Note:
1. This plant is better known as the plant which produces stink beans.
2. Stink beans are popular in southern Thailand, Burma, Malaysia, Indonesia and northeastern India.
3. According to Wikipedia, they are best when combined with other strong flavoured foods such as garlic, chill peppers, and dried shrimp, as in "sambal petai" or added to a Thai curry such as Thai Green Curry.
4. Read more about it @ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkia_speciosa.

The second 'discovery' is an interesting plant which I will give more details as you read on. Btw, this plant is Gutta-percha, Palaquium gutta (pictures below).

Top view of its leaves(picture below)
Bottom view of its leaves and a view of its golden-colour like underside (picture below)
Discovery Note:
1. Before rubber trees were tapped comerically for their latex around our region and probably some others, the latex from the gutta-percha, was tapped widely and used to produce the protective covering of submarine telegraphic cables in the mid 1800s.
2. Collection of latex from the gutta-percha back then sadly did not include only tapping but also through the felling of these species of trees.
3. And another interesting fact is that a section of the Bukit Timah forest was maintained as a gutta-percha plantation until the early 1900s.
4. This is why one can find a certain number of these plants clustered in parts of Bukit Timah.
5. Read more about this plant @ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gutta_percha.

One plant which you might not find unfamilar to sight is this licuala palm, third 'discovery' (picture below).
Discovery Note:
1. You don't find it unfamilar as many Licuala species are popular ornamental plants for gardens and indoor decorations.
2. In the indigenous communities of the Malayan rain forests, the leaves of these palms are used to make roof thatching, hats, umbrellas and even to wrap food.

As we walked around, we came across this interesting sight and was told by LK that the cauliflower-like things are the female flowers of the Baccaurea parviflora (picture below), fourth 'discovery'. And some time later, we came across the male flowers of the same plant (not so clear picture below).Discovery Note:
1. The flowers of this plant are unisexual, this means at any one time on one plant, the flowers are either all male or female.
2. The trees, on the other hand, are dimorphic. *If I am not wrong, this means that the trees can morph/change to either male or female.* <-- According to LK, this should be wrong. So I did some search online and found this. Thanks, LK!
Dimorphic can mean
a) Flowers that appear in two forms in the same species, on the same or different plants.
b) A creature or plant that is highly variable between male and female. Easily distinguishable features such as color or size make the identification of the sexes very easy.
3. The female flowers are found borne in spikes from the base of the tree.
4. The male flowers are cauliflorous on knobs to a height of about 2 meters and more.
5. You might be wondering why the flowers of this plant is found around the stem, a phenomena unlike many other plants which you might have seen before. According to what I know, by being in a low position as you see in the photos, forest animals can easily reach these flowers and feed on them and thus aid in pollination.

As a few of us have done guided walks in Bukit Timah, they took turns to teach the rest of us (including myself) on some of the commonly-seen plants in the reserve and probably other forests also. Here's one, the leaf litter plant, fifth 'discovery' (picture below).
Discovery Note:
1. The leaf litter plant has an interesting way to gather additional nutrients.
2. From the left picture above, you can see dead leaves trapped between the leaves of the plant.
3. These trapped dead leaves in time will decompose and become additional nutrients for the plant.
4. This source of nutrients is important for the plant as the forest floor is often nutrient poor.

The last plant I will feature today, sixth 'discovery' is the mousedeer plant (picture below).
Discovery Note:
1. One main reason why this plant is called the mousedeer plant is because the mousedeer is known to consume the plant's fruits.
2. This plant also has an unique leaf structure. A closer look is available on the right hand side of the picture above.

All in all, it was a great way to spent the morning. However, if you are interested to visit the place. Do keep some things in mind:

1. Keep to the trail as to minimise the trampling and damage done to the flora.
2. Do not venture to trails which are closed. On the day of our trip, we saw a few people walking into closed trails. This is bad for two reasons, one, they are risking their safety as the trail may be closed due to safety reasons. Two, sometimes trails are closed for the regeneration of flora found near the trail and this is not possible if people continue to enter the trail.
3. Keep your voice and walking volume down. This is to cause minimal disturbance to the animals found in the reserve and at the same time, it increases your chances of sighting an animal during your walk.
4. Take nothing but photos, leave nothing but footprints.
5. Do not feed any animals. For example, as a result of feeding, some macaques are known to snatch food from humans.

Of course, don't forget to enjoy your walk while you are there. =D
PS: Thanks to everyone who went and made this trip another enjoyable outdoor session.

Extra:
a) Read more about the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve @ http://www.ecologyasia.com/html-loc/bukit-timah.htm and http://www.nparks.gov.sg/cms/index.php?option=com_visitorsguide&task=naturereserves&id=46&Itemid=75.

b) For a more comprehensive 'virtual' guide to the place, visit http://tidechaser.blogspot.com/2008/04/bukit-timah-nature-reserve.html.

c) Read WQ's entry for the trip. It consists of many plants which we saw. It's @ http://midori-no-michi.blogspot.com/2009/02/btnr-18th-feb-2009-cradling-last.html.

Discovery @ Sentosa on 9 Feb 2009

2009-02-11T23:49:00.006+08:00

Eighty Seventh Discovery Posting:

On the just past Monday, together with G, we visited Sentosa. Actually this was suppose to be some sort of a reece trip for an upcoming eco-camp, but I used this chance to also to take a long-awaited look at the shores of Sentosa again. Especially the area where the construction of the Sentosa IR is going on nearby (picture below).
If you look closely at the photo, you will spot a huge barrier like object. I suppose that is a barrier set up by the developers of the IR to prevent silt and other particles from destroying the life found on the side I was exploring. And I have to say it is working to quite a good extent, as most of the corals which I have seen before the development began are still around (I might be wrong in this, so do feel free to amend on what I have written here).

And first 'discovery' is two different species of hard corals (picture below). Despite going through some training on the ID-ing of corals, I still suck at it...anyway, Discovery Note:
1. Corals are animals.
2. They belong to a group of ancient and simple group of animals known as Cnidarians (pronounced as "nai-day-rians") Jellyfishes and sea anemones are also from this phylum Cnidaria.
3. Cnidarians are aquatic and they share a common and unique feature of having stinging cells used for protection and catching of prey.
4. They are generally composed of more than one tiny animal, probably tens / hundreds / thousands of them in one coral structure, that's why you have heard of "Coral Colony".
5. These tiny animals are called polyps which feed on microscopic plankton or small organisms.
6. Coral hosts colourful zooxanthellae algae in them.
7. These algae form a symbiotic relationship (one which they help one another) with the corals.
8. Through photosynthesis, these algae generate "food" for themselves and pass the extras to the coral which will help to the coral to grow into a larger colony. In return, the coral provides a "home" for these algae.
9. Thus, corals are usually found in clear and shallow waters, as sufficient sunlight is essential in photosynthesis.
10. Read more about hard corals @ http://www.wildsingapore.com/wildfacts/cnidaria/coralhard/coralhard.htm.

As I walked around the area, I soon came across a little heron (ID made known to me by Nov, thanks!) and it's second 'discovery'.
Discovery Note:
1. Little herons' diet mainly consist of small fish and crustacea (mainly crabs). That explains why I saw one at Sentosa.
2. They also feed on amphibians and insects and any other edible tidbits, including small mammals.
3. They tend to roost alone (stay alone) and are highly territoral.
4. Read more about them @ http://www.naturia.per.sg/buloh/birds/Butorides_striatus.htm.

A surpirse find of the day would be two sand dollars, third 'discovery' (picture below).
Discovery Note:
1. Living sand dollars are coated in fine, harmless spines that made them very velvety.
2. The spines are movable and are used to dig into the sand or move around.
3. The dense layer of spines also helps to keep off sand and silt so there is a flow of oxygenated water across the body.
4. Read more about them @ http://www.wildsingapore.com/wildfacts/echinodermata/echinoidea/sandollar/sandollar.htm.

I especially love walking along this stretch of the Sentosa shores... (picture below)
Reason being that I can look at the interesting rock structures created by the waves and the weather (picture below). After walking pass one of my favourite parts, we came to another part of the natural shore on Sentosa and bumped into two teachers from RJC who were reecing to check if the place is suitable for a biology class session. It's heartening to hear that they are thinking of introducing this part of Singapore to their students, as not many students know that our waters are actually very much alive.

The exploration soon continued and soon came the fourth 'discovery', a fan worm (picture below).Discovery Note:
1. They are segmented worms like earthworms.
2. The feathery things are actually its modified tentacles which helps it to gather food.
3. They feed on detridus and other micro organisms in the seas.
4. Read more about them @ http://www.wildsingapore.com/wildfacts/worm/polychaeta/sabellidae.htm.

Although there was no slugs sighting, there were a number of crab sightings though, fifth, sixth and seventh 'discovery' are crabs.

A Hairy Crab (picture below)
Discovery Note:
1. The hairs of the hairy crab traps sediment so it blends 'almost' perfectly with its surroundings.
2. We also call this crab the ‘teddy bear crab’. =)
3. The hairy crab eats seaweeds and poisonous zoanthids, which makes the crab mildly poisonous too!
4. This is NOT the same hairy crab you eat as a seafood.
5. Read more about them @ http://www.wildsingapore.com/wildfacts/crustacea/crab/pilumnidae/pilumnidae.htm.

A red egg crab (picture below) Discovery Note:
1. Red Egg crabs are highly poisonous and contain toxins which are not destroyed by cooking.
2. Since other animals don't particularly want to eat this crab as it is poisonous, it is slow moving and doesn't really bother to hide.
3. Read more about them @ http://www.wildsingapore.com/wildfacts/crustacea/crab/xanthidae/integerrimus.htm.

A mosaic crab (picture below)Discovery Note:
1. This is one of the most poisonous crab in Singapore.
2. Thus, I give the strongest advice not to eat this, although biologists say that everything can be eaten once, but they do not mention what will happen to you after that meal...
3. Did I mention that the toxins cannot be 'destoryed' by high temperature...
4. Read more about them @ http://www.wildsingapore.com/wildfacts/crustacea/crab/xanthidae/pictor.htm.

As they always say, time flies when you're having fun. Thus very soon, it was time to leave the inter-tidal zone to avoid being washed away by the waves and also the time to enjoy a beautiful sunset (picture below).PS: Thanks to G for the company and making the trip laughter-filled. =D

Semakau Inter-Tidal Walk on 08 Feb 2009

2009-02-09T23:39:00.007+08:00

Eighty Sixth Discovery Posting:

Banded together with a group of 'turtles', we (including myself) were out at Semakau for its first public guided walk in 2009. Here's a group photo of everyone and Diana, my 'lovely' assistant of the day (picture below).
Due to personal time restrictions, I have chosen some of more interesting things seen on the day by my group. And if you are interested to discover what other things other visitors saw on this trip, I have include a extra section with links to blog entries on this very same trip.

Anyway, down to this posting, our first 'discovery' of the day is this extraordinary sea hare (picture below).Discovery Note:
1. From what I know, they are herbivores. This means they eat sea grass or maybe even sea weed.
2. They have the ability to eject purple ink when in danger or stressed.
3. There is an interesting account by ST on how he found this sea hare. If you are interested, you may visit http://mantamola.blogspot.com/2009/02/attack-of-hairy-pincer.html.

And our second 'discovery' are a number of sea stars. Here's one of them covered in partial shade (picture below).Discovery Note:
1. Their tube feet are interesting as they are used for walking, handle food as well as breathing, and probably to catch prey as well, talk about multi purpose!
2. Sea stars get stressed when out of water, this is because while we have blood circulating our bodies, they have sea water circulating their bodies.
3. They are not as common as their name suggests. This is due to past over-collection and habitat lost past and present. So don't take them away from their homes when you see them. =)
4. Some sea stars are predators that prey on worms, crustaceans and bivalves while some are known to eat decayed plant matters.
5. Many sea stars eat with their stomach outside their body. When doing this, their tube feet will pull the two shells of a bivalve apart. And while still attached to their prey’s body, they extend their stomach out through their mouths into the bivalve shell.
6. You can read more about them @ http://www.wildsingapore.com/wildfacts/echinodermata/asteroidea/archaster.htm.

Our third 'discovery' of the day is a relative of the sea stars, a sand fish sea cucumber! (picture below)
Discovery Note:
1. The popular Chinese name for sea cucumber is haishen, which means, roughly, ginseng of the sea.

2. They have a soft, wormlike body and can range from a few centimeters to even 90 centimeters in length!
3. To repel predators or when stressed, a sea cucumber might expel their innards or ‘vomit’. And if too much of their innards are expelled, they might die off as a result.

4. Read more about this sea cucumber @ http://www.wildsingapore.com/wildfacts/echinodermata/holothuroidea/scabra.htm.

And presenting our fourth 'discovery', which is a creature we haven't seen for quite a while on Semakau (drum rolls...). May I present to you, the heart cockle (picture below)!

Discovery Note:
1. If you take a closer look, you will notice that the opening of the valves 'cuts' through the center of the heart.
2. Some turtles were saying that the heart cockle is in a state of 'heart-brokeness' when its valves are opened...hahaha...
3. Anyway, you can read more about it @ http://www.wildsingapore.com/wildfacts/mollusca/bivalvia/cardiidae/cardissa.htm.

We were also really lucky to spot the yet-to-be identified sea star again. Fifth 'discovery' (picture below).

Guided walks have always been made easier due to the hard work from our hunter seekers. And we have to give them great appaulse for finding this tigertail sea horse (picture below). Sixth 'discovery'.Discovery Note:
1. They are hard to find as they are well-camouflaged.
2. Do you know that a seahorse is actually a fish? Yes, it is, but instead of having scales, they have an inflexible armour of overlapping bony plates.
3. A seahorse cannot swim faster because it doesn't have tail fin and pelvic fins like other fishes, thus it is well-camouflaged. But they can make a short burst of speed if in danger.
4. They may look harmless, but they are actually quite voracious predators. It sits in wait and ambushes on any tiny animals that drifts or wander by.
5. They have a very simple digestive system (no stomach) thus they need to eat almost constantly. Baby sea horses are known to eat thousands of tiny shrimps in a day!
6. And of course, the most well-known fact of the sea horse is that the male can get 'pregnant', this is because the female seahorses lay eggs in the pouch of a male seahorse and it is in their where the eggs will be fertilized and then the male seahorse will carry them till the eggs hatch.

Seventh 'discovery' is a flat worm... (picture below)

Discovery Note:
1. Flatworms are hermaphrodite, which means a flatworm has both the male and female sex organs.
2. And certain species of flatworms engage in penis fencing, in which two individuals fight, trying to pierce the skin of the other with their penises; the first to succeed inseminates the other, which must then carry and nourish the eggs.

And the last but not least eighth 'discovery', I decided on eight as it was still during the Chinese New Year on the day of the walk, is a polka-dot nudibranch or called as cookies and cream by one of the turtles...hahaha (picture below).

Discovery Note:
1. 'Nudibranch' means 'naked gills'. The name comes from the flower-like gills found on the back of many nudibranchs. These nudibranchs use the gills to breathe.
2. Nudibranchs are related to snails. Little baby nudibranchs are born with shells, but they lose them when they become adults.
3. Most nudibranchs are carnivores, they eat immobile or small, slow-moving prey. Examples are sponges, ascidians, hard corals, soft corals, sea anemones etc.

4. To protect themselves, some produce distasteful substances, toxins and even acids. They advertise this with bright warning colours. Others are camouflaged to match their surroundings. Those that eat colourful creatures such as sponges or corals, may themselves be colourful to match their prey. Being small and flat, they can also easily hide in narrow places.
5. Read more about them @ http://www.wildsingapore.com/wildfacts/mollusca/nudibranchia.htm.

Lastly, here's a group photo of everyone with the knobbly sea star (picture below). Thanks to R for helping us to take this photo. =D

And of course all turtles! I hope you had a wonderful and fulfilling trip!Extra (more blog entries on this same walk):

a) Tidechaser's blog entry @ http://tidechaser.blogspot.com/2009/02/first-semakau-walk-of-year.html.

b) Sy's blog entry @ http://uforest.blogspot.com/2009/02/1st-semakau-walk-for-2009.html.

c) KS's blog entry @ http://wondercreation.blogspot.com/2009/02/first-2009-semakau-guided-walk.html.

Discover Ubin on 2 Feb 2009

2009-02-02T17:55:00.009+08:00

Eighty Fifth Discovery Posting:

A bumboat ride to the destination? Check.A sight of how a kampung might look like? Check.
A day spent away from urban landscapes? Check.A close-up experience with nature? Check.The above mentioned are experiences which you can bring home after a trip to Pulau Ubin, a small island situated in the north east of Singapore.

Why is the island called Pulau Ubin?
According to what I know, 'Pulau' should be the Malay term for island. (update!) And according to SD, 'Ubin' means tile. Thanks SD! (update!) And the word 'ubin' is said to be a Javanese term for 'squared stone'. Together, 'Pulau Ubin' literally means "Granite Island" in Malay.

This name describes the island very well, as there have been fair amounts of granite found on the island itself. And granite quarrying, at one point in the 1960s, have managed to support a few thousand settlers on the island.

Today, only about a hundred villagers make their homes on the island and the visitors of the island do not go to the island for mining purposes but mainly for recreational purposes.

Things I can bring when visiting Ubin.
Well, besides the usual items you bring for an outdoor field trip (water, hat, poncho/umbrella, etc). You might also want to bring a camera to take records of the happenings and interesting flora and fauna you see along the way.

And a binoculars can come in useful at times as well. Well, for example, with a pair of binos, you will be able to look at birds like a grey heron (picture below) more clearly. By the way, this is the first 'discovery'. Discovery Note:
1. The grey heron is one of the largest birds one can find in Singapore.
2. It can stand at about 1 meter tall and have a wing span of about 2 meters.
3. Grey herons have long necks and powerful bills for a long and strong reach.
4. They can stand motionless for hours to wait on the mud or at the water's edge to wait for food to pass by.
5. Their diet usually includes whatever they catch. These can include, fishes, amphibans, insects, crabs, small mammals and reptiles like rats or hatchling turtles, etc.
6. Read more about them @ http://www.naturia.per.sg/buloh/birds/Ardea_cinerea.htm.

Well, as you know, whenever you visit anywhere, there are things which one can do and one should not. Let's look at some things one shouldn't do when visiting the island.
a) Please leave your litter in the rubbish bins provided found around the island. By doing this, you can help to keep the surroundings free of unwanted litter.
b) Keep along the paths and trails shown on the maps. This is important, as you do not want to get lost on the island and at the same time cause minimal distrubance to the wildlife found on the island.
c) Talking about causing distrubance, you might want to minimise any form of noise so that the wildlife will not be 'scared' off.
d) For your own safety, do not touch flora or fauna that you are unfamiliar with. This is because some flora when touched may cause irritation and some fauna can leave a painful bite or even poison you.
e) Please also do not take anything away from the natural environment unless it is litter. =D

Do take a close look around where you walk because you might miss some wonders along the way if a closer look is not attempted. Here's an example, a golden orb web spider (picture below) and this is the second 'discovery'.
Discovery Note:
1. This spider might not be the the largest spider but it does make one of the largest and strongest web.
2. The silk of the web is so strong that it is able to trap small birds, something the golden orb web spider doesn't really eat.
3. The strength of the web is comparable to Kevlar, one of the strongest man-made material which is extracted from concentrated sulphuric acid.
4. Its name is derived from the colour and shape of its web, golden and orb-shaped.
5. Read more about this spider @ http://www.naturia.per.sg/buloh/inverts/nephila.htm.

Besides walking, one also has the option of exploring the island on a bicycle. A bicycle can be rented at the village of the island for from $2 onwards. But do look out for your own safety when cycling around the island, as there are several steep slopes found around the island (picture.
If you are a butterfly lover, Ubin would be one of the places on your list of must visit places throughout a year. On the day where we walk around, we sighted about a total of 10+ species of butterflies and some of them considered uncommon or even rare in Singapore! It is a pity that my camera isn't a top-notch camera, so I only managed to get one decent photo of one of the butterflies we saw. Here's a Tawny Coster (picture below) and the third 'discovery'.
Discovery Note:
1. From past records, it seems that this species of butterfly is an migrate from Thailand and West Malaysia. Read more about it @ http://butterflycircle.blogspot.com/2008/03/voyage-of-tawny-coster.html. (updated the link with thanks to Commander for informing me that the link I provided was updated =D )

And if you are lucky enough, you might even get to see insects which are considered endangered. Here are three Thespesia Fire-bugs (picture below) and fourth 'discovery'.Discovery Note:
1. This bug looks similar to the Cotton Stainer Bug, except that it as a black head instead of a red one.
2. They are found on the Portia Tree as its larvae feed on the seeds of the tree.

Chek Jawa, located on the eastern end of Ubin, is one of few places in Singapore where you can find 6 different ecosystems within a small area. These ecosystems include mangroves, coastal forest, rocky shore, coral rubble, seagrass meadows and sand bars. And with the offer of many different 'homes' comes the wide array of flora and fauna living in these different 'homes'. Combined with the media coverage given to the place throughout the years, Chek Jawa has become one of the main attractions on Pulau Ubin.

There are several ways to get to Chek Jawa. Like the other places on Ubin, you can get there by walking, cycling or taking a van taxi there (a ride to and fro usually cost at least $4 per person depending on how many people there are in the taxi). And if you are tired after the walk or cycle or just looking for a place to pinic, how about the colonial looking house no.1 located at Chek Jawa (picture below)?
Now let us take a look at one of the animals you can find in the mangroves of Chek Jawa and other mangroves, a giant mudskipper (picture below)! Fifth 'discovery'.Discovery Note:
1. Mudskippers are amphibious animals. So they are able to breathe on land and underwater.
2. Underwater, mudskippers breathe through gills like other fishes. On land, mudskippers use their enlarged gill chambers to retain water which aids them in breathing on land. Something like a scuba diver’s air tank, only that this work while on land.
3. Mudskippers also have to regularly replenish the water in their gill chambers so they cannot stay far from water.
4. Mudskippers can also breathe air through their skin like amphibious but they can only do that if their skin remains moist. That's why you might see mudskippers taking water dips at times.

That's about it for this post which I tried to give you a virtual tour around the island (not really an indepth one though =D). So before I end, here's a picture of a wild ixora blooming (picture below), another plant found on Ubin.
Oh, I almost forgot. How do one get to Ubin?
First of all, find your way to Changi Village. Look for the ferry terminal there. And at there, they provided bumboat rides to Ubin and back. Fyi, each ride cost SGD$2.50 (at this moment of writing).

Now, that's really all and thanks for reading!

PS: Thanks to all friends who made the trip enjoyable!

Extra:
More flora and fauna sightings of this trip can be found on
a) http://tidechaser.blogspot.com/2009/02/exploring-pulau-ubin-with-rmbr.html
b) http://uforest.blogspot.com/2009/02/exploring-ubin_01.html

Discover Camouflage @ Semakau on 10 Jan 2009

2009-01-11T01:04:00.007+08:00

Eighty Fourth Discovery Posting:

First of all, look at this picture below. Can you spot anything?Well, there are in fact two spider conchs, First 'discovery', in the picture. Here's a picture of their undersides, so they are obvious to sight (picture below).Discovery Note:
1. It would not be strange for one to be unable to spot them in the wild as the dorsal (topside) surface and margins of a conch is usually covered with a thick layer of algae and other detritus which helps it to blend perfectly into its surroundings.
2. The ventral (underside) surface, however, has a beautiful glossy light brown colouration. This is as seen from the picture above.

So with the algae and detritus to help it bend in and break its shape amongst the surroundings, the spider conch is able to camouflage from itself, either from predators or even from human collectors.

Camouflage is an important tool for animals in the wild to possess. As like the spider conch and noble volute (pictures below and second 'discovery'), camouflage can help animals to survive, in terms of hiding away from predators...
or even using it (camouflage) to hunt for food.

Here's an example, a squid (picture below). Third 'discovery'.Discovery Note:
1. Squids belong to a group of animals called cephalopoda. They include squids, cuttlefishes and octopuses.
2. They are able to rapidly change their colours (a form of camouflage) so as to hide from both predators and prey.
3. If you are interested to read more about them, go to http://www.wildsingapore.com/wildfacts/mollusca/cephalopoda/squid.htm.

Sometimes, animals might find camouflage insufficient. So they might hide. For example, our fourth 'discovery', a cryptic sea star (picture below).
The underside (picture below)Discovery Note:
1. Cryptic sea stars are usually found hiding under rocks near the mid-water mark.
2. This may be because they wish to avoid predators and possibly also dessication (the process of drying out).
3. If you are interested to read more about the cryptic star, visit http://www.wildsingapore.com/wildfacts/echinodermata/asteroidea/cryptasterina.htm.

Some species of flatworms and nudibranches also have 'patterns' which help them to camouflage amongst their surroundings. Here's a flatworm, fifth 'discovery', which i feel make use of camouflage (picture below).
And here's a nudibranch which i feel utilises camouflage also, sixth 'discovery' (picture below)Discovery Note:
1. Now in nature, when something is very colourful, bright and attractive, like some nudibranches or most of them and some species of crab. They are actually warning colours to inform predators that, "I am either poisionous or venomous or probably even BOTH. so eat me if you DARE!"
2. However, there are some creatures which minics these colours or patterns of certain poisonous/vemonous animals to cheat their predators that they are either poisionous or venomous.
3. But this doesn't mean that you can touch 'boring' looking animals in the wild, always consult your guide if you are in a guided walk before you touch anything.

So now, if an animal has no camouflage. Poison or venom? Check. But what if there is neither of each.

Well, then you need a tough skin like a knobbly sea star (picture below), seventh 'discovery'.
Or have spines that poke your predator like eight 'discovery', a heart urchin (picture below). So after reading all these, hopefully you can probably understand now that animals have different adoptions that help them to survive and what are these different kinds of adoptions. =D

Discovery @ Sultan Shoal on 27 Dec 2008

2008-12-27T22:29:00.009+08:00

Eighty-third Discovery Posting:

First of all, most people would be unfamiliar with Sultan Shoal (like me), so here's a short introduction of it I got from Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sultan_Shoal_Lighthouse):

"The Sultan Shoal Lighthouse (苏丹浅滩灯塔) is a lighthouse located on the island of Sultan Shoal in the Western Anchorage of Singapore about 8 km south of the western tip of Singapore Island. The lighthouse tower is painted white while the keeper's house roof is red and is of a mixture of Oriental and Victorian design.

The island also houses two staff chalets which is managed by the Port Authority of Singapore. "

So, here a picture of the Sultan Shoal Lighthouse (picture below).
A closer look at the lighthouse tower suggests that it was built in 1895!

Anyway, besides taking a look at the lighthouse. Our purpose of going there was also to check out what kind of marine life resides on the island.

I did got a little shock when I first saw the lagoon on the island. It was an enclosed lagoon, save for the little holes at two different sides of the enclosure to ensure water circulation.

However, this man-made structure or swimming pool did not prevent marine life from finding their way into the lagoon. Here's first 'discovery', some nerites which had beautiful shells (picture below).
Discovery Note:
1. They are commonly found on rocky shores.
2. Further studies of them could be done (to find new species), as a recent paper in 2008 based on 31 survey sites over a period of 10 years yielded 19 species with 6 new discovered species for Singapore.
3. Do be careful when you walk around pools and small rocks, as you might be stepping on the eggs of nerites (small white egg capsules).
4. Read more about nerites @ http://www.wildsingapore.com/wildfacts/mollusca/gastropoda/neritidae/neritidae.htm.

As there was not much life to be seen on the exposed shore, we decided to turn over some rocks around the area as some marine animals like to hide under them to prevent themselves from suffering from dessication (the process of drying out). And that's where the second 'discovery' was spotted. Can you spot it (picture below)?It is a sponge crab and here is its underside (picture below).
Discovery Note:
1. They are called sponge crabs as they usually have a living sponge on its top carapace.
2. It is not born together with the sponge if you are wondering. The crab uses its pincers to snap out a cap out of a living sponge to fit it over its body.
3. The purpose of this is for camouflage and protection from its predators (since sponges usually leaves a 'bad' taste).
4. To read more about it, visit http://www.wildsingapore.com/wildfacts/crustacea/crab/dromiidae/dromiidae.htm.

And there was even a first sighting! A electric blue fiddler crab (Uca tetragonon) (picture below)! This was found by Prof Peter Ng, the crab expert who was also with us. Third 'discovery'! Discovery Note:
1. These crabs are an important marker or indicator to tell us that there are healthy reefs around.

And also for the first time, I managed to capture a goby and snapping shrimp from the same burrow! Fourth 'discovery' (picture below).
Discovery Note:
1. They share a "you scratch my back, i scratch your back" relationship in this situation.
2. The goby is in charge of looking out for danger while the shrimp is in charge of digging and maintaining their shared burrow.

And for the last, fifth 'discovery' of this entry. Here is a feather star (picture below)!Discovery Note:
1. These creatures are more commonly seen during diving trips compared to Inter-tidal walks.
2. Like brittle stars, they are fragile and their arms may break easily, so either handle them with extreme care or don't handle them at all. =)
3. If you look closely at feather stars, you may sometimes find a well-camouflaged crab or shrimp living on it. So always take many looks when you see one of these.
4. Read more about them @ http://www.wildsingapore.com/wildfacts/echinodermata/crinoidea/crinoidea.htm.

Before I end this post, here's a look at the lighthouse again (picture below).
At of course, thanks to LK for making this trip possible and many friends who went and made the trip fun filling! =D

Extra: Read and see more of the organisams we saw during this trip on
a) KS's blog entry
b) Tidechaser's blog entry
c) Manta's blog entry