Lim Chu Kang Mangrove Adventure
While Singapore celebrated her 40th birthday, Wildthings celebrated it together with her our way, with an early morning visit to Lim Chu Kang mangroves.
This was my first visit there, and I relished the opportunity of learning a little bit about mangrove ecology and the wildlife that could be found there. It turned out to be a perfect day, bright and dry, with the ground hard enough to walk around without sinking in the mud. Even the mosquitoes were quite friendly and didn't bother me (the crew's resident bug bait) too much.
We were greeted with the sight of many gigantic mud lobster mounds, which were fascinating to behold. Some were as tall as me! Later found out that lobster mounds can be up to 3m tall. I was shown a really cool secret hidden in the mound. It was so well-camouflaged that I didn't see it at all until Ria pointed out the exact spot to me - a small circular shape on the mound, about 1cm across. It looked exactly like the rest of the mound in appearance, except that there was a roundish outline. It turned out to be a flap that could be flipped up, to expose a white-lined tunnel - the home of a tarantula! I could just see the tips of its 2 fuzzy legs in the entrance of the tunnel. In this case, a little patience led to a fascinating view of half of its body finally emerging grumpily to slam the flap shut.
Tarantula's abode.
That had to be the find of the day, though I tried very hard afterwards to find a spider on my own, I didn't have much luck. On the mounds were also some really odd-looking big red ants (about 1.5cm in length). They had a really evil looking jaw/extension thing on their heads. I later found out that they're Odontomachus malignus, intertidal ants which live in the mounds, and named for their extremely painful sting.
Wicked jaws - lobster mound ant.
Many gastropods were also evident in the mangroves.
The cute little red berry snails, barely 3mm across, lined the ground. For some strange reason, they reminded me of candy.
There were also many onchidiums around. Their muddy grey forms blended in perfectly with the surroundings. However, flipping them around revealed colourful undersides that differed from each other. Here are 3 of the different kinds that we found. The BP guidebook to Singapore Mangroves mentions that there could be as many as 15 different species!
Can't wait for a nocturnal visit. Maybe we'll get a chance to see the other (nocturnal) inhabitants of the mud lobster mounds - the snakes, and maybe even the elusive mud lobster itself! :)
This was my first visit there, and I relished the opportunity of learning a little bit about mangrove ecology and the wildlife that could be found there. It turned out to be a perfect day, bright and dry, with the ground hard enough to walk around without sinking in the mud. Even the mosquitoes were quite friendly and didn't bother me (the crew's resident bug bait) too much.
We were greeted with the sight of many gigantic mud lobster mounds, which were fascinating to behold. Some were as tall as me! Later found out that lobster mounds can be up to 3m tall. I was shown a really cool secret hidden in the mound. It was so well-camouflaged that I didn't see it at all until Ria pointed out the exact spot to me - a small circular shape on the mound, about 1cm across. It looked exactly like the rest of the mound in appearance, except that there was a roundish outline. It turned out to be a flap that could be flipped up, to expose a white-lined tunnel - the home of a tarantula! I could just see the tips of its 2 fuzzy legs in the entrance of the tunnel. In this case, a little patience led to a fascinating view of half of its body finally emerging grumpily to slam the flap shut.
Tarantula's abode.
That had to be the find of the day, though I tried very hard afterwards to find a spider on my own, I didn't have much luck. On the mounds were also some really odd-looking big red ants (about 1.5cm in length). They had a really evil looking jaw/extension thing on their heads. I later found out that they're Odontomachus malignus, intertidal ants which live in the mounds, and named for their extremely painful sting.
Wicked jaws - lobster mound ant.
Many gastropods were also evident in the mangroves.
The cute little red berry snails, barely 3mm across, lined the ground. For some strange reason, they reminded me of candy.
There were also many onchidiums around. Their muddy grey forms blended in perfectly with the surroundings. However, flipping them around revealed colourful undersides that differed from each other. Here are 3 of the different kinds that we found. The BP guidebook to Singapore Mangroves mentions that there could be as many as 15 different species!
Can't wait for a nocturnal visit. Maybe we'll get a chance to see the other (nocturnal) inhabitants of the mud lobster mounds - the snakes, and maybe even the elusive mud lobster itself! :)
1 Comments:
here you have an interesting and informative page - kudos. iam visiting labrador park tom and thanks a bunch, your link was useful eh.. ! bye and cheers!!!
you guys do a great job !
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