Deer dies in accident along Mandai Road

Channel NewsAsia 19 Dec 18;

SINGAPORE: A deer died on Tuesday evening (Dec 18) in an accident involving a motorcycle along Mandai Road towards Mandai Avenue.

The police said they were alerted to the incident at 8.10pm, adding that the motorcyclist escaped with minor abrasions.

Photos posted on Facebook by the Nature Society Singapore group showed a deer lying on the road. Blood could be seen near the animal's face.

According to the post, the accident occurred at around 7.20pm.

There were two other reported accidents involving sambar deer this year.

In June, a Sambar deer was euthanised after an accident along the Bukit Timah Expressway involving three vehicles. There was another accident on Mandai Road in February.

Source: CNA/na(hm)


Motorcyclist injured in Mandai Road accident involving wild sambar deer
Timothy Goh Straits Times 18 Dec 18;

SINGAPORE - A motorcyclist was injured in an accident along Mandai Road on Tuesday (Dec 18) evening which involved a wild sambar deer.

There had been at least two reports of incidents involving the wild deer this year.

A picture of the latest case shows a motorcycle lying on its side along the road, with a rider sitting next to it.

Another photo shows the dead deer lying on its side, with its eyes open and a pool of blood forming at its mouth.

Police said they were alerted to the accident at 8.10pm.

The Straits Times understands that the motorcyclist suffered multiple abrasions but refused to be taken to hospital.

Mr Kalai Vanan, deputy chief executive officer of the Animal Concerns Research & Education Society (Acres), said his group received a call about the incident at around 8pm.

As the deer was already dead, Acres did not attend to the case. It referred the caller to the National Environment Agency, which typically disposes of carcasses in such situations.

Mr Kalai said: "Mandai Road has forested areas on both sides. Sometimes, when the deer crosses the road, this can happen."

In February this year, a sambar deer died after it was hit by a vehicle in Mandai Road.

In June, another deer was put down after it wandered onto the Bukit Timah Expressway near Mandai Road and caused a three-vehicle accident.

In Singapore, sambar deer are typically found in areas around MacRitchie Nature Reserve and Upper Seletar Reservoir.

They are also found in other Asian countries such as India, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, southern China, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines.

Also known as sambaur deer, it eats leaves, fruits and bugs. Males can grow up to 2m tall including antlers, and weigh up to 260kg, while females are two-thirds the size of males or smaller. They can live up to 20 years in the wild.


Deer dies, motorcyclist injured in Mandai road accident
Today Online 19 Dec 18;

SINGAPORE — A deer died after a motorcyclist collided with it on Mandai Road on Tuesday (Dec 18) evening.

The motorcyclist sustained minor injuries.

Photos shared on the Nature Society Singapore's (NSS) Facebook group showed the deer lying in the middle of two lanes, while a motorcyclist sat on the kerb by the roadside with his bike on the ground.

The police said that they were alerted to the accident at 8.10pm.

According to a photo timestamp on social media, the carcass of the deer was removed at 9.23pm.

The incident is the third reported roadkill case involving wild deer this year.

In June, a sambar deer was also euthanised after it was involved in an accident along the Bukit Timah Expressway.

The Mandai area, where construction work to build new attractions is ongoing, has seen a number of roadkill incidents. Earlier this year, a critically endangered Sunda pangolin, leopard cat and sambar deer died in road accidents, which led to nature enthusiasts calling for more preventive measures to be undertaken by project developer Mandai Park Development.

In a position paper published in October, the NSS cited the number of roadkills in the area and called for more land to be set aside as a refuge for wildlife at the future Tengah new town.

The NSS said that under the authorities' plan to transform Tengah to be a "forest town", only up to 10 per cent of Tengah's original forest is retained, which means that half of the species there could be wiped out, based on an ecological rule of thumb.

In 2010, NSS' Vertebrate Study Group estimated that there were under 20 sambar deer in Singapore. According to the National Parks Board, the sambar deer were once nowhere to be found in Singapore, and recent populations are likely to be ones that escaped from captivity.