Best of our wild blogs: 12 Feb 18

10 Feb (Sat): AQUA TALKS - Recap on The Heroic Journey of Sea Turtles
Celebrating Singapore Shores!

It's fun and easy to guide on Singapore shores!
Celebrating Singapore Shores

Common Birdwing (Troides helena cerberus) @ Pulau Ubin
Monday Morgue

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220 plots under NParks community gardening scheme snapped up in 3 hours

Raffaella Nathan Charles Straits Times 10 Feb 18;

SINGAPORE - Some 470 hobbyist gardeners woke up early on Saturday (Feb 10) in the hope of securing a plot at five parks around Singapore.

Before registration for a popular community gardening programme opened at 9am, queues had already formed at Bedok Town Park, Choa Chu Kang Park, Pasir Ris Park, Sengkang Riverside Park and Yishun Park, said the National Parks Board (NParks).

By noon, all 220 plots up for grabs were taken up.

Said NParks group director for parks Chuah Hock Seong: "All these allotment gardening plots have been fully subscribed."

These plots were part of plans to encourage community gardening.

Under the Edible Horticulture Masterplan announced in November 2017, more than 1,000 allotment gardening plots will be introduced in 11 parks islandwide by 2019.

Last November and December, 400 allotment gardening plots were rolled out in HortPark, Clementi Woods Park, Punggol Park and Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park. These were fully subscribed as well, said Mr Chuah.

Registration for new allotment gardening plots in Ang Mo Kio Town Garden West and Jurong Lake Gardens West is slated to open by the end of this year.

There will be 300 plots in Jurong Lake Gardens West and 40 in Ang Mo Kio Town Garden West.

The plots are available for individuals to grow edible and ornamental plants, each comprising a raised planter bed measuring 2.5m by 1m.

They can be leased for three years for $57 a year.

Only one person per household is allowed to lease a plot for each lease period.

NParks provides the basics: a raised garden plot at waist level, soil and water. Gardeners simply have to bring their own seeds and tools.

In a pilot allotment scheme in July 2016, 80 allotment plots that were made available in HortPark were quickly snapped up.

The public can find out more at www.nparks.gov.sg/gardening/allotment-gardens

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Malaysia: Large croc spotted at Pantai Lido

OMAR AHMAD New Straits Times 11 Feb 18;

Johor Baru: The sighting of a 6.5 metre crocodile at the Lido Beach area alarmed a group of maintenance workers who were working in the area yesterday.

Muhammad Fitri Dawam, 24, and three other colleagues were installing silt blinds at the Johor border when they spotted the large reptile sunbathing on the sand dunes facing the Sultan Aminah Hospital (HSA).

"Our job requires us to install silt blinds to prevent sand and foreign objects from entering neighbouring waters, once every two weeks. We have to be in the water to do so, but when we spotted the crocodile which was bigger than our boat, we decided it would be best to complete any maintenance work from the safety of our boat."

He said while he reported the reptile's presence to his employer, he had yet to inform other authorities about the crocodile's presence.

According to Muhammad Fitri, several months earlier he had seen a viral post of a crocodile on Pantai Lido but did not believe it because he thought it was edited.

But when he saw the reptle with his own eyes, he recorded video and took several photos of the beast before uploading it to his own Facebook (FB) account.

"I did not think the crocodile video I recorded would go viral and be share by more than 2,500 social site users.

"The 2-minute 51-second video featured a large crocodile slowly getting into the water after becoming aware of our presence.

"I hade no intention other than to remind myself and my co-workers in coastal areas to be careful," he said.

Meanwhile, a spokesman from the Fire and Rescue Department said it had yet to receive any reports or calls regarding the existence of the crocodile.

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