Best of our wild blogs: 6 Mar 19



Rock Tour of Singapore shores
wild shores of singapore


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More hot days with temperatures above 34 deg C to come after third warmest February in years

Goh Yan Han Straits Times 6 Mar 19;

SINGAPORE - Singaporeans can expect warmer days ahead, with the mercury going beyond 34 deg C more often.

The daily maximum temperature is expected to exceed 34.1 deg C on more days in the future, said the Meteorological Service Singapore (MSS) on Tuesday (March 5).

Singapore's annual temperature has been steadily rising over the last 25 years and MSS' climate projections indicate that with global warming, there is a greater likelihood of more heat extremes.

The authority was responding to queries from The Straits Times after it was reported last week that February 2019 was the third warmest February since 1929.


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Malaysia: Kelantan DID releasing dam water to irrigate farmland

Sharifah Mahsinah Abdullah New Straits Times 5 Mar 19;

RANTAU PANJANG: The Kelantan Drainage and Irrigation Department has been releasing water from the Bukit Kwong dam here to irrigate drought-affected farmland.

Its director Kamal Mustapha said the water level had dropped by nearly two metres since they started releasing water in January.

“The reading in January was 16m. “The department decided to release the water to help farmers in the state who are facing difficulties to obtain water supply after Sungai Golok dried up,” he said.


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Malaysia: More forest fires in the offing due to El Nino

BALVIN KAUR New Straits Times 5 Mar 19;

GEORGE TOWN: Environmental activists are warning that more forest fires are likely to flare up over the next two months, before the El Nino phenomenon ends.

Malaysian Nature Society Penang branch adviser D. Kanda Kumar said the state had been plagued by forest fires for decades, but the situation appeared to be getting worse now.

“This could be due to the changes in the weather and the El Nino phenomenon,” he told New Straits Times today.

It was reported that more than 3,000 incidences of open burning were reported nationwide last night, almost doubling the number of cases in January.


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Thailand: Mums with babies among dugongs sighted in Trang sea

The Nation 5 Mar 19;

The sighting of more dugongs in the Andaman sea off the coast of southern province of Trang is a good sign that the population has increased, the director of Phuket Marine Biological Centre said on Tuesday.

Dr Kongkiart Kittiwatanawong, said the centre was conducting a dugong sighting survey in the Andaman Sea around Koh Libong and Koh Muk from February 28 through to this Tuesday.


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Bird extinctions 'driven' by global food trade

Helen Briggs BBC News 5 Mar 19;

About 100 bird species are predicted to go extinct based on current farming and forestry practices, according to a new global analysis.

This number has increased by 7% over the first ten years of this century alone, say scientists.

They say the biggest factor is cattle farming, but the impact of oil seed crops like palm and soy is growing fast.

By comparison, an estimated 140 birds have been lost over the past 400 years.

International researchers used bird extinction as a measure of the loss of biodiversity - the variety of plant and animal life in the world or in a particular habitat - linked with international trade in food and timber.


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