Best of our wild blogs: 21- 22 Oct 18

Our Crazy Rich Shores: Pulau Satumu and Pulau Biola
Celebrating Singapore Shores!

Wild Berembang overload!
wild shores of singapore

Lancers of Singapore
Butterflies of Singapore

Night Walk At Lower Peirce Reservoir (19 Oct 2018)
Beetles@SG BLOG

Kampongs Lost and Found
Wan's Ubin Journal

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Work begins to restore Rail Corridor’s native flora

Gwyneth Teo Channel NewsAsia 20 Oct 18;

SINGAPORE: For decades, magnolia singapurensis, a flower native to and named after Singapore, had not been seen in the country.

Until National Parks Board (NParks) officials discovered the flower again at a swamp in Nee Soon a few years ago.

It took repeated trips back to the swamp to carefully collect the seeds of the flower, bring them to the nursery to cultivate, and study how best to grow the species elsewhere, said Ms Sharon Chan, director of the Central Nature Reserve at NParks.

There are only four known instances of magnolia singapurensis, which thrives in swampy areas, in the wild.

On Saturday (Oct 20), the native species was replanted elsewhere in Singapore for the first time.

The planting ceremony, led by Second Minister of National Development Desmond Lee and advisers from Holland-Bukit Timah GRC, marked the first phase of NParks' work to reintroduce native flora to the Rail Corridor stretch.

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Indonesia: Central Sulawesi quake, tsunami inflicted US$911 million in losses

Karina M. Tehusijarana The Jakarta Post 22 Oct 18;

The earthquake and ensuing tsunami that devastated Central Sulawesi resulted in at least Rp 13.82 trillion (US$911 million) in economic losses, according to National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) data.

As of Sunday, 2,256 people have been killed, 4,612 injured and 223,751 displaced from their homes as a result of the disasters that hit the regions of Palu, Donggala, Sigi, and Parigi Moutong.

Around 68,451 houses, 327 places of worship, 265 schools, 78 offices and 362 shops were also damaged in the quake.

"We expect the losses and damage caused by the disasters to continue to increase, since the data we are using are temporary in nature," BNPB spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said in a statement on Sunday.

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Indonesia: China-backed hydro dam threatens world's rarest orangutan

Harry PEARL AFP Yahoo News 21 Oct 18;

The Tapanuli orangutan is a newly discovered species that numbers just 800 individuals (AFP Photo/Nanang SUJANA)
Jakarta (AFP) - A billion-dollar hydroelectric dam development in Indonesia that threatens the habitat of the world's rarest great ape has sparked fresh concerns about the impact of China's globe-spanning infrastructure drive.

The site of the dam in the Batang Toru rainforest on Sumatra island is the only known habitat of the Tapanuli orangutan, a newly discovered species that numbers about 800 individuals in total.

The $1.6 billion project, which is expected to be operational by 2022, will cut through the heart of the critically endangered animal's habitat, which is also home to agile gibbons, siamangs and Sumatran tigers.

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Best of our wild blogs: 20 Oct 18

Our Crazy Rich Shores: Pulau Hantu
Celebrating Singapore Shores!

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Malaysia: Fungus killing sea turtles within the nest

jo timbuong The Star 20 Oct 18;

KUALA TERENGGANU: The local turtle population is not only threatened by predators and careless human behaviour. Researchers at Universiti Malaysia Terengganu have found a deadly microorganism silently working from inside the nest as well.

In a study spanning about 10 years, a team led by Dr Siti Nordahliawate Mohamed Sidique, senior lecturer of microbiology and plant pathology, found that an aggressive fungus of the Fusarium species has been infecting the eggs, ruining every chance of survival.

“We believe the fungus releases a micro-toxin that attacks the turtle embryo. We’re conducting more research on this,” said Dr Siti.

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Plastic piling up in Japan after China waste ban: survey

AFP Yahoo News 18 Oct 18;

Japan said Thursday it was facing a growing sea of plastic waste with limited capacity to process it after China stopped accepting foreign waste imports.

The environment ministry said about a quarter of major regional and municipal governments surveyed reported seeing accumulating plastic waste, sometimes going beyond sanitary standards.

The costs of processing waste plastic were rising, according to more than 100 local governments and 175 waste processing firms that responded to a ministry survey.

The world's developing nations are also scrambling for ways to process plastic refuse after China stopped accepting it.

Nearly three-quarters of all plastic waste produced globally since 1992 has ended up in China and Hong Kong, according to a study in the journal Science Advances.

But since January, China has closed its borders to most paper and plastic waste in line with a new environmental policy pushed by Beijing.

Before the ban, Japan exported about 1.5 million tonnes of plastic waste per year, most of it to China.

The Japanese ministry said it will expand domestic capacity to process plastic waste, while also preventing illegal dumping.

The government also intends to boost efforts to encourage recycling, the survey added.

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Best of our wild blogs: 19 Oct 18

Singapore Bird Report – September 2018
Singapore Bird Group

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Two leopard geckos seized at Woodlands Checkpoint

Channel NewsAsia 18 Oct 18;

SINGAPORE: A 31-year-old Malaysian man was found with a pair of live leopard geckos in his car at the Woodlands Checkpoint on Tuesday (Oct 16), the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) said on Thursday.

The geckos were found in two separate container boxes that had been wrapped in a towel and placed in a bag in the driver's Malaysian-registered car, ICA said in a Facebook post.

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Malaysia: No more mangrove lands for shrimp farming, says Sabah minister

stephanie lee The Star 18 Oct 18;

KOTA KINABALU: There will be no more mangrove lands approved for shrimp farming in Sabah, says Datuk Junz Wong.

The Sabah Agriculture and Food Industries Minister said mangrove destruction for whatever purposes must be stopped for conservation.

“The destruction of valuable natural environment assets are irreversible, therefore instead of destroying the environment for wealth, we should promote and encourage agricultural economic development,” he said during a visit to the Pitas Shrimp Farm at Sungai Telaga in Pitas.

Wong urged prawn farmers to go upstream to create hatcheries, as well as downstream for prawn export.

Wong had also rejected a 1,000 acre mangrove land application for prawn farming.

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Indonesia: Floods strike Sumatra as rainy season begins

Fardah Assegaf Antara 19 Oct 18;

Jakarta, (ANTARA News)- Rainy season has begun in some parts of Indonesia, particularly on Sumatra Island, but the dry season has continued in other regions, such as on Java Island and East Nusa Tenggara.

Such a weather phenomenon is quite normal in Indonesia, as the country is prone to hydrometeorological disasters, such as flooding in rainy season and wildfires or severe drought during the dry season.

In East Nusa Tenggara (NTT), for instance, 11 districts have been hit by the severe dry season. The districts, which include East Manggarai, Nagekeo, Ende, Lembata, East Sumba, Rote Ndao, Kupang, North Timor Tengah, Malaka, and Belu, have received no rains for more than two months.

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Indonesia: Prolonged drought triggers wildfires on mountains in Java

Fardah Antara 18 Oct 18;

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Some parts of Indonesia`s regions have entered the rainy season, while several others, such as Java and Nusa Tenggara Islands, are experiencing prolonged severe dry season, causing drought, water shortages, and also wildfires.

On Java Island, the prolonged dry season has triggered wildfires in forest areas located on the slopes of several mountains in Central, East, and West Java Provinces.

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