18 Dec (Sun) FREE Guided Walk @ Treetop Walk
Herpetological Society of Singapore
Singapore Bird Report- November 2016
Singapore Bird Group
Whimbrels flying from Eagle Point to Sungei Danga/Sungei Sekudai - 12Nov2016
sgbeachbum
Four-clawed Gecko (Gehyra mutilata) @ Tampines
Monday Morgue
STEPHANIE LEE The Star 12 Dec 16;
KOTA KINABALU: Environmentalists in Sabah are calling on lawyers to fight for the cancellation or relocation of the multi-billion-ringgit Tanjung Aru Eco Development (TAED) project, which is set to commence in March next year.
Activist SM Muthu said the project was pushed through without taking public concerns into account.
“We are still in shock as to why the government needs to turn Tanjung Aru into a high-end area while there are still many locations in Sabah for that purpose,” he said.
He urged lawyers familiar with environmental and other related issues to come forward to fight for the cause and help Sabahans to voice out their concerns.
The redevelopment project includes a large public park, a 133ha golf course designed by Australian professional golfer Greg Norman, seven hotels with 1,800 rooms, and about 5,000 apartment and condominium units.
Meanwhile, other environmentalists felt that Kota Kinabalu City Hall (DBKK) was not sincere in listening to public concerns and views.
Online environmental petitioners Save Open Space Kota Kinabalu claimed the consultation and public forums were carried out in an unprofessional manner.
Its representative Annabelle Funk said in a statement that the consultation process showed conflict of interest, which was unprofessional and unethical.
The fact that members of TAED’s board of directors were also among the members of the project’s approval authority was unacceptable, she said.
“For the sake of public interest, such conflicts cannot be accepted because the commercial project sits on an open space in a gazetted foreshore reserve,” said Funk.
She was also doubtful of Kota Kinabalu mayor Datuk Yeo Boon Hai’s recent statement that the government had taken public interest into consideration.
She claimed that past consultation and meetings with DBKK showed that many of the issues and worries were ignored and whitewashed.
She noted that the city hall should have published all information on its official website and social media accounts for the convenience of those who were not able to visit the exhibition.
She warned that the public would suffer and “pay billions for additional cost” should the project fail to deliver its promises.
To date, the “Stop the Tanjung Aru Eco Development Sdn Bhd (TAED) Project” online petition has gathered over 2,500 signatures.
The Star 12 Dec 16;
KOTA KINABALU: Advanced reproductive and cellular technologies may be the only methods left to ensure the survival of the highly endangered rhinos in Sabah.
Borneo Rhino Alliance (BORA) executive director Datuk Dr John Payne said that given the nature of the evidence provided and collective fieldwork by various agencies, it is highly unlikely there are wild rhinos surviving anywhere in Sabah.
He said prevention of the extinction of this ancient genus, distinct from the African and Indian species, had gone beyond retaining a few individuals in the wild.
“Rescue from the brink will not entail protecting a few stragglers in the wild because for the past few decades there have been too few individuals in any one area to form a viable breeding population,” he said in a statement.
“Success can come only through implementation of a single programme that allows every remaining Sumatran rhino, whether in Malaysia or Indonesia, to contribute its genes to producing babies.”
He said even though about a quarter of the remaining Sumatran rhinos had significant reproductive pathologies, rapidly advancing reproductive and cellular technologies could be tapped to boost the rate at which embryos were made.
“We cannot just rely on hope to save this endangered species,” he said amid a possible discovery of a rhino footprint in a Sabah forest that was announced at a seminar on Danum Valley recently.
Antara 11 Dec 16;
Yogyakarta (ANTARA News) - Indonesias Peat Land Restoration Agency (BRG) said it hoped to restore 2.4 million hectares of damaged peat lands until 2020.
By 2020, around 2.4 million hectares of damaged peat lands would be restored, BRG chief Nazir Foead said here.
Nazir said the country has 14 million hectares of peat lands in 17 provinces, but President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) wanted to focus on restoration of 13 million hectares of damaged and burnt peat lands in seven provinces.
The seven provinces are Riau, Jambi, South Sumatra, Papua, West Kalimantan, East Kalimantan and Central Kalimantan.
Approximately 875,000 hectares of peat lands in the seven provinces burned during forest fires and land in 2015.
"The president asked us to focus in the seven provinces. Of the 13 million hectares of peat lands there are only less than six hectares yet undamaged in the form of primary forests," Nazir said.
Short term attempt to restore the damaged peat lands is by utilizing existing water resources around that area, he said.
BRG, however, is still waiting for the result of mapping survey in the form of geospatial map of peat land from the state run Gajahmada University (UGM), he said.
He said further, BRG wanted the process of restoring the peat lands is carried out with integration, that a guideline is needed as a reference for application in all regions.
Nazir said BRG cooperates with a team of experts from UGM to prepare the guidance map for the protection of peat land.
The geospatial map with a scale of 1:20,000 would show the map of area around the peat lands having water resources.
"I hope UGM would wrap up the process of mapping by the end of this year that it could be disseminate in all district areas having peat lands for restoration. We hope the physical restoration next year could properly follow the planning," he said.
Concerned about the extensive damage to peat lands by big forest fires in Indonesia in 2015, President Joko Widodo formed BRG to coordinate and accelerate the restoration to preserve peat ecosystem health and biodiversity.
A recent Dialogue on Climate of the United Nations Development Program said that the restoration of peat lands in Indonesia has made progress with strategic planning, an action plan and the preparation of the indicative map of damaged peat lands.
(Uu.H-ASG/F001)
Lim Han She For The Straits Times 10 Dec 16;
Two at Teacher's Estate are slated to make way for housing. But creative solutions, such as multi-functional spaces, may help them flow, not go
The current drought across the Causeway in Johor highlights water resource issues plaguing Singapore. However, while Singapore may be a small nation state, it has put in place alternative water supply measures. These include desalination plants; expanding local reservoirs; the national water agency PUB's Active, Beautiful, Clean (ABC) Waters Programme; plus efforts to change behaviour to make consumers more resilient.
However, ensuring a reliable supply of water is only part of the equation of becoming a sustainable, resilient and liveable city of the future.
The recent United Nations Habitat III New Urban Agenda 2016 calls for cities to "protect, conserve, restore, and promote their ecosystems, water, natural habitats, and biodiversity, minimise their environmental impact, and change to sustainable consumption and production patterns".
Rivers provide important ecosystem services such as clean water, flood protection, habitats, biodiversity and recreational and social amenities to urban residents. Urban rivers are, however, often highly degraded, modified, polluted and ugly.
River and catchment health are so important that the state of California awarded infrastructure status to its catchments and rivers two months ago. Catchments and rivers are now classified as California's key water supply assets and are eligible for the same forms of financing for maintenance and repair as other water collection and treatment infrastructure.
Singapore has over 8,000km of waterways, which are mostly concrete drains and canals.
Recent ambitious river restoration projects under the ABC Waters Programme have resulted in aesthetically pleasing riverscapes that provide social amenities.
The Kallang River-Bishan Park and Alexandra Canal are two examples. The Kallang River-Bishan Park project is so successful that it won the Waterfront Awards Program 2012 and is often featured internationally as an example of a successful river restoration project.
Other projects such as the Pang Sua Canal reflect the PUB's interest in restoring natural processes to concrete waterways at a smaller scale and effort. Boulders were placed in the canal. In-stream vegetation slows down fast stormwater flow, providing habitats for aquatic and bird life in the area, and aesthetic recreational areas for Bukit Panjang residents.
Admirable though these river restoration efforts are, research in the United States and Europe shows that such projects do not always lead to pre-restoration conditions. Some projects fail completely. This is in part due to imperfect knowledge of how river processes and ecosystems operate.
Common sense says that it is better to avoid river degradation in the first place.
This holds true, especially, if one considers the Lentor and Tagore freshwater streams in Teacher's Estate, Yio Chu Kang, that are slated for destruction when 30ha of mature secondary forest through which they flow is cleared for housing development.
Tagore Stream will be straightened and turned into a canal, while Lentor Stream will be completely filled up. A newly engineered stream will perform Lentor's hydrological role when the development is complete.
Pictures of these freshwater streams in June and July reveal continuous flow, a small floodplain and healthy riparian vegetation, which supports a diverse ecosystem in the small area it occupies.
To develop these streams into concrete drains would be to remove key ecosystem functions, such as water flow regulation during flood and drought periods, natural habitats and biodiversity, for homes and highly managed blue-green spaces.
Part of the forest has already been cleared as you are reading this article, as reported in The Straits Times yesterday. A wildlife shepherding plan initiated by the Urban Redevelopment Authority hopes to relocate rare wildlife such as the Sunda pangolin, flying lemur and globally threatened straw-headed bulbul to nearby green areas such as the Central Catchment Nature Reserve.
To minimise damage to wildlife, vegetation will be cut systematically to force them to move to nearby green areas.
The damage of this systematic clearing is already seen in the freshwater streams. Lentor Stream is more murky than before clearing activities started.
NATURE VERSUS CITY?
It is understandable that Singapore needs land for development, but destroying natural freshwater streams to later restore them at a great cost is counter-intuitive to a society aiming for a sustainable and resilient urban environment.
The question that must be asked is whether nature and the city can truly coexist in land-scarce Singapore. Do we value nature enough to sacrifice some development opportunities? What type of natural spaces do we want in Singapore?
One answer is to start thinking creatively, so that Singapore's natural areas can become multi-functional spaces to avoid having them totally destroyed for development. Pulau Ubin and Chek Jawa are examples of natural areas that have escaped development - for now.
Creative approaches to developing the forest around Teachers Estate include partial development, preserving the natural streams with a buffer zone and providing trails for people to enter the area.
This development scenario maintains some of the key ecosystem services these rivers provide, plus aesthetics and recreational opportunities for Singaporeans and visitors.
Alternatively, leave the area as it is but develop it minimally for eco-tourism by building tracks or boardwalk trails into the forest.
Cost-benefit analysis of current planned development versus alternative development scenarios, taking into account the ecosystem services of these rivers, can help decide how best to use this space and other natural areas for Singapore's long-term benefit.
While Lentor and Tagore streams still exist, they provide the opportunity to start thinking deeper and creatively about how Singapore will develop in the future, especially if it wants to become a truly resilient and sustainable city - not only in the tropics but also globally.
The writer is a lecturer in hydrology at James Cook University, Australia.
BEN PAVIOUR The Cambodia Daily 10 Dec 16;
Singapore is regularly lauded as a squeaky-clean island in a region awash with corruption.
The city-state ranked eighth in the world in Transparency International’s 2015 Corruption Perception index, in comparison to 150th-ranked Cambodia.
But their reputations have not stopped the Cambodian government from suggesting that Singapore turned a blind eye to sand smugglers—charges that the Singaporean government has yet to answer since they were leveled last month.
“They need to respond to the accusations by Cambodia’s Ministry of Mines and Energy that Singapore has been, for years, importing massive amounts of illegally sourced sand and falsely reporting them as having come from Cambodia,” said Alex Gonzalez-Davidson, the director of environmental group Mother Nature.
The Singaporean Embassy in Phnom Penh has not responded to repeated requests for comment.
A spokeswoman for Singapore’s Building and Construction Authority (BCA), which regulates Singapore’s sand imports, promised a response, but has not provided one since she was first contacted over three weeks ago.
Singapore recorded importing more than 73.6 million tons of sand from Cambodia between 2007 and last year, compared to less than 2.8 million tons Cambodia said it sent there, according to figures both countries sent to the U.N. Commodity Trade Statistics Database (Comtrade).
The discrepancy is notable given the many adverse effects attributed to sand dredging, which has been blamed for ravaging river and coastal ecosystems and destroying the livelihoods of fishermen. Prices for sand have skyrocketed due to bursting global demand for reclamation and construction projects, fueling the rise of Indian sand mafias involved in the smuggling of the commodity as well as the disappearance of 24 small islands in Indonesia, according to a 2014 report from the U.N. Environment Program.
The Cambodian government has offered a number of theories to explain the discrepancy: the unreliability of global trade data, different record keeping techniques and undefined “inefficient practices.”
In an interview last month, Ministry of Mines and Energy spokesman Meng Saktheara offered another explanation: the difference in records might be caused by “smuggling from other countries that could include Cambodia to Singapore,” he told Radio France Internationale.
Smugglers could be flying under the Cambodian flag to get around sand export bans in Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia, Mr. Saktheara said, by extension suggesting that Singapore had been accepting tens of millions of tons of illicit sand.
In a 2010 statement, Singapore’s Ministry of National Development defended its import practices, saying that “our customs have in place procedures to check and investigate the import of goods at the checkpoints” and that “sand supplies must have the necessary import permits.”
The country has used sand to extend the island’s territory by 20 percent, or 130 square km, over the past 40 years, according to the U.N. report. The government plans to add another 56 square km by 2030, according to The Straits Times newspaper.
Audrey Tan, Straits Times AsiaOne 10 Dec 16;
"In the end we will conserve only what we love, we will love only what we understand, and we will understand only what we are taught." That line was written by a Senegalese poet in the 1960s, but it is a philosophy nature conservation volunteers share - that to get people to appreciate their environment, they first have to be taught to fall in love with it.
Volunteers from various environmental groups have been conducting free guided walks to nature areas here to raise awareness about the last few wild spaces in built-up Singapore, and the need to protect them.
The guides are from groups such as Naked Hermit Crabs and Herpetological Society of Singapore. They take interested members of the public out to various habitats in and around Singapore - from the Pasir Ris Mangroves to the forested trails of the Central Catchment Nature Reserve, and even the wetlands of offshore Pulau Ubin.
They do so in the hope of making Singaporeans aware of the rich biodiversity in their own backyard.
"Bringing people to appreciate the forest first-hand will give them a better idea of what is at stake," said Mr Tan Hang Chong, 43, who is head of education and research at Better Trails, an environmental and outdoor education company.
Free guided walks
Herpetological Society of Singapore
This nature group wants to raise awareness of reptiles and amphibians - that may not immediately appeal to everyone.
Volunteers have started Herp Walks to places such as the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve and MacRitchie to educate people that reptiles and amphibians are important to the ecosystem and are not scary.
For more information on the guided walks, visit http://herpsocsg.wordpress.com/
Naked Hermit Crabs
Despite the level of sediment, life thrives in Singapore's waters. Learn more about the creatures that live underwater with volunteers from the Naked Hermit Crabs, who organise walks at places such as the Pasir Ris Mangroves and the Chek Jawa wetlands on Pulau Ubin. Details can be found at http://nakedhermitcrabs.blogspot.sg/
Jane Goodall Institute (Singapore)
There are two species of monkeys found in Singapore, although you are more likely to encounter the cheeky long-tailed macaque. The other species, the Raffles' banded langur, is reclusive and tends to stay out of the way of humans.
Learn more about these primates with the experts at the Jane Goodall Institute on their Monkey Walks held twice monthly at the MacRitchie Reservoir Park and Bukit Timah Nature Reserve. Visit http://www.janegoodall.org.sg/ for more information.
BES Drongos
The students from the National University of Singapore's Bachelor of Environmental Studies (BES) programme are spreading their love for nature by conducting guided walks on the Petai Trail at MacRitchie Reservoir Park. To sign up, visit http://besdrongos.wordpress.com/
"It also gives us the opportunity to share how every small action, such as going off trail, could have an impact on the environment."
When people go off trail, they trample on sensitive vegetation and disturb wildlife.
On Nov 19, a group of volunteers put together a concert at MacRitchie Reservoir Park, a gateway to the Central Catchment Nature Reserve, to raise awareness of the potential impact of the 5km Cross Island Line, which could cut through primary and secondary forests in the reserve.
Ms Rani Singam, a jazz singer who helped organise The Future of MacRitchie Concert, said: "I thought we should do something to bring people together to discuss the issue in a positive way, not just through protesting or rebelling. And music is a way to do that."
Local musicians such as singer-songwriter Farisha Ishak and musical duo Jack and Rai performed at the concert, which was attended by about 100 people.
The other concert organisers included actress Debra Teng, who is in her 40s; risk analyst Jaclyn Yeo, 31; sustainability manager Chen Dexiang, 31; and publisher Kannan Chandran, 57.
Ms Singam said she never identified herself as an environmentalist.
But after reading about the potential for the line to cause harm to native biodiversity, raised by groups such as the Nature Society (Singapore), Ms Singam found herself drawn to the issue.
The 45-year-old said she decided to act as she believes that a protected nature reserve "should not be violated".
The organisers of the concert also roped in volunteers, including Mr Tan and his colleague Ding Kian Seng, 33, who each took a group of 15 on a guided walk on the trails of MacRitchie.
They pointed out the forest denizens, including the greater racket-tailed drongo, a bird with flowing tail feathers that resemble stilts.
The organisers said that they worked for about eight months, securing permits and lining up programmes, in order to pull off the Nov 19 event.
Said Ms Teng: "This nature reserve, and all the green spaces in Singapore, belong to us Singaporeans, and I think it is important that Singaporeans have a say as to how and what we want to protect.
"This is just an opportunity to spread the message and let people know that... hey, we own it."
For more information, go to www.lovemacritchie.wordpress.com
In our annual Causes Week, back for its fifth year, we spotlight individuals and groups that are making a difference in the community, and look at how others might pitch in too.
Audrey Tan, The Straits Times AsiaOne 9 Dec 16;
The URA is clearing the 30ha plot in Lentor in stages. The aim is to guide wildlife towards neighbouring forested areas for relocation, and ensure none remains before the land is cleared, says Mr Tang from the URA's development coordination department.
But the authorities say plan may not be applicable to all future developments
To save rare animals in a forested area in Lentor, the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) has for the first time embarked on a novel wildlife management plan.
The 30ha plot designated for private housing is being gradually cleared so that animals are herded to nearby green areas, such as the Central Catchment Nature Reserve.
"The goal of the plan is to guide wildlife towards the neighbouring forested areas for relocation, and ensure that none remains before the land is cleared," said Mr Alvin Tang, senior civil engineer from the URA's development coordination department.
He told The Straits Times that the plan has been progressing well. Several animals, including the critically endangered Sunda pangolin and the flying lemur, have already been relocated or shepherded to nearby green plots.
The URA is carrying out the wildlife management plan following the results of a 2014 wildlife survey.
It also agreed to keep two green plots after feedback from the Nature Society (Singapore), or NSS, and residents of Teacher's Estate, who had been shocked when they found out about the land clearance through URA fliers last December.
The first phase of the works, which include the wildlife management plan and vegetation clearance for 10ha, was completed in October and took about 1.5 months.
The second phase is ongoing and expected to be completed by the first quarter of next year.
Wildlife expert Subaraj Rajathurai from Strix Wildlife Consultancy, who conducted the 2014 survey, and contractors from Wildlife Studies and Control are carrying out the project.
As a gauge, vegetation clearance on a similar 10ha site can usually be done in a week, as trees are cut from all directions, said Mr Tang. But in this case, as clearance is done sequentially and only from one direction, more time is needed.
The URA declined to reveal costs.
The animal-friendly plan was made as several species of wildlife have been spotted in the vegetated area bounded by Lentor Drive, Yio Chu Kang Road, Munshi Abdullah Avenue and Tagore Road.
NSS has said animals spotted there include the Sunda slow loris, a shy monkey known as Raffles' banded langur, and the straw-headed bulbul, a globally threatened bird.
Shepherding animals to safety is less invasive compared with physically relocating an animal, for example, which could stress it out and cause injury. Clearing the land at one go would also mean that slower-moving animals, or animals that choose to hide instead of flee, could be inadvertently killed.
But the URA cautioned that it may not be practical for the Government to carry out a wildlife management plan for all future projects.
For instance, such a plan would not typically be required for sites that are sparsely vegetated and barren, or found with minimal wildlife presence, Mr Tang said.
Earlier this year, NSS wrote a 10-page position paper calling for the land to be developed in phases so that some parts of the forest, including two rare freshwater streams, could be retained.
The authorities agreed that two green areas there will be temporarily kept for at least five years, after talks between the URA, residents and NSS.
Mr Leong Kwok Peng, chair of NSS' conservation committee, said the shepherding of wildlife was a last resort. "I hope that it will not be a default solution and excuse to clear forests in the future.
"The Lentor stream can potentially be an attractive natural landscape to the development if it is incorporated in the overall planning."
Dylan Loh Channel NewsAsia 9 Dec 16;
SINGAPORE: Over half a year since work officially began, the first phase of Singapore’s mega-port terminal in Tuas is 20 per cent completed - and this phase will be finished on schedule by December 2020, the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) said in an update on Friday (Dec 9).
The project is managed by DIAP-Daelim Joint Venture under a S$2.42 billion agreement.
A key feature of the new port are caissons, which line the docks where ships will call at. According to MPA, the structures are suited for the Tuas facility due to its shallow sea bed.
Each caisson is about 28 metres tall, equivalent to the height of a 10-storey Housing and Development Board (HDB) block, making it one of the largest such structures in the world.
Since construction on Phase 1 started in April, 30 out of a total of 222 caissons have been built.
With each one weighing 15,000 tonnes, engineers have had to ensure foundations are strong enough to support the massive structures, according to Gert De Smet, project director at DIAP-Daelim Joint Venture.
"The main challenge we are facing is that we are working towards very stringent and strict tolerances, and these, in water depths of up to 27 metres," he said.
The prefabricated caissons are made on site in a two-lane assembly line and it takes 24 days for a caisson to be completed.
WARY OF HICCUPS
While on track for end-2020, MPA said it is still too early to tell if the project can be completed ahead of schedule.
Su Ziheng, civil engineer at MPA’s New Port Development Department said authorities are keeping a close watch on possible hiccups, which could include a sudden slowdown in supply of excavated materials from the construction industry. The material is recycled in the Phase 1 of Tuas Terminal project as fill materials for reclamation.
Mr Su said: "Currently, the risk is kept low as we are working closely with our counterparts and are constantly kept aware of the supply volume.
“However, in the event of a slowdown of the supply, we are still able to mitigate the risk by using more dredged materials in place of excavated materials."
Dredging materials are collected with the help of the state-of-the-art dredging machine called Gosho.
While typical grab dredgers swallow van-sized mouthfuls of dirt, Gosho is capable of scooping up the equivalent of a whole double-decker bus with ease, according to engineers.
The use of such a machine helps reduce the number of grab dredgers needed for the project, and helps speed up the construction process.
When completed, the facility will be able to handle about 20 million standard-sized container units yearly and will have a total capacity of 65 million units.
- CNA/am
Singapore institutions join global online initiative by Smithsonian to give public access to titles
Audrey Tan Straits Times 9 Dec 16;
In 1854, tigers roamed Singapore and, on average, a person was killed every day. This was the account of famed British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace, who detailed his observations in The Malay Archipelago, The Land Of The Orangutan And The Bird Of Paradise.
Until recently, the public had limited access to the 1874 book and other manuscripts that tell the stories of old Singapore. Many of them are among the rare collection of the National Library Board's (NLB's) Lee Kong Chian Reference Library and not available for loan.
But Wallace's book and more than 100 other manuscripts from Singapore are now just a click away.
They have been scanned and are published at www.biodiversitylibrary.org. It is part of an international initiative known as the Biodiversity Heritage Library driven by the Smithsonian Institution.
Natural history and botanical libraries from around the world upload digitised copies of biodiversity-related literature in their collections on the Biodiversity Heritage Library.
It can be accessed for free.
In the middle of this year, the Singapore Botanic Gardens started contributing titles to this library and has shared 22 volumes to date.
It was done to share the Gardens' knowledge and resources with a wider audience, said Dr Nigel Taylor, the Gardens' group director.
Among the titles it contributed are volumes of one of the oldest scientific journals in South-east Asia, the Agricultural Bulletin Of The Straits Settlements - now known as the Gardens Bulletin. It was first published in 1891.
In 2014, NLB became the first South-east Asian partner to join the Smithsonian initiative, which now has 16 members, including Harvard University in the US, and the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, London.
"The partnership with the Biodiversity Heritage Library strengthens the Lee Kong Chian Reference Library's position as Singapore's key research and resource centre for materials on Singapore and South-east Asia," said the National Library's director, Mrs Wai Yin Pryke.
"We also hope to showcase the library's rich collections and spark interest and research on these key collections on Singapore and the region."
Dr Nancy Gwinn, director of Smithsonian Libraries and chairman of the Biodiversity Heritage Library, said: "Singapore's important role in the Asean community in both the areas of library science and biology will be important as we seek partners in those countries."
Environmental studies undergraduate Shaina Tan, 19, said it helps to have access to the books, adding: "The books could be useful to study historic biodiversity and might come in handy for future research, perhaps for our final-year projects."
Netizens are showing disapproval over NTU’s project involving remote-controlled ‘cyber-beetles’, with some calling it animal torture.
Hariz Baharudin The New Paper 8 Dec 16;
A project involving remote-controlled "cyborg beetles" by the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and the University of California, Berkeley has drawn flak, with some netizens crying foul over the perceived insect abuse.
The joint project, first published in March last year, involves attaching a microchip to and inserting electrodes into a giant flower beetle's body to connect with its optic lobes and flight muscles - allowing people to control its movements via wireless signals.
Led by Assistant Professor Hirotaka Sato from the NTU School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, the project was recently featured by US online magazine Motherboard.
A video of the story, which was uploaded onto Motherboard's Facebook page on Dec 1, has gone viral, with over 22,000 shares and more than 2,800 comments as of yesterday.
In the video, Dr Sato says the project's purpose is to "control the flight of the beetle", which will be used for "peaceful applications" like finding trapped people using heat signatures.
Each muscle of the beetle is stimulated "like a robot". Dr Sato said: "It struggles, but it still obeys the signals."
Netizens expressed their disapproval on Facebook. User Alexandra Manda called the project "animal torture". Netizen Calvin Yap said: "If someone were to control a wasp or venomous invertebrates, he can commit a perfect murder."
But not all netizens were against the cyborg beetles.
Mr Marc Samuel Tan commented: "If it furthers research and helps develop future technologies that can potentially improve the way things are done, then I don't see why not."
A spokesman for the Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority, which regulates the import of insects, said it had approved the import of the beetles.
He added that the animal welfare provisions of the Animals and Birds Act do not cover invertebrates such as beetles.
Would we one day allow the use of the same technology to control higher animals and people?
Dr Anuj Jain, butterfly & insect group volunteer with Nature Society
The Animal Concerns Research and Education Society (Acres) and Nature Society (Singapore) (NSS) have also weighed in on the cyborg beetles.
Said deputy chief executive of Acres Anbarasi Boopal: "With the advances in technology, use of live animals for such purposes should be replaced by use of technology to avoid suffering."
Dr Anuj Jain, butterfly & insect group volunteer and past chairman of the NSS, highlighted possible ethical issues.
Said Dr Jain: "Would we one day allow the use of the same technology to control higher animals and people?"
Though Singapore's ethics for animal experimentation guidelines do not apply to invertebrates, Dr Sato said the research was carried out with "utmost care for the beetles to ensure it does not cause any harm".
The beetles, he said, continued to live out their regular lifespan of three to six months.
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