So, I am trying something new with this post, what I hope will be a weekly round-up of news and stories relating to conservation, sustainability and the environment. Some will be based around stories I am working on and places I’ve been, while some will be cherry picked from the previous week’s news.
Why you might ask? Well, while I am working on lots of different stories, covering lots of different subjects at the moment, one thing that does seem to connect a lot of them is their links to conservation and sustainability. It’s perhaps not surprising, consider the current state of the world that these themes are high on my agenda, but it’s actually something I’ve been doing (slightly sub-consciously) for the last few years. I guess it all stems back to my childhood dreams of being a zoologist which unfortunately got shelved due to me being rubbish at science. Anyway, here goes, let’s see how things pan out!
The front gate of ACRES complete with cage for members of the public to drop off injured animals
For starters, last week saw me pay a visit to the Animal Concerns Research and Education Society (ACRES). This small NGO has been running nearly 20 years, with the express aim of rescuing and rehabilitating wild animals in Singapore, while attempting to educate Singaporeans on how to better live in harmony with their wild neighbours.
Their base is a 2 ha plot of land tucked away among the sprawling fish farms and plant nurseries of northeast Singapore, distinguishable from its neighbours thanks to the large cage outside designed so that members of the public can drop off injured animals outside normal hours.
The Animal Wildlife Rescue Centre is currently home to around 150 animals and birds, which on my visit, ranged from an adorable baby tree shrew through palm civets, iguanas and an angry black naped oriole to an infant pigeon, bull pythons and a whole creep* of tortoises. (*This is apparently the wonderful official definition for a group of tortoise).
Many of the tortoises at ACRES are victims of the illegal wildlife trade. As they are not native to Singapore they can’t be released in the wild so end up being long term residents
Indeed, it’s the animal rescues that are the most high profile work undertaken by ACRES, be it relocating crocodiles from golf courses or helping a spitting cobra whose head was stuck in a can of Red Bull.
The rescue team, many of them volunteers, are on standby 24 hours and they are kept busy with daily calls from the general public. Between April and August ACREs received 5752 calls to the rescue hotline and ended up rescuing 1521 individual birds and animals - Deputy Chief Executive Kalai Vanan Balakrishnan told me that they get at least one call about snakes, usually pythons, every day.
Indeed with Singapore’s aims to become a City in Nature leading to the creation of more green spaces across these islands, these wildlife/human interactions are on the increase and set to rise even further. While many call out pest control companies to deal with unwanted guests, be they snakes or civets in their house, Kalai points out that they don’t have the same expertise and training in handling these animals as the rescue team at ACRES.
This issue was back in the news last week, after a pest control company was videoed allegedly manhandling a python. The case underlines another important area of ACRES work, a focus on education programmes designed to help improve Singaporean’s relationship with the local wildlife and come to see them as neighbours not pests.
As well as school visits and open days (both of which had to go online during lockdown), that education program sees the ACRES wildlife management team working closely with the National Parks and the public to monitor various hot spots around the island where there is the potential for human wildlife conflict – most notably an issue with Singapore’s population of long tailed macaques.
Palm civets like this pair are one of the more common animals to be rescued by ACRES
A big thanks to Kalai and ACRES other Deputy Chief Executive Anbarasi “Anbu” Boopal to spare a morning to discuss their important and demanding work, which also involves going undercover to disrupt the illegal wildlife trade. Finger’s crossed I get to run a bigger feature on the organisation in the not too distant future.
However, in the short term I did just want to highlight some of the challenges ACRES currently faces, especially during the pandemic. The Circuit Breaker period put some serious pressure on the organisation as they rely heavily on volunteers who simply weren’t able to help out at the centre in the usual numbers. Perhaps more tellingly it also put a serious squeeze on their finances, with many fundraising activities (including their annual gala ball) cancelled.
As a guide, it costs them SG$50 a day to feed the turtles and SG$200 to rescue and rehabilitate just one baby bird. Anbu fears that money is going to get even tighter towards the end of the year as the pandemic continues to batter the economy and people have less disposable income to spare for donations. They receive little support from the government and really do rely on private donors to keep them going, so do have a think if there’s ways you can help out.
Plastic Action
Staying in Singapore I did also want to flag up a new exhibition at the Art Science Museum called Planet or Plastic which is focused on the devastating impact of plastic pollution globally. It’s actually based around a National Geographic issue from back in 2018, which featured an iconic image of a plastic bag doing a pretty good imitation of an iceberg.
The statistics and imagery on display make for some sober viewing but the exhibition does end of some solutions and suggestions on how we can all make a difference in tackling this global crisis.
It also directly led to a visit to a Scoop the same day so I guess it got its message across.
Conservation is key
Elsewhere, last week saw the release of a report by the World Wildlife Fund that revealed global animal populations had dropped by a devastating 68% since 1970.
The news coincided with the release of a new David Attenborough fronted show entitled Extinction (I confess I haven’t seen yet) which explores how up to a million species are at risk of dying out, painted a pretty bleak picture of the current state of the planet and its biodiversity.
However, amidst all the bad news there were some glimmers of hope offered up by another new report. Published in the Conservation Letters journal, the study in question revealed that up to 48 bird and mammal extinctions had actually been prevented thanks to different conservation efforts since 1993. Species that are estimated to be ‘saved’ (if that’s the right word) include the Scimitar Horned Oryx in North Africa, Przewalski’s Horses in Mongolia, Guam Kingfishers and the Californian Condor.
While it’s obviously desperately sad to read about species dying out at such alarming rates, I feel this report has to be taken as positive evidence that conservation does work and can still make a difference. Indeed the report goes onto say that extinction rates would have been three to four times higher than current levels if not for various conservation programs, which ranged from legislation to habitat protection. I guess it shows it still might not be too late to change the tide and underlines the importance of putting pressure on governments and businesses to support and promote conservation work.
A hatching Siamese Crocodile, photo WCS
Crocodile babies
On that note, there was some positive news of baby Siamese crocodiles being spotted in Cambodia. Members of the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) Crocodile Nest Protection Team studying this critically endangered species managed to capture video and photos of 15 new hatchlings swimming in a lake in Koh Kong Province, part of important natural wetlands. With an estimated 5000 individual animals left in the country they are listed as critically endangered so these new arrivals are very welcome.
Visitors see a map on the world and can just click on sound files to get the forest
Forest Rhythms
And to end this post, it’s time to indulge in a spot of forest bathing from the comfort of your own home. Timber Festival in the UK is currently putting together an open source library of forest sounds, which artists will eventually use to create music and art and more to be presented at next year’s festival.
Head to the site to immerse yourself in some wonderful woodland soundscapes collected from all over the world and maybe even add some of your own. Favourites I’ve listened to so far include beavers slapping tails in birch forests in Alaska, lemurs howling in Madagascar, a torrential downpour in Ghana, magpie robins singing in Malaysia and fruit bats squabbling in Sydney.
Our cat is currently very confused by the sounds coming from my laptop.