During this trip to Bukit Timah Nature Reserve, my friend and I spotted many interesting creatures.
We were walking along Taban Loop, when suddenly my friend shouted, "Stick insect!" I had never seen a stick insect in the wild before, so I was really excited when my friend spotted it. It was really well camouflaged, and would need a pair of very good eyes to spot it. You would never believe how well it mimicked a broken stick. We moved on after we took some shots of it.
We came out of Taban Loop and moved on to Jungle Fall Path. There, another surprise awaited us. My friend spotted a Earless Agamid. Take a guess why is it called Earless Agamid? Well, not because it has no ears, for every lizard does not have one, but because its tympanum(ear opening) is hidden. Agamid mainly means lizard, so no questions on that one.
We took a few shots of the agamid, and exited the Jungle Fall Path. While we were walking down the main path, a man told us about a green snake he spotted near the visitor centre. He led us down to where he spotted it. On our way down, we resisted the urge to run. When we reached the place, the snake was no longer at its usual place. Both of us knew that the snake could not have gone far, and decided to look for it. This time, I spotted it. It was a Malayan Whip Snake. It was resting at the base of a small plant. This was the second or third snake we spotted this day. Second or third? Yup, we saw a Spotted Keelback during our hike in the Jungle Fall Path. Then isn't the green snake the second snake? Well, when the Spotted Keelback slithered into the vegetation, another one slithered out. We were not sure whether it was the same snake or not. However, we could not take any pictures as the snakes were moving too fast. Anyway, back to the Malayan Whip Snake. It tried to slither away but we managed to bring it onto a stick so we could take more pictures of it. After that, we let it go.
