Reticulated Python

A stroll in a park can lead to exciting discoveries.

When you enter a park, what do you see? Trees? Obviously. Mosquitoes? Lots of them. Maybe a few birds? Yes. Anything interesting? Not really.

Why not look up at a tree, like the one above, shot in West Coast Park? What do you see? Leaves? Duh. What else?

The sky... and... wait a minute... What is that thing in the middle of the picture?

Lets move to a different angle shall we?

Hmm... Still not clear enough? Ok then. Lets stop torturing your eyes on the above picture and look at the shot below.


Yikes! A snake! Not just any old snake, its the Reticulated Python. Also known as Python reticulatus. The world's longest snake and obviously, also the longest of all reptiles, reaching up to about 8.7 m long. However, they are relatively slim for their length and are certainly not the most heavily built.
The colour pattern is a complex geometric pattern that incorporates different colours. The back typically has a series of irregular diamond shapes which are flanked by smaller markings with light centers. In this species' wide range, much variation of size, colour, and markings commonly occurs.
In zoo exhibits the colour pattern may seem garish, but in a shadowy jungle environment amid fallen leaves and debris it allows them to virtually disappear. Called a disruptive colouration, it protects them from predators and helps them to catch their prey.
This nocturnal snake is both terrestrial and arboreal, catching small mammals and birds, and strangling them before swallowing them whole.
Reticulated Pythons can be found in most habitats from forest to mangroves, and often near human habitation.
They are capable of overpowering a person, so my advice to you is not to go near one if you ever meet one.

Dragons of the Insect Kingdom

Dragonflies are a well known and fascinating order of insects.
They have strong biting mouthparts and are active and aggressive carnivores, preying mostly on other insects. Dragonflies are also the closest thing the natural world has got to a helicopter. The insects do not simply flap their wings, but twist them back and forth to create a little vortex that lifts the insect.

These dragonfly pictures are taken in my school. All of them are called the Slender Skimmer.

Check out its compound eyes.

These eyes may each contain as many as 30 000 individual lenses. Because of this, dragonflies have exceptionally good eyesight and have been known to respond to movements from more than 40 feet away.

Colourful Snake

You might have seen this snake before.

The snake you are staring at now is called the Paradise Tree Snake. I found this beauty along the entrance of Sungei Buloh, chewing on a yummy gecko. If you want to see it without travelling far, you can look for it in your garden. This creature can be found everywhere in Singapore, even in urban gardens. It is mildly venomous and feeds mainly on lizards and small birds, and is also capable of gliding. Some individuals, like this one, have red 'flower' pattern along the middle of the back.

Spidey Spider

Tarantulas are a group of hairy and often very large spiders belonging to the family Theraphosidae, of which approximately 900 species have been identified. Tarantulas hunt prey in both trees and on the ground. All tarantulas can emit silk; while arboreal species will typically reside in a silken "tube web", terrestrial species will line their burrows or lairs with web to catch wandering prey. They mainly eat insects and other arthropods, using ambush as their primary method. The biggest tarantulas can kill animals as large as lizards, mice, or birds. Most tarantulas are harmless to humans, and some species are popular in the exotic pet trade while others are eaten as food. These spiders are found in tropical and desert regions around the world.

In Singapore, there is a spider, at around 20 mm, is lurking in your garden. Though the Singapore Tarantula has a 'tarantula' in its name, it does not grow to gigantic sizes. It is common around leaf litters and under rocks and pieces of wood.

I have found a few around my block but they were too fast. Once you lift up a rock, it will immediately crawl into a hiding place.

This Singapore Tarantula was shot at West Coast Park. If you observe closely, you can see the tiny hairs on its body. You can see that it has lined its lair with web.

Frog Faces

Frogs are slimy and disgusting to look at. Is that true?
Frogs might be slimy but they are interesting in their own way. They sometimes do the impossible. Take the American Bullfrog for example, they would like to participate in any challenge. They sometimes eat preys bigger than themselves. They have been observed to eat snakes too!

This dead American Bullfrog was found in west coast park. American Bullfrogs are not supposed to be found in S'pore but some inconsiderate people have released it into the wild. Why is this bad? Since American Bullfrogs eat almost anything, they are a threat to our ecosystem. We call this an introduction of an alien species.

Before I make my way home, my friend lifted up a small piece of wood. We found this cute Banded Bullfrog underneath it.

A few people said they saw black snakes, most likely the Equatorial Spitting Cobra, in west coast park. Unfortunately, we did not see any. I hope to find one on our next trip to west coast park.

Deadly Front Legs

Have you seen a praying mantis before? It might have flown into your home or you might have spotted it when you are outside. Most of the ones I have seen are green.

This little guy was spotted in my school. Its quite small. My friend spotted it and we took some pics.

This handsome one was spotted at west coast park. It is an ant-mimic praying mantis. It mimics an ant because ants most animals like birds does not want to mess with ants. Most ants have a painful bite.

Rest in Peace, Little Birdy

Some of you might have seen dead birds before.

It might be a Rock Pigeon, Common Myna, Javan Myna or a sparrow.

Well, I had recently encountered a dead bird which was most likely a female Asian Koel. It was found dead near Jurong East interchange.

I found this Asian Koel dead. I was on my way home from Jurong Bird park. There were ants surrounding it. There was a hole where the eye was supposed to be. This proved that the bird had been dead for a few hours.

My brother threw a mealworm at the ants. You might not see the mealworm in this picture...

Meet My Mink-Hooded Rat

"Eewww... A rat! Kill it!"
Sounds familiar? This is what most people say when they meet a rat close up. I know most of you think that a rat is plain dirty, spread diseases and bites people. But not all. A captive rat is one of the best pets to be kept. They come in a few different colours and they like to be cuddled. And most of all, they don't spread diseases. If you observe a captive rat, you often see them grooming themselves. They like cleanliness and sometimes are observed to drop their feaces at a spot.
I know all this because I have a pet rat at home. If you are tired of wild animals, this might brighten you up.

I bought my rat from a place called farmart. The pet shop there sells gerbils, mice, parrots, birds, rats and rabbits. Is a nice place, really. They also have a place for you to fish for prawns.
Enjoy the pictures of my rat.

My rat clinging onto my arm. Trust me, he is better now. He is now able to climb up my arm and onto my shoulder.

"What is that strange flash of light?"

"Interesting articles..."

Examining the sofa after 'reading' the newspaper.

"Oops... There is a spot on my fur. Time to groom myself."

"Is that irritating flash of light again! Wonder what that human is doing."

Ok... My rat is complaining. I will stop here.

Bukit Timah Nature Reserve

I kind of like Bukit Timah Nature Reserve a lot. Most of the snakes I found are from there.
I went with my father that day.

The first thing I saw was a Clouded Monitor. It was foraging for food. When it saw me, it quickly crawled into the vegetation.

I saw it moving on this twig. I took a shot of it. If you look closely, you can see its wings.

My father spotted this Golden Web Spider. This spider seems to be very common in forested and urban areas.

I was looking at two Common Treeshrews when this Greater Racket-tailed Drongo flew in front of me. Can you see the two hanging feathers at the end of the tail. This bird is sometimes seen with only one or no feathers hanging from the tail.

While taking shots of the Greater Racket-tailed Drongo, this woodpecker flew onto a tree close to me. I could not get a clear picture of it as it was flying from tree to tree.

While walking, I was thinking if I would find a Malayan Whip Snake at the same spot I found one few days ago. I looked carefully around the vegetation and Bingo! I found a Malayan Whip Snake.

Take a closer look at its head. The eyes of this snake distinguishes itself from its common cousin the Oriental Whip Snake. For a picture of the Oriental Whip Snake, visit http://www.ecologyasia.com/.

I spotted this ant hill on a plant. Normally you see ant hills on the ground, but this was built on a plant, about 1m above the ground.

Before leaving Bukit Timah, my father found this Common Sun Skink on a log. A few visitors to the Bukit Timah were also looking at it.

Day at Upper Pierce Reservoir

I am writing this today but the trip happened yesterday. I went with my father by taxi to the Old Upper Thompson road and went into the reservoir by the main gate.

The first thing i saw was two wild dogs. I only manage to take a picture of one of them as the other one ran into the woods.

I expect this dog was sniffing for food when I saw it. It quickly ran into the woods after seeing me approaching it.

A Long-tailed Macaque in the middle of the road. The macaques found around the reservoir were all afraid of humans, unlike the ones in Bukit Timah Nature Reserve. This is a good sign. It showed that no one fed the macaques that lived around the reservoir.

Can you spot the yellow dragonfly in this picture? I saw it flying around and grabbed the chance to take a photo of it resting.

The dragonfly on this tree bark was well camouflaged. Can you spot it?

This spider jumped in front of me. At first I thought it was an ant. After examining it, I realised that it was a spider. I do not know the name of this spider as I did not see it or read about it before. This was my first time seeing it.

I heard a cicada singing on a tree branch. When I approached the cicada, it suddenly flew and landed among the grass(circled). Can you spot it? Find for the red circle. (You might not be able to spot the circle too.)

My father spotted this tiny creature on a stone table. It looked like a spider but my book does not say anything about it. It might also be a pseudoscorpion.

An orange cicada. Spotted it flying. Its abdomen was a beautiful red in colour. It landed on this leaf and I managed to take a photo before it flew away.

A brown praying mantis among the leaf litter. Saw it hopping around. It might be a Dead Leaf Mantis. I expect it hopped around for lunch before going back into hiding.

While on my way out of the reservoir, I spotted a Green Crested Lizard. This creature used to be a common tree lizard in urban gardens, but lost competition to the Changeable Lizard. Now it can only be found in wooded areas.

The lizard saw me and ran into the vegetation. It turned brown. Can you spot it?

We did not see any snakes that day. We were lucky that a taxi came in or we would have to walk all the way out to the main road.

Pulau Ubin

Yup, as stated above, I went to Pulau Ubin today. I sat a boat to that island. It cost my father $7.50. The ride is $2.50 per person. Just in case you are wondering who I went with, I went with my brother and of course my father. We rented 3 bicycles and started out to look for animals. We headed for a place called the Chek Jawa Wetlands.

The first thing I saw hopping along was a Banded Bull Frog. This nocturnal insectivore is common even in urban areas.

We continued our way to the Mangrove Broadwalk and saw these mudskippers together. Some even rolled over in puddles of water. Cute!

This little crab was about to hide into a hole dug by itself. Look at the pincers. There is a big difference in size.

A whole gang of crabs.

A Nipah plant.

This little crab digs holes too. According to someone, this is a Sand Bubble Crab. Quite small in size.

The spider which made this web is a good web artist.

Can you spot the camouflaged mudskipper?

This Mud Crab is the biggest crab I have seen today.

This crab has beautiful colours. This is the nicest crab I have seen today.

Another crab with different size pincers.

A Malayan Water Monitor. This creature is among the largest lizard in the world. It can climb trees and is also an expert swimmer and diver. It feeds on small animals and fish.

A shot of a Yellow-lined Epeus. This spider can grow around 9mm. It can be found in heavily wooded gardens or mangrove swamps.

Can you spot the grasshopper in this picture? The actual size is about 6cm.

A crab pulling a leaf. Wonder what is it going to do with the leaf. Eat it? Or is it going to lay its eggs on it so the young can feed on it?

After we reached the end of the broadwalk, we cycled back to the shophouses and ate chilli crabs. Does anyone like them? I like it. I also ate black pepper lobster. This is the end of the trip. I did heard someone say he saw an Oriental Whip Snake but I did not see any though.