Raffles MuseumNEWSLETTER

A publication of the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research, NUS

Toddycats! - the birth of the Raffles
Museum Volunteers
After a 30-year hiatus as theZoological Research Collection, thecollection was revived as the Raffles
Museum ofBiodiversity
Research in1998. This
newidentity
saw asignificant
revival ofthemuseum’s
traditional role inpublic education, and in many
ways, mirrored the efforts ofRichard Hanitsch, the museum’s
director at the turn of the lastcentury!

Biodiversity Symposium 2003

Meanwhile on television, effort wasmade to encourage and cooperatewith production houses, providingc o n t e n t f o r m o re t h a n 1 0
documentaries in the past five years.
Volunteers were getting theirfeet wet assisting in salvage
collections, biodiversity
assessments and ecologicalresearch. Several pre-existingeducation programmes in Sungei
Buloh, Pulau Ubin and the nature
reserves were inherited from The
Habitat Group and enhanced by
2001, and this included thecoordination of the island-wide
International Coastal Cleanup
Singapore. New programmes wereinitiated in Pasir Panjang, Changiand Chek Jawa. In 2002, training
workshops for schools andvolunteer groups were started toensure capacity building
and to better utilize themuseum’s resources.

The Public Gallery wasofficially opened in 2001 andprovided a showcase
for biodiversity andconservation issues in
Singapore and theregion. Guides
In order to enhance theamplified
thegrowing communicatione x p e r i e n c e
in the community, theconsiderably for theBiodiversity of Singapore
many visitors and a
Symposium was held in
new pool of volunteer
2003. Graced by the thenguides will conduct
Minister of State forlunch time tours for
Seining at Chek Jawa, 2001 National Development,
the university
Dr Vivian Balakrishnan,community andit was supported by Lee
Saturday morning sessions for theFoundation, the Singapore Institute ofpublic.
Biology and Nature’s Niche Pte. Ltd.
A concerted effort to provide
internet resources resulted in morethan 10 webpages, domains andblogs that provide information
about nature news, ecosystems,animal groups, heritage andconservation sites. Thesel i n k s a re a l l l i s t e d a t t h eflagship site, Habitatnews(http://habitatnews.nus.edu.sg).

ISSUE NO.4 JUNE 2005 ISSN 0219-5747

It was a unique affair with 30
speakers and 200 participants fromresearch, management,
conservation and education groupsof government and nongovernment origins who exchanged
notes about each other’s work. We
ensured lengthy tea times so thateveryone had enough time to
network and develop new ideas!

With a greater number ofyoung volunteers entering the arena
through museum activities, theloose though disciplined methods
that had served well in the past had
to become more structured andidentifiable. And so the Toddycats!
came into form in 2002, and today,
a core group have stepped up to
take the lead as project managers,and in the process, discover thecomplexity of coordinating aprogramme.
The Raffles Museum Toddycats
have also begun to work withmembers of other groups on several
programmes - National Parks Boardor NParks (Chek Jawa Guide
Training Workshops), Sculpture
Society, NParks & Nature Society(Singapore) (Hopea sangal education
programme), National Archives ofSingapore (Pasir Panjang Heritage
Trail), Sungei Buloh Wetlands
Reserve (International Coastal
Cleanup: Kranji-Buloh mangroves).
Just four years after the Public
Gallery opened in 2001, the goal ofcontributing to education,conservation and research by raisingpublic awareness, creating resources
and nuturing a new generation ofvolunteers has reached out to morethan 20,000 people. We welcome you
to contribute to this effort by writing
to sivasothi@nus.edu.sg.

Raffles Museum
NEWSLETTERISSUE NO.4 JUNE 2005

Programmes of the Raffles Museum Toddycats!
WEBPAGE
http://rmbr.nus.edu.sg/toddycats
NATURE AND HERITAGE
Pasir Panjang /Kent Ridge
Heritage Trail – this trail
explores the fauna, floraand history of the area,
the Battle of Pasir
Panjang and life in the60’s. The trail begins in
NUS and ends at theReflections of Bukit Chandu.
Pedal Ubin! – guides
relate fascinating stories
about the flora, fauna,culture and history ofSingapore’s last idyllic
outpost in Pulau Ubin,on bicycle. And learn how tohandle a mountain bikeproperly in the process!
Sungei Buloh Anniversary
Walk – this event is also a training
ground for inexperienced but
interested volunteers keen to
become a nature guide. After just 8hours of training, they guide as partof a team!
MacRitchie – Bukit Timah
briskwalks – this is a fast walkaimed at alternative users of forest
trails – briskwalkers. It also teaches
participants the route from
MacRitchie to the summit of Bukit
Timah and trail etiquette.
Hopea sangal Education
Workshop – this is a joint workshop
programme offered by the Hopea
sangal Working Group which trainssecondary school students to teachprimary school students all about trees.
Marine life in Singapore –volunteers with a flair for public
speaking are provided with sometraining and a slide show which they
modify for assembly talks. Throughtheir presentation, they reveal exciting
secrets from our shores, discuss marine
ecosystems and the issues affecting theirhealth and survival.
2

Public Gallery guiding –ironically,
this small area covers the greatest
numbers of topics as it features
animal life and issues in Singapore
and the region and tell stories fromthe museum’s large and more than
100-year old specimen collection.
Chek Jawa Guide Training
Workshop – these workshops are
conducted for volunteer Chek Jawa
guides, and deal with the biologyof specific animal groups such as
crabs, sea stars and fish and thebackground to events surrounding
Chek Jawa.
ENVIRONMENTInternational Coastal Cleanup
Singapore – Coordinated incollaboration with the Nature
Society (Singapore), this is thelongest running and largest
environmental exercise in Singapore.
It involves more than 2,000 volunteers
who fan out annually on the shorelinesof Singapore to battle marine trash.
Zone Captains communicate withvolunteer groups, evaluate the site,
coordinate manpower and conduct

data verification. Now in its 14th year
in Singapore.
RESEARCH ASSISTANCE
Mangrove Mania – an avenue forvolunteers to accompany
researchers conducting ecologicalor taxonomic sampling in themangroves of Singapore. This helps
to introduce some of the poorly
known mangroves of Singapore tovolunteers through a unique andmeaningful experience.
Entomology Interest Group – thisis group set up to develop somefamiliarity with the poorly known
insect fauna of Singapore, even indegraded ecosystems and to learnsome of the common methods
employed in entomological studies.
News and heritage sites –comprehensive research andgroundwork supports eachwebpage and blog that has been
established, and each of these are
growing resources that requires
continual work.

Raffles Museum
NEWSLETTERISSUE NO.4 JUNE 2005PANGLAPANGLAO 2005 was an international deepsea expedition conducted in the Bohol and Sulu
seas of The Philippines between 21st May and 1stJune 2005.
It was organized by the Department ofAgriculture (DA) of the Philippines, France's
Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Museum Nationald'Histoire naturelle, Paris (MNHN), NUS Facultyof Science (FoS), the Raffles Museum ofBiodiversity Research (RMBR) and the National
Taiwan Ocean University (NTOU).
PANGLAO 2005 is the third major deep-sea
exploration of the Philippines.

ISSUE NO.4 JUNE 2005

AO 2005
Traps, dredges and trawls reaching 2300
metres were carried out at 77 stations andnumerous strange and unique creatures wererevealed by the deep. Interestingly, some rare
species turned out to be abundant in specificlocations. Some of the colourful catch from theexpedition featured here will be worked on byscientists over the next few years. Photos by Chan
Tin-Yam.
For updates, see Raffles Museum News
http://rmbr.nus.edu.sg/news/index.php

Raffles Museum
NEWSLETTER

Raffles Museum
NEWSLETTERISSUE NO.4 JUNE 2005

PROFILE

Pulau Hantu - A Celebration of Marine Lifecertified as a dive masterto better lead her trips.
Pulau Hantu continues
to surprise with the divers
encountering yellowlipped sea kraits,
reticulated pufferfish,
turtles, octopus, and thevery rare mobula ray,comets, tiger-tail seahorse(a new record) and acolourful nudibranch seenin the tropics for the first time!

In March 2004, environmental
journalist Debby Ng emerged froma dive trip amazed at the beauty anddiversity of marine life. The site?
Pualu Hantu - an island just 40
minutes away from mainland
Singapore. Dismayed at its uncertain
fate, she approached the Raffles
Museum of Biodiversity Research
to think of ways to contribute to its
conservation. Since mostSingaporeans were unaware Pulau
Hantu existed, and Debby was agood writer, it was suggested shehighlight the island's marine life byrecording her experiences on a weblog or blog. It took just 10 minutes
to setup the blog using a laptop anda wireless network and Debbie
started writing the same night.
The blog, coined "Pulau Hantu,
a celebration of marine life" ishosted by Habitatnews, the Raffles
Museum's nature information
webpage. Debby eventually added
some truly exciting photos whichattracted even more attention. With
the help of the local dive ecommunity FinsOnline, the frequent
updates and interesting experiences
began to attract attention.
With many divers asking to join
the frequent dive trips, Seahounds
Scuba, later to become the first local
National Geographic dive center inSingapore, stepped forward to help
run these trips. And Debby got
6they were rewarded with the sightof an adult hawksbill turtle.
Through their passion for this iconic
little island, they havedemonstrated that Singapore has atreasure of marine life right at her
doorstep in the Southern Islands.

The group of divers
helping out on trips, sharing
discoveries and photographs andcontributing posts are known as theHantu bloggers. In January 2005,
Debby gave a comprehensive interview
Webpage:about the project on News Radio
http://www.pulauhantu.org
93.8FM's Living Room. In other efforts,
they organised a mangrove cleanup
All images courtesy of The Hantu Blog.
'topside' and areinvolved in a
Can you spot the Octopus eyes?
giant clam
restoration projectwith the TropicalMarine ScienceInstitute, NUS.
I n M a rc h2005, the Pulau
Hantu bloggers
celebrated theirfirsta n n i v e r s a r y.
During the dive,

The reef is alive with wonderful, colourful
nudibranchs like Cuthona sibogae!

Copperbranded or Long-beaked butterfly
fish (Chelmon rostratus)

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NEWSLETTERISSUE NO.4 JUNE 2005

Hopea sangal, a Tree Rediscovered, Felled and Remembered
JosephLai finds logs

in sawmill

Felled logs carted away (20th Nov 2002)

In September 2002, a Hopea sangal
tree was rediscovered by Joseph Lai
and friends during a survey of thetrees of Changi. Listed in theSingapore Red Data Book as locally'extinct', the discovery wascelebrated by the naturalists, themedia and the public througharticles, photographs and public
walks amidst the speculation thata mystery may also have beensolved - this may be the species oftree that gave Changi its name.
Yet a mere two months later, thetree was felled by a property
developer. Although fuelled byfears about its stability, the deed
was carried out without
appropriate checks. Ironically,
Changi is in the Tree Conservation
Area, which should haveencouraged greater caution. Thepublic outcry that followed wasappeased somewhat by the swift
legal action that followed.
Compensatory costs and a finetotaling $84,035 was meted out inMarch 2003 by District Judge Kow
Keng Siong who said this of theHopea sangal tree - "Unfortunately,
having weathered more than acentury of the forces of nature, it
was not able to survive the senselessact of man".
A unique working group wasformed by representatives from
National Parks Board, Nature
Society (Singapore), Sculpture
Society of Singapore and Raffles
Museum of Biodiversity Research.
This group was to oversee the useof the nine pieces of the Hopea
sangal's tree trunk which had been
rescued from sawmills by the quickthinking Joseph Lai and friends. In
September 2003, a Sculpture

Sculptor at wores
Sculptu

finallyon disp

Launch of the sculp

During this launch, the Working
Group conducted the Hopea sangal
Education Programme to school
children attending the launch -they
related the Hopea sangal story,
explained the ecology and role oftrees, illustrated how high the tree
was by having students lie prostrate
to measure out the trunk, anddiscussed how to actively protecttrees!

r k.

The move tothelay.

ture exhib

it.

Symposium was conducted toexplain the sculpting process by
The Sculpture Society and educate
the public about the tree. In April
2004, the nine sculptures wereinstalled at and adopted by theSingapore Zoological Gardens.

zoo.

The programme was a success,and the Raffles Museum volunteers,
the Toddycats, were roped in tocoordinate the programme. This
time instead, students from
Nanyang Girl's High School(NYGH) were trained by membersof the Working Group andsubsequently conducted a
programme for primary schools in
November 2004. That same month,
Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew
planted a Hopea sangal sapling in
Henderson, grown from a seedling
retrieved from the original tree
more than two years ago bymembers of the Nature Society(Singapore).
In January 2005, an amended
Parks and Trees Act was passed in
Parliament. It provided enhanced
protection for nature and increased
the provision for fines andcompensation for damage to trees.
The Hopea sangal tree spent avery short time in ourconsciousness, but it has led to an
escalation of awareness, reflectionand protection for other trees inSingapore.

LeeMMplantslinsaptheg.

URL:
http://habitatnews.nus.edu.sg/heritage/changi/7Raffles Museum
NEWSLETTER

Bibliography of the Raffles Bulletin of Zoology
Articles from The Raffles
Bulletin of Zoology volumes 1 - 52
(1928-2004) are now available fordownload as pdf files. From 2003
(Vol. 51 onwards), the pdfs werecommercially produced and are ofa higher quality. From 2005
onwards, the Raffles Bulletin ofZoology will be solely an online
publication.

The Scientific Resultsof Ex Anambas (2002)
In 2002, the Workshop onManaging Potential Conflicts in theSouth China Sea initiatedExAnambas . Organized on behalfof the authorities of the South China
Sea by the Indonesian Institute ofSciences and the Raffles Museumof Biodiversity Research, it
successfully fulfilled the politicalobjectives underlying the mission(see Newsletter No. 3).

A subject and author index, now
available only for issues between
1928-1993, is currently being
updated, and eventually theabstracts for all articles will beadded to this webpage as well. This
material has been released under aCreative Commons License which
essentially allows users free accessfor education and research.
URL: http://rmbr.nus.edu.sg/rbz/biblio/Raffles Museum NewsThe Raffles Museum has been
blogging! The museum news page wasconverted into a weblog since June
2004 to allow updates to be quickly
and easily posted to the internet. Check
the page for the latest news about
research, visiting scientists, expeditions,interesting specimens, public talks,volunteer activities, resources on theinternet, and other local andinternational news.
Well illustrated with photos, it
on occasion features articles andamusing cartoons from around theworld!
URL:
http://rmbr.nus.edu.sg/news/index.php

Notice: The Zoological Reference Collection will be closed
from July to early November 2005 for renovations.
We apologise for the inconvenience.
The Raffles Museum Newsletter is published byThe Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research, Faculty of Science,
National University of Singapore, Kent Ridge Crescent, Singapore 119260.
Editors: Chua Keng Soon & N. Sivasothi. Articles by N. Sivasothi
Website at http://rmbr.nus.edu.sg/newsletter/

8ISSUE NO.4 JUNE 2005

The initial results have been
published as the 130-page "ScientificResults of the Anambas Expedition
2002" in The Raffles Bulletin ofZoology, Supplement No. 11 (2004),
describing the expedition and list
the non-flowering and flowering
plants; polychaete worms andselected groups of molluscs,
crustaceans, aquatic insects,
echinoderms and fishes. New
species are described and checklists
are included. The articles can be
downloaded from the Ex Anambas
website.
URL:
http://rmbr.nus.edu.sg/exanambas