Baby sharks

Baby black-tip reef sharks spotted at our mangroves!

Showy flowers in urban forest

It has been a while since I last blogged here, the reason because I had been spending all my effort contributing to another one. Won’t talk about that since it is still at the infant stage.

Anyway, besides that, I have been wandering around taking pictures of plants for the past month, so I thought I might as well showcase some of the nicer ones here. Urban nature while can’t compare to the wild, is also remarkable in its own ways.

A pretty species of a Passiflora flower, Love in the mist (Passiflora foetida). Though pretty, its crushed leaves gives a stench, hence its specific name ‘foetida’, which means stinky.

The Noni plant, Morinda citrifolia, pops out spontaneously in the urban regions, the fruits and flowers often swarmed with weaver ants.

This white glittering lily, Zephyranthes candida, is one of my favourite herbs. Yea, its an exotic plant though. ;p

I was lucky to take a nice close up shot of this native bird, the black-naped oriole, which was perched above me.

Wild climbers might look messy sometimes, but when it flowers, wooo…. This is Thunbergia grandiflora, the Clock Vine.

And the Skunk Vine, Paederia foetida, another smelly climber.

This is a cultivar of Syzygium campanulatum which bears dark red leaves and bloody red inflorescences…

compared to the normal S. campanulatum, with lots of Asian honey bees flying around the flowers.

Managed to get a lucky shot of another bird, Pink Neck Green Pigeon feeding on the fruits of this common tree, Vitex pinnata.

And lastly, a changeable lizard on a Macarthur’s Palm (Ptychosperma macarthurii) inflorescences. Hey, maybe it is a pollinator for the plant too!

Singapore Crocodile Farm

Today was a great day =) Finally, my One Piece comic is out! And finished my draft of eco assigment at 4pm. Looks early so I rushed to take the bus to Singapore Crocodile Farm, just 15mins bus trip away from my house.

I first saw this at Channel 5's (Heartland Getaways), although I had knew this place was here all along since young, just that din know it is open to public. It is a walkable distance from Kovan MRT.

The Singapore Croc Farm

When I entered, I saw the lady boss shouting to her son at the opposite house. Apparently her big bungalow was just opposite the farm. And it was huge.

Most of the crocs were sleeping or lazing around at that time. Some random photos of the saltwater crocodile, Crocodylus porosus.

This newspaper cutting on the wall caught my eye. It said that by buying croc products, we encourage such more croc farms to be set up to breed them and less will be poached in the wild. I guess many people will have some strong opinions regarding that although there is truth in it.

Tomistoma sp., the False Gharial.

One thing which I like about this place is that it was decorated with many croc artwork, probably drawn and painted by children.

Some croc artwork

There was also this souvenir shop selling crocodile skin bags, croc tooth necklances and many other related products. The lady boss was there and I asked her some questions:

How many species of crocs you have? Three.
How many crocodiles you have? About a hundred. Many of them are located at the back which is not open to the public.
Does all your crocodile skin come from your crocodiles here? Some, not all.

The backyard where they kept the remaining crocs.

Looks like the Tan Moh Hong Reptile Skin Trading company has branched out in other areas...