Meet Holly

Yes, that's right. We have a new member of the Amazing Animals Family- Holly. Who is Holly, you ask? And what's her pseudonym?
Actually, Holly isn't a person. Nor is she a ghost of person or persons that have exceeded their time. Nor, in fact, is she is a product of my overly active imagination.
Holly is a killer whale. She hasn't been in jail for murder (yet), but though completely free and in the wild unlike other 'killer' killer whales like Tilikum which might be a good explanation for why she hasn't murdered (yet). And why, you ask, has Holly joined our gang? Because finally, finally, finally, half a year after it was over, the Safari Zoo Run money has been donated to various charities across the globe. You may well applaud. It has taken months of preparation just to figure out the distribution, months of 'I'll-do-it-tomorrow's, months of 'later-today-maybe's and months of plain laziness. But finally donated it has been. The distributions of donations is below, according to the results of the survey we sent out half-a-year ago that next to no one answered *hint hint*. The column on the right is the amount to go to that charity in SGD $.
WWF is the World Wildlife Fund, WDC is Whale and Dolphin Conservation (just stopped myself from writing 'conversation'), ASD is Action for Singapore Dogs, and NG is National Geographic, or, more specifically, its Big Cats Initiative. The ASD money is sitting on my desk as it has to be mailed, and WWF had a technical difficulty that will be resolved as soon as possible.
To whom should we donate next? Comment and tell us!

Holly and kids

The Glasswing Butterfly
Charity   # of votes    Money

WWF	4	201.13
WDC	2	100.57
ASD	2	100.57
NG	1	50.21

Late

A White-Throated Kingfisher is enough to stop me in my tracks, whip out my camera, and start clicking any day, but not this one. Neither were the beautiful dragonflies flitting here and there, stopping oh so tantalizingly on blades of grass, pristine specimens in all the hues of the rainbow enough to stop me from my speed-walk. 

Why couldn’t I stop, you ask? Because I was late for an appointment. A nature walk, to be precise. Yes, I, the Glasswing Butterfly, epitome of timeliness, organization, and memory powers, was late.

The snake.

Finally I caught up with some people who told me that they were the last group. I hardly had time to examine a beautiful flower and a brilliant red grasshopper before someone came tearing back saying that a snake had been spotted, and I went tearing after them. It was an Oriental Whip Snake, admittedly, one of the most common in Singapore. I stared at its sinuous green body in amazement, at its slitted yellow eyes. I had never been this close to a snake before. It was mildly venomous, someone had said, and I shuddered involuntarily… If I even allowed myself to comprehend how close I was to it, I doubt there would have been a gap between my screams and the pounding of my feet, eager to get away as soon as possible.

After a few minutes of staring awestruck at it I moved away. It seemed respectful to let it have its peace.

It’s amazing the species that survive within such a small area of wetland forest, the habitat I was currently in. 600 species lived here and 200 couldn’t live if taken out. We had used to have over 70 square kilometers of wetland forest; now, we had just over one. What on earth was the Singaporean government thinking building an MRT through here? Yup, you heard me right. The Singaporean government wants to build an MRT line straight through the middle of MacRitchie Reservoir. And if that plan goes through, a highway might not be that far. I mean, straight through the middle of a nature reserve. What if you had reserved a table at a restaurant and came in to see a train barreling its way through it, completely destroying it? 

Some of the wildlife of MacRitchie.

It’s not the line itself that would destroy it. It would be the exploratory drilling that wood, huge holes going 10 feet down spaced 10 feet across. So imagine this: your reserved table at the restaurant now had huge holes all across it, all very close together. Where would you put your food? If we're lucky, they would only make one line of exploratory holes, but most likely they’d find that line of holes hit granite too early or whatever and then make another line of holes. And another. And another. Your table would be more riddled with holes than Swiss cheese. Imagine what this drilling would do to such a fragile ecosystem as this wetland forest.

Do you want to let that happen? Does getting somewhere five minutes faster on the train justify the destruction of an ecosystem that would be lost forever? Let me know in the comments.

To see more of my pictures from this trip and appreciate the value of MacRitchie more, go to the Project Noah mission at http://www.projectnoah.org/missions/38550051.