Contents
1. TODAY: Mangrove snakes talk at NUS Friday 24 Aug: 4pm
2. Chek Jawa remembered - the Lone Cyclist speaks
3. Turtle eggs on Jurong Island - report by C H Diong of NIE/NTU
4. John Arifin on Nature Photography, Sat 25 Aug: 2pm
5. Hunger site now defunct

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---> [1] Mangroves snakes of Singapore: TODAY at NUS: 4pm
<http://habitatnews.nus.edu.sg/seminars/snakes-dbs24aug2001.html>
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"The Ecology and Feeding Behavior of Crustacean-eating
Snakes (Homalopsinae) in the Mangrove Forests of Singapore."
by Daryl R Karns, Harold K. Voris & Bruce Jayne, Field Museum of
Natural History, Chicago, USA.

NUS Department of Biological Sciences Seminar
Lecture Theatre 32 (near Dept. Biol. Scis.): 4pm - 5pm
NUS Science Faculty, Science Drive 4 (next to Sheares' Hall).
See map at <http://rmbr.nus.edu.sg/RMBR.JPG>.

The Public Carpark is at Car Park 10 - this is a good 10 minutes
walk from LT 32 so get there early. Look for campus maps to
figure you way there.

The RMBR volunteers who helped out are known as the Snakehunters,
and they will find this particularly interesting as this seminar
reports the results of the first survey. Now back on Phase II,
the snakehunters have already helped to obtain some exciting
results.

The speakers are clear, entertaining and the content is local,
so you could not ask for anything more in a seminar!

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---> [2] Chek Jawa - the Lone Cyclist speaks
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Tan Choon Ming is the lone cyclist mentioned in the previous issue
of Habitatnews (No. 2001-15). He posted these comments on the
Nature-Singapore mailing list on Monday 6th August 2001 and I
received permission to reproduce his comments on the webopage the
next morning.

As we cycled the island each Sunday in July, we witnessed his passion
as he traversed Pulau Ubin, explaining the fate of Chek Jawa, and
urging a first and probably last visit to the endangered marine
habitat. His comments reflect this passion.

"If we truly love a person, we would stand up to protect her or him.
Cannot this same rationale be applied to a place, a naturally created
place home to an amazing diversity of marine wildlife? Where is our
graciousness?"

A version of his comments were published in the letters page of
TODAY, Friday 17th August 2001 as "Sad tale of Chek Jawa".

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---> [3] National Day surprise: Turtles on Jurong Island
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Amy Choong emails me on 8th August about a Chinese newspaper report
'that turtles are laying eggs'. I forward that email on National Day
to Singapore's turtleman, C H DIong of the NIE/NTU Natural Sciences
Academic Group. When he responds by email, he has also read the
Strait Times report that appears days later on 10th August.

He says he would go down that day (10th August) to investigate what
he thinks is a Hawksbill turtle nesting site.

The following week he updates us with an email, reproduced here with
permission:
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'From: DIONG C. H.
Date: Mon, 13 Aug 2001
...
My colleague A/P Shirley Lim and I, together with Yap Horn Wah of
Underwater Water World joined Ms Linda Lim and Mr David Tan (Deputy
Director of Jurong Island Development Department) for a visit to
the nesting site.

Workers at the site informed that a natural nest site near to the
granite protection barrier was discovered and dug out for viewing
by reporters who received news of hatchlings emerging from the
stretch of sand-filled land facing Selat Banyan.

We located an egg site near to the original nest where the original
clutch contents were transplanted. We recovered the remaining clutch
contents and transferred them to our laboratory for analysis. There
were 42 live hatchlings, 8 dead hatchlings, 5 dead embryos, and 6
unfertilised eggs.

Live hatchlings were immediately transferred to a marine tank. We
noted that hatchlings did not display a "swimming frenzy", suggesting
that the hatchlings had been in the transplanted site longer than
they should, probably because they were unable to emerge.

The sand above the clutch contents were compacted, either from
vehicles which ply the stretch of sand-filled land or during the
transplanting of the clutch remains into the new site.

The 42 hatchlings are feeding very well. We propose to transfer the
hatchlings to UWS for a week of conditioning before their release.
...

C H Diong'

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---> [4] John Arifin on Nature Photography, 25 Aug: 2pm
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'John Arifin has been involved in nature photography for more than
20 years, and conducted courses on the subject for the past 10 years.
He will be talking on "A journey through the Tropical Rainforest"
on 25th August 2pm at NUSS Guild House, level 8, Cathay Cineleisure,
Orchard. Come and discover the fascinating subjects that you can
find in the rainforest!

There is an entry charge of $2 per person. No registration required.'
Source: Fong Chee Wai, Nature Photographic Society (Singapore)
<http://www.naturephotosociety.org.sg/>

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---> [5] The Hunger Site is no more
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The click to feed site that was placed on the home page o habitatnews
and ran at the bottom of each message is no more. It has become yet
another casualty of the Dot Com demise.

Taken over by GreaterGood recently, it expanded to cover causes for
landmines, breast cancer, AIDS and children. News of its end spread
in early August 2001. See: "Hunger Site Seeks Sustenance" by Joanna
Glasner, Wired.com, 11th August 2001.
<http://www.wired.com/news/ebiz/0,1272,45980,00.html>

There are apparently plans to resucitate it, and when I just checked,
the site stated that it was under new management.
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For weekly news compilations, see Ecology Asia at: <http://www.ecologyasia.com/Top-Level/eco-news.htm>
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