Archive for the ‘Raffles museum of Biodiversity Research’ Category

h1

Trip to the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research: Weird stuff

March 19, 2007

Previous: Insects

Ok, kill me. I really have no idea what to call these things. Therefore, I have given them the rather inappropriate name ‘Weird stuff’. Someone help me out here?

peanut wormsPeanut Worms. They look just like peanuts.

anchor wormVery strange looking Anchor Worms.

blue lions mane jellyfishBlue Lion’s Mane Jellyfish. It ain’t blue, but never mind.
Now I can tell why sea animals will swallow plastic bags by accident.

swamp leechGigantic Swamp Leech! In Singapore! AAAAAA!!!!!

Next up: NO MORE NEXT UP! THE END!!! 😀 😀 😀 😀

h1

Trip to the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research: Insects

March 19, 2007

Previous: Fish and Crabs

Ok, I admit there was a bit of a delay (a very long delay in fact) but everything in the world (42 projects and a 2500 word report – not mine of course 😉 ) seemed to be getting in the way of me posting up the last two batches of photos. Or perhaps it was just me procrastinating? Hee….

atlas mothAtlas Moth. The biggest moth in the world. I have seen a live one before in the canteen of my primary school. At that time, I was still in primary school so me and my friends wanted to catch it and bring it to the science lab. Thankfully we didn’t, or the poor thing would probably have died from shock and our rough handling.

pandan kueh moth and caramel custard mothPandan-kueh moth and Caramel Custard moth. The researcher who named these must be really hungry. Pandan-kueh is a green cake flavoured with pandan leaves.

deaths head hawk mothDeaths Head Hawk Moth. For those who read ‘I’m the King of the Castle’ (the book I did for GCE O-level English Literature), here’s Hooper’s favourite moth! Mwahahaha.

bugsWasps and ants.

stink bugA colourful stink bug.

mosquitoThey even have mosquitoes on sticks!

Next up: Weird stuff (there is a reason for this rather cryptic name)

h1

Trip to the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research: Fish and Crabs

March 15, 2007

Previous: Reptiles

Two more posts to go! Should be up tomorrow if everything goes as planned.

crabsSome of the crabs (and a lobster) on display.

dana's eyes wide apart crabA crab with a weird name, the Dana’s Eyes-wide-apart Crab.

hairy crabA Hairy Crab. Is this the same kind of crab that we eat? (No it probably isn’t, it’s too hairy)

dirty faced goby little warty catfishFish with weird names, the Dirty-faced Goby and the Little Warty Catfish. And you thought your parents gave you a horrible name.

pufferfishPufferfish. More specifically, Spotted-tail Frogfish, Porcupinefish, Reticulated Pufferfish and Clown(can’t read the name from the photo).

stonefishHollow-cheek Stonefish. Stonefish are the most dangerous of known venomous fish. My sister is scared of them cause they look just like stones, but if you step on one, you suffer from shock, paralysis and death within hours if no medical attention is sought. There’s a Rhinocerous Boxfish in one of the jars beside it. Boxfish are so poisonous that they are usually kept alone, cause if they get worried by other fish, the poison they release is so toxic that it kills every fish in the tank, including the boxfish itself.

sharksteethShark teeth. You can see the rows of teeth in the shark’s mouth. If one of its teeth falls out, the ones behind move forward to replace it. That’s why sharks are never toothless.

Next up: Insects

h1

Trip to the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research: Reptiles

March 15, 2007

Previous: Assorted Small Animals

Ok, ok, 3 more posts to go.

reptilesA row of jars containing (in order) a Spiny Terrapin, a Hawksbill Turtle, a young Estuarine Crocodile and a small Clouded Monitor. Monitor Lizards are tough. I’ve seen one run across the road, get hit by a car so hard that it flips over on its back with a loud “thwap”, and then still get up and run away.

black spitting cobra young king cobraCobras: A Black Spitting Cobra and a subadult King Cobra. Black Spitting Cobras can spit their venom into people’s eyes and blind them. If the venom gets into your eyes, you have to wash it out with water. If there’s no water, your friend will have to pee in your eye. Black Spitting Cobras are listed as common! 😡

venomous snakesA row of snakes. All the snakes shown here are venomous. Shown here are an Amphibious Sea Snake, a Blue Coral Snake, a King Cobra hatchling and the subadult King Cobra in the link above.

snakesA Striped Keelback, a House Snake and a Keeled Rat Snake. This is starting to remind me of Chinese Snake wine.

dog toothed cat snakeA snake with a strange contradicting name, the Dog-toothed Cat Snake.

Next up: Fish and Crabs

h1

Trip to the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research: Assorted Small Animals

March 14, 2007

Previous: Creatures of the deep (and not so deep)

smallmammalsA display of small mammals.

batsBats in jars. The white one at the bottom corner is the fetus of a Large Flying Fox.

closeupfrogsFrogs in jars.
flying lemurThere was a Malayan Colugo (Flying lemur) below the frogs.

spidersThe spider and scorpion display.
horseshoe crabsSome Horseshoe Crabs beside the spiders.

birds common kestrel barn owlThe bird display, with its extremely mummified looking birds. Closeups: Common Kestrel and Barn Owl.

Next up: Reptiles

h1

Trip to the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research: Creatures of the deep (and not so deep)

March 13, 2007

Previous: Civet cats, a Cobra and a dangerous sounding Stink Badger

I’m not even sure if the links all point to the right places any more.

coastal birdsSad looking coastal birds.

deep sea creaturesHere are some creatures that live in the deep sea trenches. There’s a writeup here, I highlighted some of the interesting stuff in pink.

giant clamSemi-fossilized halves of a Giant Clam. That white thing beside it is not a pearl, it’s my sister’s waterbottle.

elongate giant clam and octopusAn Elongate Giant Clam and a small Octopus.

Indonesian CoelacanthA fiberglass Indian Coelacanth. The classic living fossil fish.
Alex found a video of the live fish in action. Thanks, Alex!

Next up: Assorted small animals (or rather, some of the leftovers from my dismal attempts at categorizing them)

h1

Trip to the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research: Civet cats, a cobra and a dangerous sounding Stink Badger

March 13, 2007

Previous: Gallery of taxidermised specimens pt II

I guess it’s pretty obvious I’m having my holiday now, that’s why I have the time to make posts like these.

Civet Cats. The Malaysian Civet and Common Palm Civet, and the Large Indian Civet. The Common Palm Civet and the Large Indian Civet can still be found in Singapore. I know this is starting to get old, but some people do eat these things. And did I mention they can spread SARS?

Adult King Cobra. King Cobras are native to Singapore. This guy was found beaten to death at the Island Country Club.

stink badgerI couldn’t resist including this Stink Badger for the writeup. In case you can’t see it, it states: The black and white pelage of the stink badger, Mydaus javanensis, warns potential predators to stay away. Glands beneath its tail produce an extremely vile-smelling liquid. When disturbed, the badger squirts this liquid at its molester. People who got sprayed by a stink badger have been known to become violently sick, and have even tried to kill themselves.

Next: Creatures of the deep (and not so deep)

h1

Trip to the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research: Gallery of taxidermised specimens pt II

March 12, 2007

Previous: Gallery of taxidermised specimens Part I

I have the kind of feeling that I’m going to grow old and die before I can upload all the photos. Never mind, I’m working on it… here are a few more.

Adult Sun Bear. See its teeth! They’re real!

A Serow (wild goat)

Frigatebirds. They inflate those red things under their beaks as a courtship display.

Pangolin. Some people eat them.

A menagerie of Monkeys. Close ups: Siamang, Proboscis Monkey and Agile Gibbon (the yellow one at the front). One of them has a bald spot on its armpit.
One of my relatives cooked and ate a monkey before. She said it was like a baby O_o
We’ve even given one of the Siamangs (the small one) a nickname. It’s called ‘shuai ge’ or ‘handsome guy’ in Chinese cause it has a handsome face. Don’t ask me how we got to that conclusion.

Head of a Sumatran Rhinoceros.

Malayan Tapir. The yellow sign says: These animals have been treated with POISONOUS chemicals. PLEASE DO NOT TOUCH

A little Clouded Leopard hiding among all the Monkeys.

Greater Mousedeer. While the Lesser Mousedeer can still be found in Singapore, the Greater Mousedeer is extinct here.

A very wide mouthed Oriental Small-clawed Otter. These can still be found in Pulau Tekong, Pulau Ubin and Sungei Buloh. Otters in Singapore! This is making me want to head to Sungei Buloh now.
It’s quite funny, cause I used to read these story books that mentioned otters when I was achild and I used to think that you could only find them in western countries. I only realise now that they’ve been on the same island as us all along… -_-

Next up: Civet Cats, a Cobra and a dangerous sounding Stink Badger

h1

Trip to the Raffles Museum of biodiversity research: Gallery of taxidermised specimens pt I

March 12, 2007

Previous: Smugglers’ Loot and Strange Edible Stuff

Ok, these are kinda rushed cause I need to hand the computer over to my sister to do her projects.

I had a conversation over msn with Gwen where I told her I wanted to go (or rather I was trying to get her to go with me) see wild animals (in one of the nature reserves), and she was like “Wild animals? You mean like Panthers, Tigers, etc.?” Here are your wild animals, Gwen, a Leopard and a rather anorexic Tiger. There used to be Tigers in Singapore, but they’re extinct here now. Rarely, reports of some still surface, but mostly on the offshore islands.

Leathery Turtle.

The famous Banded Leaf Monkey. For some reason, my sister calls it the ‘scary monkey’. If I remember correctly, some time ago it was mentioned in the news that this one was being attacked by dogs and when they retrieved it, it was already dead. But don’t bet your ass on it cause I have a pretty bad memory.
(The newspaper article can be found here. It turns out that I remembered correctly, yay!)

Big Wild Pig and baby Wild Pig.

Elephant skull and leg bones.

Next up: Gallery of taxidermised specimens Part II

h1

Trip to the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research: Smuggler’s Loot and Strange Edible Stuff

March 10, 2007

Previous: Near the entrance

There was another glass case nearby. If I’m not wrong, they contained specimens confiscated from smugglers.
The pelt of a Banded Palm Civet.
Turtles. I used to see about 5 or 6 in one of the primary science labs of my school. The lab technician in the secondary science lab told us that they came from specimens confiscated by the police and donated to the school. They used to stack them up on top of the cupboards. There were many other stuffed animals too (snakes, frogs, small rodents) and some of them had toppled over. When I graduated, they were still lying there. (Perhaps cause no one dared to pick them up?)
A very cute Sun Bear cub. Unfortunately it’s dead.
Tiger claws?

There’s a section on animals eaten as food. Some people may find this unsettling, but yes, people in Southeast Asia do eat this stuff. I eat some of it, but not all of it of course, I’m not that crazy! But would I eat it if I was offered it? Hmmm…. that’s a tricky question.
Look at these cute little lizards and toads! Some people do eat them for medicinal value, the dried Tokay Gecko (lizards) to treat coughs, the dried snakes for rheumatism and dried toads to purify the blood.
Dried veil of Stinkhorn fungus, scales of Pangolin and ‘fa cai’ (dried black moss or black hair fungus, fa cai means ‘hair vegetable’ in Chinese). I don’t know much about the other two, but facai is traditionally eaten during Chinese New Year as its name sounds similar to the Chinese words for ‘get prosperous’. I’ve eaten some before, it’s in strands like hair but not as tough. Doesn’t taste of anything though. Lately, there was a warning not to eat fa cai cause it could be toxic (due to pollution maybe?) 😡
Tarantulas and Centipedes. Thais and people in parts of the Indo-Chinese region eat them. ‘Nuff said.
Cordyceps. Is it a plant or an insect? It’s a plant that grows in an insect (explained in a video here). This herb is damn good. I had dengue fever once and was nearly hospitalised, thanks to this herb I recovered quickly with no problems and no serious symptoms. It strengthens the immune system. Unfortunately it’s also damn expensive, in fact some shops will put metal wires inside them to make them heavier as they’re sold by weight. (By the way, who the hell eats Lalang flowers anyway? They’re so damn hairy!)

A Black Marlin. The person beside it is my sister. Her sole purpose in this picture is to give a sense of the size of the fish. Some people actually hunt this thing (the fish, not my sister).

Next up: Gallery of taxidermised specimens Part I