SINGAPORE: Longtime Bedok resident Cheong Boo Wee and his family have been dealing with a persistent issue for years – civets.
One of his pet birds even lost its life in a civet attack several years ago.
“Actually they're a nuisance because sometimes they go into my neighbours' kitchen - they mess up the kitchen. They attack chickens, birds,” said the 69-year-old retiree.
Mr Cheong, who is also chairman of the residents' association at his estate, is not the only one facing such a problem with the cat-sized mammals.
Other landed home residents in the area said civets would run around in their ceilings at night and disrupt their sleep.
The civet population in the area is not new, having been there since before it was developed, feeding on plantation fruit. These include mangoes and bananas, along with other small mammals and insects.
While such human-wildlife conflict is not uncommon in urbanised Singapore, cases of animals entering human-populated areas increased about 65 per cent last year compared with 2023, according to some animal management companies.
This excludes cases of wildlife rescue or activation of staff by the National Parks Board, the Animal Concerns Research and Education Society (ACRES) or Mandai Wildlife Group.
The groups said one reason for the rise is that people are more aware of calling for professional assistance, especially when they come across civets and monkeys, which form the bulk of calls that rescue groups receive.
Experts have also flagged concerns that more encounters will take place in the future as development projects pick up this year.
These include housing projects at forested areas in Sembawang North and Woodlands, which are slated to be cleared. Assessments have shown that these areas are home to endangered species.
Member of Parliament Louis Ng, who has advocated for wildlife for years, said he has filed a parliamentary question for next month’s sitting regarding these two developments.
“I've asked what the exact location is, how it will be done, and who will be doing it. But the real question really is the carrying capacity of our forests,” he told CNA.
“As it shrinks and we just shepherd everything into maybe the Central Catchment Nature Reserve, are we really sure that there's enough space, enough food, for these animals, and they have not been forced out into the roads and becoming more and more urbanised?” added the founder of ACRES.
Mr Ng also said Housing and Development Board towns can be designed to discourage wildlife from getting too close, such as monkeys that can climb blocks or birds that perch on laundry poles. This would help reduce the likelihood of human-wildlife encounters.
With more developments in the works, more animals could meet a fatal end on the roads, warned experts.
For example, at least two sambar deer died last year alone. Wildlife groups said they have also noticed an “exponential increase” in reported roadkill of the critically endangered Sunda pangolins in recent years.
Mandai Wildlife Group's animal hospital, for instance, saw more than 40 pangolins killed or injured on average in a year between 2021 and 2023. This is up from around 20 annually between 2015 and 2020.
The situation has become so dire that to preserve the population, sperm samples are collected from pangolins that do not make it.
“(This is) in the event that later on down the road, if we're at a point where we are able and would like to do artificial insemination or other assisted reproductive techniques - we actually already have a bank of semen ready,” said Dr Charlene Yeong, a veterinarian at the Mandai Wildlife Group & Mandai Nature.
Some common hotspots for roadkill include expressways and the fringes of forested areas where some roads cut through, which happens to be where wildlife tends to venture out.
A wild sambar deer that was badly injured and later euthanised. It wandered onto the Bukit Timah Expressway near Mandai Road on Jun 17, 2018. (Photo: ACRES)
Rescue groups like ACRES are frequently called upon when such incidents happen.
Its wildlife rescue centre in Sungei Tengah allows injured or rescued animals – including civets, pangolins, birds and snakes – to have a second chance at life.
When CNA followed its team earlier this month, a call came in about a garden snake that had ended up in a swimming pool. ACRES later released it further from people after ensuring it was not a venomous species.
ACRES co-CEO Kalaivanan Balakrishna explained: “If it's a reptile, like a snake, for example, usually people will be less tolerant of that, and we'll have to relocate the animal safely to a better environment.”
On top of rescue efforts, the Mandai Wildlife Group also microchips pythons that have been rescued from the road. This is to track their movements and population size.
Wildlife specialist Joe Kam, who said he handles four to five cases of civet encounters a week, said it will be difficult to avoid animal encounters in the “Garden City” – especially when much of the country is built on former forested areas.
He pointed out that people can mesh up the crevices in their roofs, so it is tougher for wildlife to enter.
He said the accumulation of their waste can also be a hygiene issue as they tend to nest closest to their food sources.
For those looking for a solution, Mr Kam said tackling the root of the issue is key.
“Removal is just a quick fix, but ultimately, we have to understand - why are the snakes here? Why did the snake come here, specifically? What's the attraction?” he added.
“And when you ask enough ‘why’s, you will get to the root cause, and then when you address the root cause, subsequently, anything going after will eventually be gone.”
That was exactly what Ms Viji Vijayan, a longtime Upper Thomson resident, did to address the problem of monkeys that flocked to a mango tree outside her home.
She then worked with her neighbours and the authorities to replace it with a non-fruit bearing tree.
“They used to come almost every day in big batches - like six or seven with babies and everything, like a family, when the mango tree was there.
“Now, they come maybe one or two monkeys at a time, maybe once a week at the most because there's not much food,” she said.
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One of his pet birds even lost its life in a civet attack several years ago.
“Actually they're a nuisance because sometimes they go into my neighbours' kitchen - they mess up the kitchen. They attack chickens, birds,” said the 69-year-old retiree.
Mr Cheong, who is also chairman of the residents' association at his estate, is not the only one facing such a problem with the cat-sized mammals.
Other landed home residents in the area said civets would run around in their ceilings at night and disrupt their sleep.
The civet population in the area is not new, having been there since before it was developed, feeding on plantation fruit. These include mangoes and bananas, along with other small mammals and insects.
MORE AWARENESS
While such human-wildlife conflict is not uncommon in urbanised Singapore, cases of animals entering human-populated areas increased about 65 per cent last year compared with 2023, according to some animal management companies.
This excludes cases of wildlife rescue or activation of staff by the National Parks Board, the Animal Concerns Research and Education Society (ACRES) or Mandai Wildlife Group.
The groups said one reason for the rise is that people are more aware of calling for professional assistance, especially when they come across civets and monkeys, which form the bulk of calls that rescue groups receive.
Experts have also flagged concerns that more encounters will take place in the future as development projects pick up this year.
These include housing projects at forested areas in Sembawang North and Woodlands, which are slated to be cleared. Assessments have shown that these areas are home to endangered species.
Member of Parliament Louis Ng, who has advocated for wildlife for years, said he has filed a parliamentary question for next month’s sitting regarding these two developments.
“I've asked what the exact location is, how it will be done, and who will be doing it. But the real question really is the carrying capacity of our forests,” he told CNA.
“As it shrinks and we just shepherd everything into maybe the Central Catchment Nature Reserve, are we really sure that there's enough space, enough food, for these animals, and they have not been forced out into the roads and becoming more and more urbanised?” added the founder of ACRES.
Mr Ng also said Housing and Development Board towns can be designed to discourage wildlife from getting too close, such as monkeys that can climb blocks or birds that perch on laundry poles. This would help reduce the likelihood of human-wildlife encounters.
Related:
RISK OF ROADKILL ON THE RISE
With more developments in the works, more animals could meet a fatal end on the roads, warned experts.
For example, at least two sambar deer died last year alone. Wildlife groups said they have also noticed an “exponential increase” in reported roadkill of the critically endangered Sunda pangolins in recent years.
Mandai Wildlife Group's animal hospital, for instance, saw more than 40 pangolins killed or injured on average in a year between 2021 and 2023. This is up from around 20 annually between 2015 and 2020.
The situation has become so dire that to preserve the population, sperm samples are collected from pangolins that do not make it.
“(This is) in the event that later on down the road, if we're at a point where we are able and would like to do artificial insemination or other assisted reproductive techniques - we actually already have a bank of semen ready,” said Dr Charlene Yeong, a veterinarian at the Mandai Wildlife Group & Mandai Nature.
Some common hotspots for roadkill include expressways and the fringes of forested areas where some roads cut through, which happens to be where wildlife tends to venture out.
A wild sambar deer that was badly injured and later euthanised. It wandered onto the Bukit Timah Expressway near Mandai Road on Jun 17, 2018. (Photo: ACRES)
Rescue groups like ACRES are frequently called upon when such incidents happen.
Its wildlife rescue centre in Sungei Tengah allows injured or rescued animals – including civets, pangolins, birds and snakes – to have a second chance at life.
When CNA followed its team earlier this month, a call came in about a garden snake that had ended up in a swimming pool. ACRES later released it further from people after ensuring it was not a venomous species.
ACRES co-CEO Kalaivanan Balakrishna explained: “If it's a reptile, like a snake, for example, usually people will be less tolerant of that, and we'll have to relocate the animal safely to a better environment.”
On top of rescue efforts, the Mandai Wildlife Group also microchips pythons that have been rescued from the road. This is to track their movements and population size.
Related:
TACKLE THE ROOT CAUSE
Wildlife specialist Joe Kam, who said he handles four to five cases of civet encounters a week, said it will be difficult to avoid animal encounters in the “Garden City” – especially when much of the country is built on former forested areas.
He pointed out that people can mesh up the crevices in their roofs, so it is tougher for wildlife to enter.
He said the accumulation of their waste can also be a hygiene issue as they tend to nest closest to their food sources.
For those looking for a solution, Mr Kam said tackling the root of the issue is key.
“Removal is just a quick fix, but ultimately, we have to understand - why are the snakes here? Why did the snake come here, specifically? What's the attraction?” he added.
“And when you ask enough ‘why’s, you will get to the root cause, and then when you address the root cause, subsequently, anything going after will eventually be gone.”
That was exactly what Ms Viji Vijayan, a longtime Upper Thomson resident, did to address the problem of monkeys that flocked to a mango tree outside her home.
She then worked with her neighbours and the authorities to replace it with a non-fruit bearing tree.
“They used to come almost every day in big batches - like six or seven with babies and everything, like a family, when the mango tree was there.
“Now, they come maybe one or two monkeys at a time, maybe once a week at the most because there's not much food,” she said.
Related:
Continue reading...