Some of the Pedal Ubin guides enjoyed a day of leisure cycling last Saturday with no responsibilities. The result? Two accidents!!

Photos here.

Cheng Puay blogged about his crash even before I did to get his side of the story in first! Joelle crashed into a nine-year old kid on her way to the ride. The kid apologised as much as she did and she now bears some impressive scars!

Most of the riders - Kaixin, Cheng Puay, Yew Jern and Ivan rented bikes from Mr Bikes Enterprise at Changi Village at the cost of $10. Airani, Joelle and myself rode down to join the rest. Kaixin is game for more rides so expect more news about leisure rides soon!

Honours student Daniel Ng and myself will be highlighting “The status and biology the Singapore Freshwater Crab, Johora singaporensis“ this Saturday, 10th May 2008 at 2pm at the Function Hall, Botany Centre, Singapore Botanic Gardens.

This is part of a four-week Biodiversity Talk Series organised by NParks Conservation Division to celebrate Earth Day and World Biodiversity Day 2008.

Synopsis - “True freshwater crabs have evolved to be completely independent of the marine environment and possess unique characteristics as a result. Many large freshwater streams are home to endemic species and Singapore Island is no exception.

The freshwater crab diversity here has been well reported as a result of Peter Ng’s studies in the 1980’s. One crab in particular, was especially celebrated – the endemic Singapore Freshwater Crab, Johora singaporensis. Since that taxonomic examination, little else has been revealed about the crab, partly due to concerns about impacting the small but endangered population.

In a recent study, aspects of the population biology, distribution and status of J. singaporensis were studied. This talk discusses the historical discovery, reports highlights of the recent study and discusses conservation implications for the future.

Complete details at: WildSingapore.

I will be a panelist at the Singapore Animal Welfare Symposium on 24th May 2008. You can register for the symposium - see animalwelfare.sg

Take a journey on bicycle with the Jungle Fowls, a bunch of friendly and passionate volunteer guides from NUS’ Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research, who want to share the joys of discovering nature and heritage in Pulau Ubin.

Come join us on Saturday, 07 June 2008, 8.30am outside Pulau Ubin Volunteer Hub! 

 For more information and registration details visit http://pedalubin.rafflesmuseum.net/

Chen Kee and I spent Saturday afternoon preparing for the International Coastal Cleanup Singapore 2008 registration.

The ICCS Otters prepared a lovely plan during the November 2007 debrief and regrouped in January 2007. But before we knew it, its April and now we are struggling to catchup with our year plan!

We got some procedures sorted out and the webpage fixed today. We’ll meet again and will be relieved when the student exams are over! We need reinforcements!

Roots & Shoots Youth United (NUS chapter) are focusing their efforts on raising awareness about Singapore’s marine heritage and conservation issues.

From 31st March to 1st April 2008, they tackle NUS staff and students with a marine heritage campaign called “Code Blue”. This photo exhibition showcases Singapore’s marine heritage and they have invited Toddycats to support the event with a booth at the Central Forum.

Hamsa has been coordinating with Roots & Shoots’ Belmont and a bunch of Toddycats including Yin Fong, Cedric, Paul & Mangai are trooping down with marine exhibits, videos, posters of the International Coastal Cleanup and of course, their charm!

Event: “Code Blue” by Roots & Shoots Youth United (NUS chapter).
Where: Central Forum
When: Monday 31st March & Tuesday 1st April
Time: 10am - 5pm

Leonard writes in Leothoughts, 02 Mar 2008 about Pedal Ubin:

A trip to cycling trip in Ubin about the place’s biodiversity. Mainly, its about common plants and its uses. But the thing I like most about that trip is cycling. It feels so good to be pedaling in an island without traffic cameras, parking woes and gridlock. The recently developed Ketam Mountain Biking Park was a lot of fun.

Read the rest at his blog; he promises a second installment sometime!

The Toddycats Public Exhibitions team set up a booth at the Raffles International Conference on Education 2008 (RICE 2008) to introduce, excite and enthuse participants about Singapore’s surprising biodiversity.

Although the conference was over two days, I knew the Public Education team of mainly biology undergraduates might be hard pressed to spend two days there so we decided to focus on an appearance before and after lunch time so it would be manageable.

As it turned out Hamsa was called away but Mangayarkarasi stepped in to take over, thankfully. I was presenting at the conference and saw them come in to setup before the rains descended.

At lunch time, I went down to grab this picture of Mangayarkarasi and Justin at the booth with my handphone. I had just (ahem) realised the conference theme was “classroom to community” and that happened to fit my narrative which ended with a photo from the Labrador walk last Saturday. I added this one as a fitting end to the talk and an advert to visit the booth.

Update - Ivan Chew who visited the Toddycats’ booth, learnt about horseshoe crabs and blogged about the pleasant experience; see “RICE 2008, 10 & 11 March (part 3),” by Ivan Chew. Rambling Librarian, 15 Mar 2008.

Yanmei, Cedric, Mangayarkarasi and Justin

Last Saturday, Toddycats and friends trooped down to Labrador Rocky Shore to explore the shoreline there.

Links

• Photos by Kenneth Pinto (more of people)
• Photos by Marcus Ng (more of critters)
• Blog post by Marcus Ng
• Blog post by Justin on the Labrador Park blog

We had 42 gung-ho participants who turned up despite the gloomy weather.  They were broken up into 4 groups and led by Yew Jern, Athena; Ivan, Tammy; Hua Qin, Joelle, November; Gurmit, Sy wei and I respectively.  After the briefing at the ‘basketball court’, everyone set off in high spirits. 

Athena and Yew Jern conducting their pre-ride briefing.

It began to rain not far into the ride but most of the participants were unperturbed and wanted to ride on despite the rain.

Most of the groups met along Jelutong bridge and Siva decided to lead us to one of the trails at the Ketam Mountain Bike Park. This was the first time most of us has been on the trail so we were as excited as the participants. It was quite a gruelling upslope and one of the participant’s chain fell off half way. But we managed to fix it and all of us made it to the look out point at the summit.

Sy Wei cleaning her hands after fixing a participant’s bike chain.

The view at the top was definitely worth it! It overlooks Ubin quarry on one side and as far as the Central Business District on the other.   

The Ketam Mountain Bike Park will definitely be on our itinerary for future rides!

For links to all the photo albums, see the previous post.