Python spotted in canal in latest sighting
A RETICULATED python more than 2m long was spotted in a Lorong Chuan canal yesterday morning, the third such neighbourhood sighting to be reported in the media in under a fortnight.
The incident came amid rising numbers of python sightings.
In March, 32 calls on the reptile were made to the wildlife rescue hotline of the Animal Concerns Research and Education Society (Acres). This is about double the number of calls for each of the previous three months.
On Tuesday last week, for instance, one was found in a pool at Toa Payoh Swimming Complex. Two days later, another bit a woman after emerging from a toilet bowl in a Eunos home.
Snake expert Nathanael Maury, who has worked with snakes for 15 years in France and Indonesia and now works at a Lim Chu Kang farm, told The Straits Times that the recent rains explain the spike.
"When there's more rain, they come out to hunt for food," he said, as more of their prey such as frogs, which enjoy wet conditions, also emerge.
Rain returned to Singapore in mid-March after a prolonged dry spell in January and February.
Wildlife consultant Subaraj Rajathurai said that another reason could be that more pythons are getting displaced by the clearing of their forest and grassland habitats for construction.
Along Thomson Road, for example, some forest has been recently cleared as part of building works for the future Thomson MRT line.
"Pythons are good swimmers," he said. "The ones displaced have retreated into the sewers and monsoon drains."
The Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) received 320 public reports of snake sightings last year, compared with 60 in 2012.
The python sightings come amid signs that more wildlife could be making themselves at home in our neighbourhoods.
Calls to Acres' wildlife rescue hotline nearly tripled since 2010 to 3,808 last year, an average of more than 10 calls a day. Most of these were to attend to wildlife found in homes, construction sites and other urban areas, said its executive director Louis Ng.
About half the calls are typically to do with birds, 40 per cent reptiles, and the remainder mammals. Acres captures the animals then releases them into their natural habitats.
Wildlife feedback to the AVA also rose dramatically to 7,450 last year, double 2012's figure and more than four times that of 2011.
A spokesman said that AVA removes and, where possible, relocates wildlife if there is a possibility they may pose a danger to the public.
Both the AVA and Acres said the rise could be because people are more aware of their roles and 24-hour hotlines.
But Mr Ng and other wildlife experts said that part of the reason is development over the years driving species out of their natural homes.
"If, say, a patch of woodland supports 100 snakes and you clear half of it, 50 will have to go elsewhere to live," he said.
Environmental impact assessments must be done before developing nature spaces to uncover the impact on fauna, he added, repeating a call made by Nominated MP Faizah Jamal in Parliament last year.
Without these, the impact on animal species would not be known, Mr Ng said.
He added that Singaporeans must realise that some wildlife have adapted to urban spaces, describing how displaced snakes and monitor lizards use waterways and drains to move around.
"The reality is we must learn to co-exist."
The Straits Times
www.straitstimes.com
Published on May 10, 2014
