[Animals] The Big Read in short: How wildlife bridges help save Singapore's endangered animals

[FazzNoth]

Mandai Lake Road is a common crossing for animals in the adjacent forest patches. They include the long-tailed macaques, wild boars and rarer species such as the sambar deers and Sunda pangolins.

Each week, TODAY’s long-running Big Read series delves into the trends and issues that matter. This week, we look at the work of the team behind the Mandai Wildlife Bridge and overall efforts to preserve Singapore's biodiversity. This is a shortened version of the full feature, which can be found here.

• Even before the Mandai Wildlife Bridge opened in late 2019, the team behind it had been worried that animals would not take to the bridge
• However, a week before the bridge's official opening, long-tailed macaques were already spotted using it. Wild pigs, rare sambar deers followed suit not long after
• Still, roadkill continues to be an issue, with a critically endangered Sunda pangolin found dead in the area last year
• While eco-bridges help, environmental experts stress the need to go beyond remedial solutions to the issue of habitats being destroyed through development works
• Motorists and the general public need to be better educated when it comes to living alongside animals, they say

 

SINGAPORE Making a wildlife crossing “animal ready” from day one was no child’s play for a team from the Mandai Wildlife Group (MWG) .

A year before the 2019 opening of the Mandai Wildlife Bridge, which was partly meant to address roadkill, flood lights pointing towards the forest edges along Mandai Lake Road were installed to discourage animals from crossing the road.

 

The road, which runs from Mandai Road to the Singapore Zoo and cuts through a part of the Central Catchment Nature Reserve, is a common crossing for animals in the adjacent forest patches.

The team also planted the bridge with common tree species found in the area so that animals would be drawn by the familiarity of the vegetation on it several months before its official opening on Dec 6, 2019.

Despite their efforts, the team remained doubtful if animals would use the 140m bridge.

 

“When we first planted the trees, there were still gaps in between the trees and they hadn’t formed the canopy or looked forest-like. So we thought the animals would be a little bit more wary of such a new landscape,” said Ms Chua Yen Kheng who oversaw the bridge project as Assistant Vice President of Sustainable Solutions at MWG. 

However, the animals took to the bridge far quicker than anyone had expected.

Even a week before its official opening, photos from six camera traps set up along the bridge showed that long-tailed macaques were already using the bridge.

And within the first week of its opening, larger mammals like wild pigs and sambar deers were spotted using the bridge. 

https://www.todayonline.com/singapore/big-read-short-how-wildlife-bridges-help-save-singapores-endangered-animals-1814651