Petai Trail with the BES Drongos (6 May 2017)

The wind grew stronger as the dark clouds loomed. The meeting point was crowded with people from the approaching rain. Even the resident long-tailed macaques were indoors to seek shelter. It was a quarter to nine when our guides started to worry. Will the trail carry on or will it be cancelled? Just as the clock struck nine, the clouds started to part and the sun shone brightly on MacRitchie Reservoir Park. It was time to commence the trail!

The trail begins! We take a short journey back in time to talk about MacRitchie’s history (Photo by Nicholas Lim)

Our five nature guides and six participants made their way to the start of Petai Trail for the Bachelor of Environmental Studies (BES) Drongos guided walk. As they began, the team spotted the native red jungle fowl from its distinctive call. Who would have known that such a brightly-coloured and loud animal could be found in our forests?

Red Junglefowl (Photo by Pang Hui En)

As our guides shared about the history of Macritchie Reservoir Park as a plantation and a kampong¸ they pointed out distinctive plants that have remained through the ages. They included the tall and majestic chewing gum tree (also known as the Jelutong), and the twirling rattan tree.

Participants and guides under the majestic Jelutong tree! (Photo by Nicholas Lim)

The trail was filled with the sights and sounds of many of Singapore’s native wildlife. Thanks to our nature guides, our team was able to spot and identify a wide diversity of animals such as the pin striped-tit babbler, long-tailed macaques and common sun skink.

Long-tailed Macaques (Photo by Nicholas Lim)

Common Sun Skink (Photo by Nicholas Lim)

As the trail came to an end, the group was greeted by a cool breeze along the reservoir. It had been an exciting and informative trail, with both the participants and nature guides learning more about Macritchie Reservoir Park from each other.

If you are interested to learn more about the wildlife in Macritchie, then join us for a free guided walk at Petai Trail by signing up here. Our friendly nature guides would love to take you on a trail you will not forget!

Words by: Joeline Lim

Petai Trail Recce

Hey everybody! We are the BES Petai Trail team (name pending) and we are happy to report that our first recce of the petai trail along MacRitchie Reservoir was while wet, was also very fruitful. The Petai Trail is a boardwalk that explores an intriguing area of jungle that sits right next to the reservoir itself, and is home to a variety of very interesting plants and animals. The trail itself is located 0.5km from the main MacRitchie reservoir visitor center and is a fairly easy walk. As we are still exploring the area and developing our stories to tell, please enjoy these photos we took on our first trip for now!

We found quite a few of these shiny beetles (Colasposoma auripenne) hiding among the plants. This particular one is sitting between the leaves of a Hairy Clidemia (Clidemia hirta).

A Wagler’s Pit Viper (Tropidolaemus walgleri) was found curled up in a bush near the boardwalk. These snakes are some of the most common in Southeast Asia and is considered venomous, although this species is generally not very aggressive. However, that does not mean that it is safe to touch; as with all other wildlife, one should always admire snakes from a distance, and not provoke them!

This Blue Malayan Coral Snake (Calliophis Bivergatis) is one of our most venomous local snakes, and has been known to eat other snakes as well! Don’t worry though, staying on the boardwalk means that the snakes was largely unhindered by our presence, and simply slithered away without even bothering to take a second look at us.

This Many-Lined Sun Skink (Eutropis multifasciata) was pretty well camouflaged in the leaf litter. These skinks are quite common in many parts of Singapore, and can be found in both primary and secondary forest and can sometimes be found in parks.

The lovely view of the reservoir from the trail!

The recent spate of rain has resulted in quite a few mushrooms popping up all over the place and can be found on a variety of things, from rotting logs to dead leaves. We are not too sure what kind of mushroom this is, but it sure has some nice gill ridges.

This fabulous unidentified cricket is posing on a Singapore Rhodendron (Melastoma malabathricum), which is also commonly known as Sendudok. This plant is considered medicinal by a variety of cultures across Southeast Asia, but is often called a noxious weed in the US. 

 

The Leaf Litter Plant (Agrostistachys longifolia) is an understory plant with leaves that grow in a spiral, that tends to catch fallen leaves, thus earning itself such an odd name. The plant directly absorbs nutrients from the decomposing leaves trapped in its own leaf spiral, enabling it to grow quickly in the undergrowth.

Well, that’s all for now. Look out for our next misadventure soon, featuring the Toddycats as we do our second recce of the trail!