Hi! Welcome back to my blog!
In this week’s blog, I decided to gather my own primary data to find out more on the coexistence between Singapore residents and Singapore’s wildlife.
Specifically, I wanted to know how often Singapore residents come across wildlife and what are some issues that the residents face with the wildlife. Then, after listing the issues, I wanted to know whether Singapore residents would still want to conserve Singapore’s wildlife. This survey also aims to find out the general knowledge of Singapore’s residents on Singapore’s wildlife.
Surprisingly, I received 86 responses for my survey which was more than I expected.
For this survey, although I tried to include more responses that are from a diverse range of age groups, about 50% of the responses are from adults aged 21-30, which is likely because most of the survey respondents are my peers who are of the same age range as me. Therefore, the results I am showing might be more biased towards the Millennials and the Generation Zs rather than encapsulating the views of the whole population of Singapore.
Frequency of coming across wildlife
Location of encounter
In this question, I asked the respondents to choose how frequently they encountered wildlife from a list of predetermined frequencies. I also allowed the respondents to pick one or more locations where they have encountered wildlife in Singapore before.
Results
This survey found that the Singapore residents have different frequency of coming across wildlife. About a third of Singapore residents (28 out of 87) come across wildlife once a year or less whereas about 15% of them (14 out of 87) come across wildlife once a day. I deduced that the frequency of Singapore residents’ encounter with wildlife can be attributed to their location. About 30% of Singapore residents have encountered wildlife near their homes which can explain why some residents encounter wildlife once or a few times a day. On the other hand, it can also explain why ⅓ of residents only encounter wildlife once or less than once a year as they mostly encounter at wildlife reserves which they might not visit frequently.In addition to these locations, respondents were allowed to add on other locations where they encounter wildlife. Additional responses are places of work and NTU.
Wildlife mostly seen by respondents
Wildlife in Singapore
In the following question, I asked the respondents to name wildlife that they encountered most frequently. Then, I asked them to name as many wildlife animals they can think of that are native to Singapore. I then insert all their responses in a word cloud that will increase the size of the word that appear most regularly.
Results
As you can see from the results above, the most widely known native animals are also the most widely encountered animals (e.g. wild boars, monkeys and otters). This shows that there might be a correlation with animals that are encountered and animals that are known.
In addition to that, I also realised the differing general knowledge of wildlife in Singapore. There are those that were able to give specific species of animals such as Long-tailed marques or Oriental whip snake. However, a large majority could only give generalised responses such as birds.
Just from this data, it seems reasonable to conclude that there seems to be a lack of knowledge about Singapore’s wildlife amongst the Singapore residents. Whether this is good or bad or normal cannot be concluded from this survey.
That’s all for part 1! Join me next week to find our part 2 !
Hi Azhari!
It’s kind of saddening that people are spotting wildlife on roads and highways, knowing that probability of death is higher. I’m curious on your thoughts on why these these animals end up on highways/roads.
By the way, do you think the invasive species like domestic cats and dogs affect the frequency of wildlife seen in Singapore?
Thank you for the good read!
Cheers
Rachel
Hi Rachel,
Some animals might end up at roads as the roads may have cut their usual habitat so these animals need cross the roads to get to the other side of their habitats. This is also made worst with the fact that more than 90% of Singapore is deforested which cut a massive portion of the native wildlife habitat. As such, these animals are forced to roam unconventional areas such as roads to move from one place to another.
For your following question, I am sure that domestic cats and dogs do affect the naturally balance ecosystem in Singapore. However, I am unsure of whether and how much their presence affect the ecosystem to consider them as an invasive species. National Ocean Service (2020) define an invasive species as an organism that causes ecological or economic harm in a new environment where it is not native. As far as I know, I cannot think of a specific example that shows that domestic cats or dogs bring negative ecological or economic harms but they do affect.
Regards Azhari
Hi Azhari,
Very interesting.
Many things surprised me.
First, how is it possible for a person to encounter wildlife less than once a month, let alone once a year ? And that was the most common response ! For that, you’d have to close your eyes and ears every time you go outside. I mean, where can you go and not see a myna, hear a kingfisher or accidentally step on a land snail ? I can’t think of a single time I’ve ever gone outdoors in SG and not encountered some form of wildlife.
Second, people named dogs, foxes, alligators and migratory birds as native wildlife !
You might be interested in the findings by my FYP student, Nicolette LOO. https://urban-ecologist.com/research/student/nicolette-loo-2/
What do you think all this suggests about connectedness to Nature in SG ?
jc
Hi Dr Coleman
I think all the data points to the conclusion that Singapore resident generally have insufficient knowledge on local wildlife and nature but are more aware of global wildlife and environmental issues.
I totally agree with what you mentioned. It is almost impossible to not notice any wild animals in Singapore. I suppose that the people I interviewed failed to write down Mynah as a wild animals (even though Mynahs are the most commonly seen wild animal) is because they do not perceive the Mynah as a wild animal as they always see this animal in urban settings. Another possible reason is when people mention wildlife, I think there is a slight tendency for people to lean towards animals that are mammals as opposed to animals that are not mammals. In addition to that, the mention of non-native wildlife in Singapore clearly shows the lack of knowledge that Singapore residents have or at least the young adults in Singapore. Just like Loo mentioned in her findings that knowledge of wildlife positively affect conservation attitudes. To improve upon the conservation of wildlife in Singapore, I believe there should be an improvement in the education of wildlife animals in Singapore.
Regards
Azhari