Did you see a civet inside the Science Centre?

Does the name Alfred Russel Wallace sound familiar? Heard of this name mentioned in your class? The Island Adventurer, a one year exhibition at Science Centre Singapore is dedicated to Wallace’s adventure in expeditions and field studies.

SSC  Wallace

The Island Adventurer – Alfred Russel Wallace exhibition at Science Centre, Singapore

As an accompaniment to this exhibition, the Science Centre staff has designed a Gallery Trail booklet for secondary school students. We are very glad to know that the booklet introduces our local wildlife such as the common palm civet, Sunda pangolin and oriental whip snake.

Wildlife in Sg  1

Wildlife in Sg  2

Besides highlighting the common palm civet as part of our local wildlife, the team also managed to include a short fact on Kopi Luwak (civet coffee) which is sold in Singapore and in our neighbouring countries.  Find out more about Kopi Luwak and the cruelty behind the trade here: Project LUWAK Singapore.

All of these animals are part of our precious local natural heritage. In order to protect this precious heritage, we can all do our part by raising awareness for wildlife in Singapore so that more people have a better understanding and appreciation to co-exist with them.

Special thanks to Xu Wanwei and Joanna Yeo who helped to design this booklet.

Seen & Heard in Singapore – Island Ecologies Today and in Time of William Farquhar at the National Museum of Singapore!

The William Farquhar Collection of Natural History Drawings at the Goh Seng Choo Gallery, National Museum of Singapore’s sixth permanent gallery, has recently been rotated and is now open to the public!

This exhibition, “Seen & Heard in Singapore: Island Ecologies Today and in the Time of William Farquhar” featuring a selection of paintings commissioned by Singapore’s first Resident and Commandant, is guest curated by Assistant Prof Lucy Davis from School of Art, Design and Media, NTU. The exhibition is organised into six interesting themes which the public may relate to as this selection of beautiful watercolour drawings, each carefully chosen, aims to feature Singapore’s biodiversity today and at the same time highlight those that we have lost since Farquhar’s time. Special effort was also put in to include audio and visual aspects such as bird song recordings, a taxidermised common palm civet (on loan from the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research) and Together Again (Wood:Cut) – an animation video by guest curator Lucy. These definitely add an extra touch to the exhibition!

Image005

Themes of the exhibition awaiting your exploration:

  • Birdsong in the Time of Farquhar – featuring birds present in William Farquhar’s time and today.
  • No Animal is an Island – featuring the common palm civet and its relationship with several plant and animal species.
  • Secrets of the Forest – featuring our charismatic yet little know local forest flora and fauna.
  • Muddy Beginnings – featuring animals and plants denizens in our mangroves.
  • The City of Palms – featuring a variety of palms in Singapore.
  • Together Again (Wood:Cut) – An animation film by Lucy, featuring elements from the collection

We are also happy to mention that Lucy has kindly invited us to share about the biology and ecology of the common palm civet based on the research we have conducted on this last wild urban native carnivore in the past two years. A few of our civet photographs and those kindly contributed by Chan Kwok Wai were also selected to be featured. This documentation will accompany the taxidermised civet on display in the exhibition. Thank you Lucy for this excellent opportunity to raise awareness of the civet and to reach out to the public.

Photo by curator Daniel Tham (National Museum of Singapore facebook page)

Interested to find out more? Do drop by to learn more about Singapore’s amazing biodiversity, past and present, and at the same time, appreciate that we still have wildlife, even in our backyard!

Seen & Heard in Singapore: Island Ecologies Today and in the Time of William Farquhar

Date: Opens on 29 October 2012, Monday
Time: Open daily from 10am to 8pm
Admission: Free
Venue: The Goh Seng Choo Gallery, National Museum of Singapore, 93 Stamford Road, Singapore 178897 (nearest MRT station – Dhoby Ghaut/ Bras Basah; map)
Website/ Contact: www.nationalmuseum.sg / +65 6332 3659 / +65 6332 5642

Congratulations to Lucy and her team on putting this exhibition together so successfully! We will definitely make a trip down to view the exhibition!