Black panthers - a tribute

Leopards have been and continue to be an obsession of mine since many years ago. Overshadowed by their bigger and more popular cousins tigers and lions, Panthera pardus is the underdog of big cats, smaller, stealthier and far more adaptable, able to subsist on a far larger range of prey animals and requiring less undisturbed natural habitats to get by, even thriving at the fringes of our largest urban areas like Mumbai and Nairobi.

It is this elusiveness that has enabled leopards to persist in larger numbers than their more endangered cousins, and yet makes them more difficult to spot in the wild. Over the years, I have gone to many protected areas in Asia with the hope of sighting wild leopards. This I have managed, with great luck , in the national parks of India and in Sri Lanka. Closer to home, they have eluded me thus far in Southeast Asia, where some of the more prime areas in Java, Cambodia and Thailand have failed to yield any sightings unfortunately, likely due to greater persecution and a diminished prey base.

Just next door in peninsular Malaysia where leopards are almost all of the black variety, the likelihood of encountering one is even slimmer not only because of their dark coloration, but owing to the thick evergreen rainforest environment where they inhabit. However that does not stop me from finding out as much about black panthers as I can, and I am pleased to share the fruits of my labor in the form of two published articles.

1) Natural history of the leopard (Panthera pardus) in Peninsular Malaysia

Having a research paper published in an established scientific periodical is quite an achievement for a non-scientist like myself, and I am truly honored that the Malayan Nature Journal accepted my manuscript!

2) Black panthers of Singapore

A popular account of the history of the species in my home country, sort of an appendix, if you will, to the more technical article above.

Addendum:

In the interest of brevity, I omitted the following observation in the second article:

Compared to tigers, reported leopard sightings started later and peaked in the 1890s and early 1900s. I postulate two reasons for this. Firstly, as tigers were being hunted intensively from the mid 1800s, their population declined significantly, allowing leopard numbers to increase, a phenomenon also known as 'mesopredator release' as competitive pressure eased. Second, looking at the history of land use and forest cover in Singapore, there appears to be a short window of time beginning in the 1880s and lasting till 1910 where forested area actually increased in extent. This was due to the diminishing acreage of pepper and gambier plantations, which were incidentally associated with tiger attacks on people. Fewer tigers and a concomitant recovery in forest coverage likely served to benefit leopards. Then, as the cultivation of rubber took off from around 1910, natural habitat for large animals quickly declined and sightings of leopards also dropped and were limited to the offshore islands.

Source: Corlett 1992 The Ecological transformation of Singapore, 1819-1990

I hope you enjoy reading these two articles as much as I had researching and writing them. Comments are most welcome, I would love to expand our knowledge of this most beautiful and enigmatic of all animals, truly the Prince of Cats!

Is Growth always the answer?

In a widely televised interview, the Prime Minister of Singapore reiterated the need for continued economic growth in order to "improve lives". Undoubtedly, many of us do not question the assumption that growth is always good, after all it was what had brought Singapore from Third World to First, and its citizens are now enjoying the fruits of decades of increase in GDP and material standard of living.

However like all physical phenomenon, there will be limits to growth eventually, since we live on a finite planet. Today, resource scarcity and climate change are manifestations of the physical constraints the world faces. Singapore can be seen as a microcosm of the world in that the island-state is severely limited in land size. As such it will more quickly run into problems of overcrowding compared to most other countries. Already as Mr Lee Hsien Loong pointed out, the nation is finding it very difficult to maintain the rapid pace of expansion enjoyed previously due to currently low population and labor productivity growth – the twin drivers of GDP growth. This is natural for any mature economy, as is the case with developed countries in the West and Japan for example.

Instead of always agonizing over how to further expand an already well developed economy, perhaps we should be asking if more growth is always beneficial. Singapore’s per-capita GDP has been among the world’s highest for some time now. Research has shown that beyond a certain level, people generally do not become happier from further increases in income. Just as in a growing person, there is an optimal level when further expansion becomes excessive and detrimental. We become overweight and suffer from the associated health problems if we overeat. Living organisms also naturally go through the stages of youth, maturity and old age. Similarly with our economies, when the marginal costs of economic growth exceed the marginal benefits, we should rationally stop growing. Congestion in all its forms like public transportation breakdowns, overcrowded roads and hospitals, shrinking living spaces per family, and pollution, from the ever expanding islands of garbage we need to the destruction of wild places to make way for property and infrastructure development, are all signs that growth is doing more harm than good. They also show that there are diminishing returns to growth, when it becomes more costly to obtain the same increase in GDP or well-being, or even just to maintain the status quo.

Singapore should focus on creating an optimal living environment given its limited size, rather than relying on growth to improve lives. Economic inequality cannot be resolved through economic growth alone. Better redistribution of existing resources should be tried. The appetite for unabated growth has to be curbed at some point as we have long overshot the Earth’s capacity to support us sustainably. Continuing on its present path of business-as-usual expansion, by planning for seven million or more people on the island will leave its population even more vulnerable to an increasingly volatile and resource constrained world. Rather than fostering the attitude of current and future generations that more is always better and to always expect a bigger economy, our leaders should face up to the reality that perpetual growth is neither possible nor desirable and prepare the country to be more resilient to setbacks as we head into tougher times ahead.

The Beauty of Buses

I've recently rediscovered the joys of riding the bus. There is something to be said for not having to keep your attention on the traffic like a driver must, instead letting your gaze wander where it pleases, enjoying the passing scenery outside. As the bus wends it's way through the city streets, one can observe not only the unique mix of buildings and architecture that define each neighborhood, the serene parks and gardens with their profusion of trees and greenery, but also the life of it's inhabitants. Be it a quiet residential estate with maids pushing their little charges in prams and retirees sitting in the void decks enjoying a game of chess, flat dwellers hanging out laundry on poles outside their windows, or a bustling historic ethnic enclave with colorful street markets and their stalls displaying a multitude of wares, the occasional tourist in shorts and sandals snapping away with their cameras. The entire smorgasbord of city life is played out to the observant bus commuter peering out from its windows. This is especially so on double-decker buses, which provide the added perspective from a heightened vantage point. From the top deck, one has an extended visual range that opens a whole new world to view, past the ground level fences, gates and hedges into the compounds of both private housing and public institutions like schools and even swimming pools! You don't have to have voyeuristic leanings but merely possess some curiosity to enjoy looking at say, a football game or parade of students at school, or the landscaping of a beautiful park, that would be entirely hidden from view at street level. I also enjoy the gentle swaying sensation as the bus rounds a corner or pulls out of a stop, almost like being on a boat buoyed by the sea, and sitting at a height well above other vehicles feels a little like low level flying even! And one can easily get lulled into sleep by the soporific rocking motion.

In today's hectic world where most of us value the time saving efficiency of quicker modes of transportation, only tourists, retirees and students choose to take buses on a regular basis. Most commuters rely on the subway instead. Yes, trains are more predictable as they are not subject to the vagaries of vehicular traffic, whisking you in a direct line, more or less, to your destination at the same constant pace, no matter the weather or time of day, in air conditioned comfort without having to brave the elements at a bus stop. But how boring it is! With our trains being almost at capacity most times these days, finding a comfortable seat for the duration of your ride is well-nigh impossible. One has to stand the entire way, jam packed like sardines or cattle, like so many anonymous goods on a conveyor belt. While the ambient environment in a subway carriage could be comfortable, there is nothing to see on the journey through dark underground tunnels, which goes to explain why most people are glued to the glowing screens of their phones or computers. Lastly, even though trains carry you faster from point A to B, unless your point of origin or destination is right on top of a train station, chances are you face a long walk getting to and away from them to wherever you're going. In cavernous multi-level underground stations this can mean time spent going up or down escalators while jostling with others all the way and long lines due to bottlenecks, all adding additional time to your journey. Time spent getting stressed and frustrated and waiting, instead of enjoying the city sights above ground.

Cattle Car

What about driving I hear you say. Surely having your own set of wheels is the ultimate luxury and preferred choice if you can afford it, right? No more being at the mercy of unreliable public transportation, prone to delays and breakdowns, not to mention having to put up with sweaty commuters, and having to actually walk to and from the bus and train stations. True that relying on yourself to get from one place to another offers the utmost freedom, after all the car is like an extension of your own legs, taking you precisely where you want to go at whichever time you please. It symbolizes freedom, independence and control, is highly personal because it is private, and so accords privilege and status to those who have one, and envy from those who don't. But is it really an efficient and even joyful choice of transportation in a crowded and densely packed city like ours? With the rising population of urban dwellers that necessitates allocating more land for housing, commercial and other infrastructural uses, space to expand the road network is more limited than ever before. This means more competition for road space, making traffic jams now a constant, negating the advantages of having your own personal vehicle. While one does not have to wait for others or walk any great distance to get into the car, once in it, the actual journey could take just as long if not longer, say during peak hours. Unless you enjoy stewing in your car with a leg cramp thanks to start stop traffic, I think the alternative of being a passenger on a bus and not suffering from road rage is enticing indeed. Finally, the cost of car ownership is vastly higher than taking the bus or train obviously, from vehicle maintenance, to petrol, insurance, taxes and parking, the last of which can be a real hassle at your destination, the endless circling in parking lots or on the streets looking for a spot adding not insignificantly to your total transit time, as well as stress and unhappiness to your journey.

Remember you're not stuck in traffic, you ARE traffic.

This is why I now find myself taking the bus more frequently again, reliving bygone days as a student using public buses for the daily commute to and from school. The fares may now be a whole lot higher, the buses all fully air conditioned therefore sealing one from the refreshing air outside and cool cleansing breezes, but well, I suppose that's the price of progress, eh?

Took this bus twice a day for more than three years back in the day, fond memories!

What's that smell?! Oh, it's the stench of sweaty kids that just came in from under the hot sun outside.

Book review of "Nature Contained, Environmental Histories of Singapore" by Tim Barnard

Nature Contained by Tim Barnard
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is a collection of essays on the history of various subjects relating to the natural environment of Singapore. Some of the topics are interesting, like how the island came to become a hotspot for man-eating tigers in its earliest days since British colonization, or how farming was so widespread that it surprisingly did not have to import much food from elsewhere up till as recently as the 1980s! Other drier topics include the history of the Botanical Gardens, Alfred Russell Wallace's years spent using the country as a base for his wanderings in the surrounding archipelago, the brief but failed attempt by the colonial government at controlling trade in wildlife, and the episode of how Singapore was coerced into signing CITES by the United States after flatly rejecting pleas from local environmental activists.

The overwhelming impression is that of how the natural environment as manifested in the original primary rainforests and its wildlife had always taken a backseat to more pressing economic concerns. Indeed, from the sad chronicle of how the collection in the natural history museum was shunted from one basement storage shed to another, the aforementioned passive stance of the authorities with regard to wildlife trade, to the rapid closure of very productive market gardens and pig farms in favor of more economic industrial and housing developments, makes the use of the word 'contained' in the book's title rather lenient. I would've chosen 'Nature Subjugated', 'displaced' or 'eradicated' as a more apt description of the country's history as far as wild nature is concerned. In the final chapter about the state's drive to green the island by planting non-native trees, the lead author falls short of being really critical of the direction the government has taken in making nature a man-made product and equating planted trees with 'nature'. The culmination of it all he rightly points out, is the monstrosity that is Gardens by the Bay, basking in the glory of its artifice and proud to be a showcase of how nature can be built from scratch.

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