Oarfish [ Edu Vol 8 ]

Oarfish is the longest and most spectacular of all fish. With its extremely long, ribbon-like and silverish body, a fully grown Oarfish can grow up to 11 meters long. An Oarfish can weight an average of 100kg and can possibly reaching to 300kg. Oarfish are solitary animals, Oarfish are known to be deep sea fish.
Majestic yet its biology remain mystery till today. Although its sighting occurs in all the world's oceans and seas, yet remains one of the most rarely seen of all fishes.

Oarfish diet consist of zooplankton, shrimps, small fishes, jellyfish, squid, etc. Interestingly with such a large size, Oarfish does not have visible teeth.
The Oarfish is a broadcast spawner, depositing unguarded buoyant eggs into the open ocean.
The eggs are large and cylindrical, averaging 2-6 millimeters in size and bright orange, pink, or red in chorion color, with several to numerous oil droplets. The eggs hatch in about three weeks. Baby Oarfish become part of the plankton and drift just beneath the water surface, feeding on smaller forms of plankton.
Sighting of Oarfish in the pass is also connected a mythical creature call Sea Serpent, although there is no record of sea serpents ever doing any harm.

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Leatherback Turtle [ Edu Vol 7 ]

The leatherback turtles are the largest of all living sea turtles. Leatherback turtles can be found in mainly the equator. Leatherback turtles have been around in some form since the first true sea turtles evolved over 110 million years ago during the Cretaceous period.
Leatherback turtles are omnivorous. It feeds on seaweeds, jellyfish, soft-bodied marine organisms like octopuses, squid, etc. Leatherback turtles plays an important role in controlling the jellyfish's population as its main diet are jellyfish.
Instead of the bony shell that modern sea turtles have, the leatherback's carapace is covered by skin and oily flesh. Leatherback's front flippers can grow up to 2.7 meters in large specimens, the largest flippers of any sea turtle by comparison to its body ratio. An adult leatherback can grow up to one to two meters long and weigh from around 250 to 700 kilograms.
Mating takes place at sea. Leatherback males never leave the water once they enter it unlike females which crawl onto land to nest. Chosen nesting beaches are always made of soft sand since their shells are soft and easily damaged by hard rocks. Females will lay around 110 eggs per nest. These eggs will hatch in about sixty to seventy days.

Like all sea turtles, leatherback turtles start their lives as hatchlings bursting out from the sands of their nesting beaches. These baby turtles are defenceless and prone to predators like birds and other reptiles. Out of all baby turtles, only successfully 10% will made it to the ocean and only 1% will made it to maturity. Matured Females will come back to the same nest where they were hatched after mating to lay their eggs.
Leatherback turtles are classified as an Critically Endangered species. The harvesting of sea turtle eggs were the main cause that led to a near-total collapse of local nesting population.

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Sook Ching massacre [ Edu Vol 6 ]

Many of the younger generation of Singaporean may not know or heard about a this forgotten yet dreadful chapter of Singapore which occurred back during the Japanese occupation of Singapore.
The Sook Ching massacre was a systematic extermination of suspected hostile elements among the Chinese in Singapore by the Japaneses military during the Japanese occupation of Singapore, after the surrender of British colony during World War 2.
Sook Ching means "a purge through cleansing" in Chinese while in Japanese, it means " purging of Chinese " and " great inspection of Singapore ".

After the occupation, the Japanese military discovered that the Chinese communities in Singapore were still loyal to either the former former colonial master Britain or the Republic of China. The Japanese military decided on a policy to eliminate potential suspect.

The Japanese military posted notice to rally all Chinese male in Singapore for inspection.

Anti-bodies men were suspected to be from an Anti-Japanese Guerrilla fighter. Men who wrote their name in English were suspected to be a pro-British. Men with tattooed bodied were suspected to be a traid member. Hainanese who the Japanese military viewed as citizen of the communist country were also on the list. The Japanese military also target wealthy men who were likely to be able to fund for the Sino-Japanese war in China.

Chinese who passed the inspection will be stamped a mark on their bodies as an identification of non-potential threat while those who failed were sent to a lorry and sent to the killing sites.

Family members whom their members were taken to the killing sites were not aware about the massacre. Many thought that their members were taken for captivity. Many faithfully believe that their members will return once Japanese military had left Singapore.

There were several killing sites, Changi Beach Park, Punggol Beach, Sentosa, Tanjong Pagar, etc. The killing also extened to Malaysia, particularly Penang. The Death toll was estimated to be between 25000 to 50000. The dead bodies were immediately buried once executed.

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Horseshoe crab [ Edu Vol 5 ]

Horseshoe crabs are marine living fossil, commonly found in the Gulf of Mexico and along the northern Atlantic coast of North America. These creatures dates back to two hundred million years ago during the Triassic period.

They are not actually crab but a relative to spiders, ticks and scorpions. It has a life span of over 20 years and mature at 9. A fully grown Horseshoe crab can grow up to a size of a basket ball.

Horseshoe crabs possess rare ability to regrow lost limbs, in a manner similar to star fish. They can breathe on land for a short period of time, provide their gills remain moist.

Horseshoe crabs have a hard exoskeleton divided into three parts. The first part consist of eye, pincer used to move food around its mouth and five pairs of moving legs The mouth is situated between the leg. The middle part consist of gills and sex organ. The last part consist of a tail which is used to steer in water and also to flip itself upright.


The blood of the Horseshoe crabs are blue. Horseshoe crabs do not have hemoglobin, which uses iron and is responsible for giving blood its red colour instead they have hemocyanin which uses copper to bind oxygen and also responsible for its blue coloured blood.

Horseshoes crab have remakeable and well developed set of eye. It has 10 eyes; 8 smaller simple eye sensitive to UV light and 2 large lateral eyes. Instead of having 1 lens per eye like human and other creatures do, each horseshoe crab's large lateral eyes contain thousands of small lens, thus they have hexagonal pattern vision. Although Horseshoe crabs have fairly poor range of sight, its eye ability to receive light and movement is much comparable to human.

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Kakapo [ Edu Vol 4 ]

The Kakapo are a critically endangered species of flightless parrot which could only be found in the island of New Zealand. Kakapo are the world largest and heaviest parrots, nocturnal; creatures that are active during the night and herbivore.

A fully grown Kakapo can grow up to a size of a Pug and weight around 2~3 kg.Its yellowish-green feather blends perfectly into the dense vegetation making it hard for predator to catch them. They are gentle and curious. Kakapo have an astonishing long life-span of between 95 to 125 years old.

Kakapo lost its ability to fly because they thrived in island that have few predators and abundant of food. By evolutionary terms, because most of Kakapo's predators were avian like the laughing Owl; an extincted species, escaping through flying means death, hence camouflaging is the best option. Additionally, Kakapo have very few land predators, this contributed to their lost in wing's muscle mass.

Kakapo does not develop pair bond; males and females meet only to mate. During mating seasons, males will venture out seeking for mates. Males may dug a bowl like nest for mating purpose; they will project low frequency booming sound that can be heard 5 kilometres away using a sound detective devices tp attract females.
Kakapo's population plummeted drastically when human set soil onto their island. The native first set foot on their island. They hunted Kakapo for food, parts and their alluring feather to craft luxurious item.
When the European arrived, they cleared the forest for agricultural purpose. When a Kakapo felt threaten, it will instinctively camouflage itself in dense vegetation and freeze. This instinct lead to their downfall as dogs and cats that the Europeans brought with have keen sense of smell and can root them out. Furthermore, Kakapo have a distinct heavy odor which allow dogs and cats to track them with ease. Many Kakapo were captured and sent to zoos, museums and collectors, many died within months.
Before the conservation project in 1950s, less then 25 Kakapo existed in the island.
Now according to estimation and conservation effort, there are only around 125 Kakapo left in this world.

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Trip to SPCA @ 4/Oct/09

Went to SPCA located just a stone away from Bartley MRT station with Samuel, Zheng Yong and Gabriel.
The places was jam-packed with visitors. It was cram and not spacious enough to house over a few hundred visitors. There were alot of souvenir for sales and some activities.
We went to an area where SPCA display their animal for adoption in a cage just enough for 2 adults maneuver around. Before entering the area, i informed my friend that we should feel sad for this dogs rather then been awed by their cuteness.
There were dogs ranging from pups to adults and comes in all sizes. All dogs were friendly. I was shocked to see 2 huge German Shepherd, comparable to the size of a mountain bike. Beside each cage that housed a dog, there was information regarding the dog. Disgusted to see that most dogs were abandoned.

There was a cross-breed Dachshund and Labrador Retriever dog. The dog's size was horrifying and abnormally large.After glimpsing through the dog, I pinpointed my attention to it's leg. Predicted, it had problems with it's bone structure which by logic created the dog alot of health problems.

Fumingly and pensively thinking, how irresponsible those previous owners were. I felt lugubrious for the cross-breed Dachshund and Labrador Retriever dog.
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