Although I live close to the nature park, I’ve never been there before hence I decided to sign up for this field trip with a friend. As this was our first trip, we were pretty excited. Walking to the nature park itself was quite tiring as it took around 30 minutes from the MRT station but we were glad when we finally reached and met up with the others!

Along the trail, we were first greeted by roots of Strangling Fig. The aerial roots looked like thin trunks of multiple trees but upon closer inspection, they belonged to the same tree.

Our guide, Vilma, explained to us about the leaves of Macaranga trees and how their petioles are not connected to the edges unlike many plants, and are instead connected closer towards the middle of the leaves. She also shared about the “toilet paper” leaf, a yellow leaf that we picked up from the ground which had a soft and slightly fuzzy underside, making it “suitable” as toilet paper haha.

We were lucky to have come across some wildlife such as a Clouded Monitor Lizard, Colugos, Squirrels, an Emerald Dove and a Mouse Deer. I learnt that Clouded Monitor lizards can be differentiated from Water Monitors by the location of their nostrils, with the latter having nostrils closer to the tip of the snout! We saw a squirrel eating a jackfruit and Vilma shared that squirrels eat durian as well which was quite interesting, given their hard shells!

Other bugs we came across

We also came across footprints, possibly belonging to wild boars!

The streams we walked by were really beautiful and relaxing to look at.

Overall, I found the trip really enriching and enjoyable! It was interesting to learn different facts about flora and fauna there from our guide and others. I’ll be looking forward to my next field trip! Thank you for reading :))