Forget Town! Go Nature!

Posted by shuping under Lifestyle, News, Reflections
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Think Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research (RMBR) and what do you associate it with? Science? Animals? Plants? Nature?

Yes! It’s all of the above. Then, you might be wondering to yourself, “But, I’m no great shakes with science. This museum will not be interesting to me.” Well, I hope this entry of my journey to the RMBR will change your perception.

Before I start, allow me to make a confession. Like many, I’m not big on science, much less biology and the ecosystem. They are, to me, complicated and with long and hard to pronounce names. I may sound ignorant, but I find it especially difficult to understand the need for different names for plants that look so similar and animals which obviously belong to the same category (ie. Crabs will always be crabs, no matter what names they are given),

In conjunction with the International Museum Day 2009, I thought perhaps I should give RMBR a chance.  So here I was at RMBR (located at National University of Singapore) at 10am on a Sunday morning.

I followed the gallery tour as well and was warmly welcomed by our guide. She was very animated when she introduced the different specimens to us, giving us reality check every now and as she linked the stories of the specimens to our lives.

the guide for the gallery tour

I thought the museum was kind of interesting as I listened to her. At least I was not thrown with all the long and scientific names which I will never be able to remember. Moreover, I learned some facts which I have never known about.

For starters, do you know that snakes don’t bite humans unless they are being provoked or if we stomped around their ‘territories’? Apparently, the poison in the snakes will be lost temporarily if they bite humans and they will be vulnerable to fight with other snakes. Hence, next time if we encounter with snakes, there is no need to be afraid if we are not out to harm it or threaten its territory.

leatherback turtle

Do you also know that the leatherback turtle (as pictured above) was found at Siglap, Singapore in 1883  and is one of the oldest specimens in the museum? The leathery turtle is also the largest of the living turtles.

Finally, mangroves, often pushed to the forgotten fringes of Singapore due to rapid urbanisation, help to reduce the impact of tidal waves and (which have the potential to create tsunamis). The tidal waves will have to overcome the mangroves before reaching the shores and as a result, their impact greatly reduced.

Besides all these newly known facts, I guess the highlight of the day for me was definitely the Zoological Reference Collection (ZRC) tour. ZRC has a collection of RMBR’s preserved specimens and it is usually not open to public. This time round, all thanks to International Museum Day, I had the opportunity to take a look at what’s in this mysterious place. I was really lucky to have reserved a place with the tour as it was only open to 20 visitors per time slot, and there were only 3 time slots.

So welcome to the ZRC!

our ZRC tour guide

There are 3 levels to the ZRC. We started with the third storey and slowly proceeded downstairs since it is where the gallery of the museum is at. All the specimens are kept in the white and yellow ‘cabinets’ as you can see from the picture above. Here’s another picture to have a clearer look.

specimens of birds

the civet cat, wrapped with plastic covers

We were shown specimens of birds and civet cats among other mammals stored at the third storey of the ZRC. Do you know that civet cats are said to be the cause of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS)? The guide told us that the first person to have SARS ate the meat of the civet cat, which resulted in the spread of SARS to human beings.

Another interesting fact is that the civet cats produce the world’s most expensive coffee beans! The beans go through a natural fermentation as they are digested by the civet cat and the beans will come out as poop. After washing, the poop would be ready as coffee beans. Can you imagine drinking coffee made from the civet cats’ poop? I guess I should continue to stick to my cheap 3-in-1 coffee now.

At the second storey, we looked at the wet collections which consist of specimens of crabs, snakes, fishes and insects, all stored in alcohol. I’ll let the pictures do the job of showing you the collection.

specimens of the crabs

specimens of fishes

These are the specimens of the fishes. There were even fishes from countries such as Yunnan and India. Some of the specimens were bought from fish markets in other countries when the researchers went overseas. For some rare fishes that were bought at the fish markets, the natives did not think much of them because they do not taste good when cooked. Don’t you think it’s a blessing in disguise? If they were to taste good and were eaten by the natives, we probably would not be able see the specimens in the museum today.

one of the snake specimens

Here are the specimens of the snakes. Besides the specimens of the snakes, the ZRC also houses some eggs from the snakes as well as bones of the snakes. The containers labeled as confiscated snakes attracted my attention and I was told that they were specimens found to be smuggled illegally into Singapore by the authorities.

Lastly, we were led to the insect collection. Some insects were so tiny that they looked like ear studs when placed together.

Take a look at these ear-studs look-alike insects. The researchers must really have steady hands to avoid causing damage to the specimens

specimens of insects

After my two and a half hour journey at the museum, I felt that RMBR is not just the place to go if you are a fan of science. Non-fans like me can visit it as an eye-opener experience as well. Forget town for now. It is not often that we can get up close with such fauna and flora. I felt that it will be even better if the museum is to have more space to contain larger specimens. Perhaps, Singapore should have its Natural History museum, just like the one in the movie, Night at the Museum, but not with the animals alive I guess. That will be too scary, don’t you think?

The ZRC tour is only open to public once a year. If you have not visited the RMBR last Sunday, I would recommend that you take a look at the gallery exhibits first. (Don’t miss the ZRC tour next year though!)

Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research
Department of Biological Sciences
6 Science Drive 2, #03-01
Faculty of Science
National University of Singapore
Singapore 117546

This event is part of the International Museum Day 2009 (IMD’09) which happens from 23 to 31 May 2009. For more information and updates on IMD’09, please visit www.museums.com.sg/imd09 or call 6346 6438. (Daily: 9am - 7pm)

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