Wildlife Around Singapore: Boars, birds and bizarre insects

Singapore's urban and green environment is home to a rich abundance of beautiful wildlife that we don't often see. In our Wildlife Around Singapore series, we share interesting flora and fauna that have been sighted around the island.

Wild boar in Yishun

A wild boar somehow found its way into the market in the Khatib housing estate in Yishun on 9 March. It alarmed some residents as it ran through a plaza and shops.

Unfortunately, a woman was injured by the boar and sent to hospital.

The boar was last seen entering Yishun Park and the authorities are conducting a search for the animal.

Boars have increasingly been coming into contact with humans as their habitats shrink. Let's hope this incident won't result in unnecessary culling of wild boars. Two boars in Choa Chu Kang were euthanised last year by the authorities after they entered housing estates looking for food.

Wildlife rescue group ACRES advocates managing food waste to prevent negative encounters between boars and humans so that the animals don't need to be culled.

Le Le makes its debut

Singapore’s first Giant Panda cub, Le Le, made his debut in the River Wonders’ Giant Panda Forest exhibit on 10 March with his mom Jia Jia.

Here's a video of the cute 'lil critter:

Owl family

Talk about a family portrait! This group of spotted wood owls were seen hanging out at Pasir Ris Park.

This species of owl is found in forested areas across Singapore.

Fancy tails

Planthopper nymphs, the young form of the planthopper insect, grow strange-looking tails from their abdomen made from a waxy substance. These structures, which look like fibre optics, help the nymphs to distract predators or to glide through the air.

Don't these funny-looking bugs look like the Troll Dolls?

Fossil lookalike

Trilobite beetles get their names from prehistoric armoured sea creatures which went extinct 250 million years ago – but they are unrelated to each other.

These rare and mysterious beetles can be found in the jungles of Singapore.

The males look like normal, small, black, winged beetles.

However, the females, like this one pictured below, resemble the trilobites which they are named after.

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