Monkey and Other Businesses at Chek Jawa

Was back on Pulau Ubin last Saturday. Alan was conducting a training for new Chek Jawa guides, and I just tagged along to help out. After a detailed lecture, we went to Chek Jawa for a quick walk. As the tide was no low enough for an intertidal walk, we decided to just take a walk along the boardwalk.


On reaching Chek Jawa, we were immediately greeted by a troupe of long-tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis).


It appeared that the mango trees at Chek Jawa were fruiting, and hence the monkeys had gathered there for a free meal!


The mangoes were still very green though, and so I assumed they should be rather sour.


Some of them used both hands and legs to hold on to the mango as they ate :P


Most of them were just busy eating, and hardly took note of the nearby visitors.


We also noticed that apart from the mangoes, they appeared to like eating papaya leaves too!


The poor papaya tree was rather bare when this monkey was done with it.


Some of them can even multi-task... Hold the mango in one hand, and working hard for the future generation at the same time. Like they said in Chinese - 食色性也。


Little monkey and big smiling monkey.


The resident wild boar (Sus Scrofa) also decided to join in.


It had gotten quite used to human presence actually. Probably because some of the visitors had been feeding it - not a good thing actually since it can end up harassing human for food, or become too dependent on human for food and lose its ability to find food on its own.


As we headed towards the boardwalk, we noticed that many of the Seashore nutmeg (Knema globularia) were fruiting.


Have seen this fern many times on Ubin, but never managed to find out its name...


The nipah palm (Nypa fruticans) were flowering, attracting lots of little flying insects.


We saw this bird which looked like a mangrove blue-flycatcher (Cyornis rufigastra).


We saw this rather big fiddler crab, which could be a Uca dussumieri.


Far away from the boardwalk, we saw a great billed heron (Ardea sumatrana) swallowing a fish. Managed to get a shot only after it had swallowed it though.


The water was exceptionally clear today, and was so still that you could see the reflection of the clouds.


Moving over to the rocky shore, there were lots of oysters and drills on the rocks.


There was even a Gold-spotted Mudskippers (Periophthalmus chrysospilos) resting vertically on the rocks!


We saw a couple with a girl at the beach area though, and the NParks staff had to ask them to get out of the intertidal area. Chek Jawa is a protected area, and members of the public should not venture onto the shore without permission from the authorities.


Soon, we ended the training and was back in Ubin town. The branch that had fallen onto Mr Yeo's house one day ago was still there! It actually fell when we were having lunch nearby, but we didn't hear any breaking sound at all! Fortunately no one was hurt. Hopefully the authorites had helped remove the branch by now.