Tioman Field Study Camp with Nature Explorers Day 3

The intertidal walk was usually my favourite activity for any field study camps! As this activity is tide dependent, we had to start the walk very early around 1am.


Try spotting the octopus here. It was really well-camouflaged, and many of the students could not spot it until it started moving!


The Black Long-spined Sea Urchin (Diadema setosum) was rather common here. Juveniles like this one here could be found in shallow waters, while the adults were found in deeper waters. They have venomous spines that give painful stings to deter predators.


The Red-eyed Reef Crab (Eriphia ferox) was usually found in the rocky area, sometimes hiding in cracks among the rocksl


An unknown sea cucumber.


Yet another unknown sea cucumber. Tioman was certainly a sea cucumber haven! We can often see many different species here.


I was quite glad to find this Juvenile Cushion Star (Culcita novaeguineae).


Several cowries (Cypraea spp.) were spotted. Not sure about the ID though. This one was about 3cm long.


Looks like the Mole Cowrie (Cypraea talpa) to me.


Probably an Egg Cowrie (Calpurnus sp.), sometimes also called False Cowries or just Ovulids (Family Ovulidae).


A cone snail (Conus sp.)! This venomous snail can give painful stings, and some species in fact gives fatal stings!


Flatworm. So flat, that it easily glides in between fine cracks.


Greenfish Sea Cucumber (Stichopus chloronotus) and Tiger Tail Sea Cucumbers (Holothuria hilla) found under a rock.


A Giant Reef Worm (Eunice sp.).


There were quite a few brittle stars as we started looking under the rocks.


This Pinkfish Sea Cucumber (Holothuria edulis) did not really look too healthy when I found it. Was going really limp, and part of it appeared to be damaged.

The walk ended around 3 plus in the morning, and the students went back to sleep after that.


Around 9 plus, the students met again, now for their mini research project. They had the whole afternoon to conduct a little research project and analyse the data.


After dinner, it's presentation time! Group 1 studied the effects of detergent in the water on water striders. They had a hilarious skit. The girls, Ethel and Wei Tieng, were acting as the water striders.


The boys, Chong Tat was the nerdy scientist, and Dexter was one of the people bathing in the stream. And the nerdy scientist ask the bathing guy, "How come you seemed to know everything." And the latter removed the towel and said, "Of course, I am from RI!" I laughed until pengz...


The second group, Yong Chang, Yee Ting, Hu Qi and Jonathan.


The two guys became fighting fiddler crabs! Their project is on sexual bias of fiddler crab population.


The primary school kids gave an excellent presentation! Here we have Nicole, Alamelu, Zhong Yi and Arvind. Their project is about food preference of ants.


Arvind looked as if he's looking for gold bars on the ground.


Arvindh, Haikal, Owen and Daariin formed the 2nd primary school group


Their project was about the light and shade preference of the leaf litter community.


The last secondary school groups was made up of Jia Yi, Jia Ling, Pamela, Cherlyn and Derek.


Their project was on weaver ants' nesting preference.


And 2nd prize went to the ants' food preference group from the primary school!


First prize goes to the water strider group! They did an excellent job of having good content and research procedure, and a very informative and hilarious presentation :P

It was again a very successful field study camp for the nature explorers! Can't wait for the next round of new nature explorers next year!