SINGAPORE (Commonwealth Union)_ An overhead bridge linking two of the Republic’s critical green spaces has saved the lives of many native creatures, and provided a safe passage for them between Central Catchment nature reserves and their habitats in the Bukit Timah.
Less lives of these beautiful creatures have been lost as recorded along the Bukit Timah Expressway (BKE) while easing the plight of pangolins and other threatened animals in the two largest nature reserves in Singapore over the past decade. There has been a reduction of more than 90% in the number of pangolins’ lives lost on roads in the area since the bridge started taking shape in April 2014.
Between 1994 and March 2014, an average of two critically endangered Sunda pangolins lives were lost being hit by vehicles in the BKE area each year. Others included the common palm civet, long-tailed macaque, wild boar and several reptile species. Between April 2014 and April 2023, however, only one pangolin was hit by road traffic, said Mr Lim Liang Jim, group director of conservation at the National Parks Board (NParks), which commemorated the 10th anniversary of the Eco-Link@BKE bridge on Thursday.
Between 2015 and 2022, NParks also recorded about one incident per year involving the loss of lives of other wildlife in the area, such as macaques and wild boars, added Mr Lim.
The Eco-Link@BKE bridge, began construction in 2013, and connects the two nature reserves across the expressway. By 2015 it started looking like a suspended forest with over 3,000 native plants forming the foundation of the 50m-wide bridge.
The 62m-long bridge for animals was constructed to alleviate a major problem for native wildlife in urbanised Singapore. As groups of these animals were divided by the six-lane BKE, there was the risk of the biological fitness of each population weakening as a result of inbreeding among genetically related individuals within a species. This could lead to the local extinction of the species, states NParks’ Handbook on Habitat Restoration, which was released on Thursday.
The solution would be to let the wildlife at both nature reserves mix, and the forest-like Eco-Link@BKE enabled that.
As at 2021, approximately 100 species of fauna crossing the bridge have been recorded by motion-sensor cameras. Macaques and the common palm civet are the more common ones. Researchers were thrilled to also spy one of the world’s smallest hoofed animals, the rarely sighted and shy lesser mousedeer.
Over the years, the lesser mousedeer has been captured on camera traps on the bridge more often with at least one recorded sighting every month over eight months in 2021 compared with 2018, when the species appeared only about four times, said NParks.
Between 2018 and 2021, 31 unexpected butterfly, bird and mammal species including the Horsfield’s flying squirrel, Malayan colugo, recognisable by its wide, round eyes, the Sunda slow loris and the red-crowned barbet bird also made appearances at the Eco-Link@BKE.
The bridge was initially targeted at forest-dwelling mammals with restricted movements and species that tend to be hapless victims of vehicles, such as the pangolin, civet and mousedeer.
A 140m-long wildlife bridge built across Mandai Lake Road has provided safe passage for about 70 species since it was opened in 2019, but seven cases of roadkill along the road were reported between 2020 and 2021.
Other wildlife crossing aids have been set up alongside the Eco-Link@BKE to help native animals better move between the two nature reserves and parks surrounding them including aerial rope bridges for macaques, poles for colugos and underground culverts.
By 2026, another bridge will be built for both people and animals to connect the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve and the Western Water Catchment area via Bukit Batok Nature Park.
