Bukit Timah Nature Reserve Rainforest Field Trip

Madeline's 4th grade class went on a field trip to Bukit Timah Nature Reserve today. What an amazing place. We learned that all of Singapore island used to be covered in Rainforest, and tigers roamed among us....now Bukit Timah Nature Reserve is the only undisturbed remaining rainforest here in Singapore. Pictured above is my group of 4 girls, along with a group of 4 boys that we toured with. Also pictured above is the Quarry that people used to jump from and swim in the water below. Beautiful scenery and surroundings at Bukit Timah. Here are some of the things we learned and saw today.

The Bukit Timah nature reserve is home to more than 840 flowering plants and over 500 species of animals. These include towering trees, climbing palms (better known as rattans), ferns, orchids, gingers and strange blooms such as the Black or Bat lily. The forest is home to all kinds of animals. The most commonly encountered are the Long-tailed Macaques or monkeys. Please don't feed them as this does them more harm than good. Other special treats are the Flying lemur (Colugo) and squirrels. Forest birds include the Striped tit-babbler, the Fairy bluebird, drongos and bulbuls.

Pictured above is a slide on the outskirts of the rainforest that went down below into an amazing playground area/exploring area/picnic area for kids.

There are monkeys everywhere in the Reserve...so many that these signs are posted throughout the trails. (see below)

When we first got off the bus, one poor boy in her class got his lunch bag taken by a monkey. The hungry monkey jumped up and snatched it from his little hands. Then proceeded to go sit on a bench and start eating his popcorn and trying to open his water bottle. The boy was a little traumatized by the surprise attack, but we have been told this is not uncommon. The monkeys now know that brown paper bags = food due to people feeding them for "fun" and now are very aggressive towards anyone carrying one.

Later after our tour and Photo Scavenger Hunt the kids went on (each child got their own digital cameras at the school to use as they walked around to document and take photos of each item they need to find on the list), we decided to take a much needed snack/water break. We sat near the entrance at some benches and a few monkey found us sitting and eating. One brave and aggressive monkey saw a bag of papaya that a child had brought and walked up, took it, and then chewed through the ziploc bag to get to it. (pictured below)

Madeline was very quietly enjoying a juice box of Gatorade with some friends and was surprised to see a monkey stalking her too!! The monkey came up, took her juice box and scrambled off with it and ran up a tree. He then proceeded to chew a whole in the side, drink all the juice, shake it to make sure it was empty, and then throw the garbage on the ground!! Here he is as he is enjoying his Gatorade!! He seems to enjoy the lime flavor a great deal!!! :)

This last photo is of my group today, Madeline's friends; Kendall, Jamila, and Ruchi. Great girls and we had a fun, hot, exciting day at the Rainforest! :) If you click on any of the photos above, it will make them bigger so you can see them better. Enjoy! And if you come to visit, we will go visit Bukit Timah Nature Reserve, but we'll leave the snacks and juice in the car...just in case! ha ha!