encounter with monitor lizards and a mangrove snake

today, after seeing shin huat off at terminal two, at about 6.50 a.m., i set off for macritchie reservoir park. shin huat is going to wuhan on an exchange programme. he flies sia to shanghai and from there, takes a domestic flight to wuhan. he will be in wuhan for four months, returning on christmas eve, 24 december.

my friday walking group at macritchie is now six strong, including myself. the latest to join to group is lau swee guan. all the other five are former teachers at bendemeer secondary school. we usually do the prunus-petai trail. as i was very early - we normally start our walk after 8.00 a.m. - i decided to walk the lornie trail.

it turned out to be a more than normal experience. first, i came across two huge monitor lizards in the reservoir. they seemed quite accustomed to humans because they did not flee right away. monitor lizards swim well, keeping their limbs to the side of the body and propelling themselves through sinuous undulations of the flattened tail. they can remain underwater for up to half an hour.

as i was walking back on the boardwalk, a female walker signalled to me to keep to the right side. i wondered why. she pointed out that there was a snake on the tree that i was going to walk past.

the snake turned out to be a 1.8m long mangrove snake. i have seen this snake used by the indian snake charmers in their performance. a mangrove snake is also known as a cat-eyed snake. it is aggressive, rear-fanged and mildly venomous. it is a nocturnal creature and it usually catches birds at night. it is both at home on the ground and up on a tree.

the woman actually called the police to inform them of the snake on the tree. i was thinking to myself, in that case, i would have called the police three or four times in the past. eventually, another hiker came along and prodded the snake with a stick. it then made its way to another part of the forest.