Meeting the interns!

I’m just back from the Horseshoe Crab workshop in Japan and the SG50 Toddycats (Sankar A & Lynn Ng) & IKEA-ICCS (Becky Lee) Interns have shanghai-ed me for debriefes and discussions with Joelle Lai.

We’re not done after three hours because NUS Toddycats have been active! The projects we talked about include Kent Ridge Heritage Walks (monthly this year), Bukit Timah summit patrol (Apr-May), Op No Release (May), Ubin Day (June), Festival of Biodiversity  (this weekend) and the Biodiversity of Singapore Symposium IV (1st August 2015). 

Phew! 

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HOWL at the Moon 12 – A Gathering of Toddycats!

Although the moon was only in its Waning Crescent phase, the time was nigh for the Toddycats to gather and HOWL! So, on the 16th of February, 40 Toddycats came together to catch up, meet new people and get updated on the latest happenings.

Chaired by Joelle and Alvin, HOWL 12 started off with everyone’s favourite – food! Everyone gathered outside the DBS Conference Room for a bite (or many bites) of pizza before starting HOWL proper with a happy stomach. New faces were introduced and everyone (old and new) swiftly warmed up to each other!

Toddycats were updated on recent events by the interns including the revival of the Kent Ridge Heritage Walks (Sankar), Himalayan Mutt Project (Lynn), as well as the upcoming World Water Day Coastal Clean up (Becky).

Sumita gave us a wonderful report on Ubin Day in 2014 and shared with us the tears and laughter of being a WILD Intern who enthusiastically helped lay the foundations for Ubin Day!

We had updates from Chloe Tan on the Love MacRitchie Walks, again reminding us about the importance of MacRitchie and how precious our forest patches are. We don’t mind walking a bit more if the Cross Island Line can be realigned to avoid the fragile forest! This brought about a discussion on ways to engage the public without bringing them to nature parks, a topic we should always keep in mind!

Following Chloe’s report, Weiting gave us a very detailed splendid report on the Bukit Timah closure; showing us the importance of the Bukit Timah closure and its impact on the various group of people. Weiting’s report further shows the importance of social media in disseminating information – the power of Facebook!

Finally, with Joelle keeping a close watch on the time, we ended off a joyous HOWL with the formation of BOSS 4 sub-committees! A major event happening this July, do keep an eye out for our FOURTH Biodiversity of Singapore Symposium!

All photos of HOWL can be found in our flickr album!

Engaging youth through NUS Toddycats, volunteers with the Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum, as part of SG50 celebrations.

Howl at the Moon 5 – Fri 16 Aug 2013

These Howl at the Moon sessions are for Toddycats members only, to keep the sessions conversational and to allow for frank discussions. The small sessions are fruitful and often translate to action and development of Toddycats.

The next session will be held on Friday 16 August 2013; details are in the mailing list. The proposed agenda includes:

1. “Love Our MacRitchie Forest” website by David Tan and Chloe Tan – objectives, progress and programmes.
2. “Uncommon tales of our common monkey,” a talk by Amanda Tan (NTU graduate research student; The Long Tails); so we better understand a species we should know very well, but don’t!
3. “Love sharks – conservation and ecotourism,” an interview with Kathy Xu to explore her motivation, methods, experience and progress (Sharksavers volunteer and The Dorsal Effect)
4. Johora singaporensis, updates about a critically endangered species, by N. Sivasothi

Toddycats HOWL Series Coordinator – Chloe Tan.

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HOWL Sessions 2013

1. 26 Feb 2013
2. 30 Apr 2013
3. 06 Jun 2013
4. 17 Jul 2013

“Pulau Ubin – facts and discussion” – Tue 30 Apr 2013: 7.00pm – 9.30pm @ NUS LT27

“Howl at the Moon” is an information/engagement series conducted for Toddycats to better inform and engage volunteers.

There has been considerable concern about Pulau Ubin so this forum has been organised. It’s a few days after the full moon but stays true to the intent – to howl at the moon!

Please feel free to join us but please do register at: tinyurl.com/pulauubin-30apr2013

Cheerio!

Sivasothi aka Otterman

———- Forwarded message ———-
From: N. Sivasothi a.k.a. Otterman
Date: Tue, Apr 23, 2013 at 8:43 PM
Subject: “Pulau Ubin – facts and discussion” – Tue 30 Apr 2013: 7.00pm – 9.30pm @ NUS LT27 – a Raffles Museum Toddycats “Howl at the Moon” Special Session

Dear Toddycats,

The next “Howl at the Moon” is a special session which will be conducted several days after the full moon. We are pleased to invite several individuals who will be able to better inform us about Pulau Ubin.

The notice to vilagers on Pulau Ubin issued by SLA raised a lot of concerns amongst many of us. The subsequent clarification did nothing to alleviate our doubts about the immediate fate of Pulau Ubin.

WildSingapore has posted the articles, which you can access here:
http://wildsingaporenews.blogspot.sg/search/label/pulau-ubin
Be sure to click “read more” at each article.

In order to better understand this recent issue, Raffles Museum Toddycats has invited NMP Faizah Jamal, lawyer Joseph Chun and blogger Ivan Kwan to shed some light on the issue.

Do join the discussion to learn more by registering here:
http://tinyurl.com/pulauubin-30apr2013

This session is open to your friends, so do feel free to invite them. But please have them register in case we change the venue!

Thanks to Debby Ng, Chong Jun Hien, Ivan Kwan and Joelle Lai for arranging this.

Cheerio!

Sivasothi

—
N. Sivasothi
Coordinator,
Raffles Museum Toddycats

Toddycats exhibitions planning meeting, Mon 05 Sep 2011: 6.30pm

Dear Toddycats,

we did have one of the most successful exhibitions and guiding natural history teams in Singapore in the past, e.g. see posts on exhibitions.

Well now, the civet ladies Xu Weiting and Fung Tze Kwan are reviving an exhibition team in relation to conservation of the common palm civet.

If you are interested in joining the team, do come for the meeting. We will also be discussing the schedule of campus meetings (Toddycats Engage!) and field trips.

Mon, 05 Sep 2011: 6.30pm
at the Meeting Room at S2 Level 4
Meeting shifted to Conference Room II at S1-03 Mezzanine.
Department of Biological Sciences.
See map at map.sivasothi.com/

Email us at toddycats@rafflesmuseum.net to let us know is you are coming.