I’ve been extremely fortunate to have spent the past seven months working and traveling in Southeast Asia with support from the National Geographic Society and the U.S. Fulbright program. While my research has brought me to Singapore and Gibraltar a number of times, I had not previously stayed long enough in either place to explore...
In total darkness in the dripping rain forest of Madagascar’s Ranomafana National Park, the accomplished primatologist Patricia Chapple Wright skipped along a rough trail she’d prepared for us jungle neophytes to explore the nocturnal world of lemurs, frogs, and many other species new and strange to us. While I fretted about snakes and leeches I...
Long-tailed macaques are also called crab-eating macaques, but here in Singapore it’s a rare occurrence to see them doing just that. However, I recently had the great pleasure to see some honest-to-goodness crab-eating, crab-eating macaques. Typically, I see the Singapore monkeys chowing down on lush forest fruits or local garbage cuisine. On an excursion to...
The legend of Sisters’ Island (also known as Pulau Subar Laut – Big Sister’s and Pulau Subar Darat – Little Sister’s) is quite poignant. It tells of two pretty sisters, Minah and Linah. Upon the deaths of their parents the sisters moved to their uncle’s village. One day Linah was accosted by a group...
The legend of Sisters’ Island (also known as Pulau Subar Laut – Big Sister’s and Pulau Subar Darat – Little Sister’s) is quite poignant. It tells of two pretty sisters, Minah and Linah. Upon the deaths of their parents the sisters moved to their uncle’s village. One day Linah was accosted by a group...
By Jennifer S. Holland Here’s a little secret: Humans aren’t the only animals who know how to speak softly. Gophers sometimes whisper. There are bats that do it to avoid detection by moth prey. A certain fish does it to initiate sex (whispering sweet nothings into her mate’s ear canal?). (See “‘Whispering’ Bat Evolved to Trick Prey.”)...
By Jennifer S. Holland Here’s a little secret: Humans aren’t the only animals who know how to speak softly. Gophers sometimes whisper. There are bats that do it to avoid detection by moth prey. A certain fish does it to initiate sex (whispering sweet nothings into her mate’s ear canal?). (See “‘Whispering’ Bat Evolved to Trick Prey.”)...