Conserve What We Love

Master Choco decided to do some soul-searching alone today...

He hopped onto his Red Swift Pod and drove aimlessly and lo and behold, he found Sungei Buloh Nature Wetland Reserve, a place he had always wanted to go to but didn't manage to cos' it's too out of the way to take public transport but now that he has his RSP he finally found the place...

Minutes after stepping into the wetland, Choco regretted not lugging his weapons of choice, his EOS 20D fixed with his well-weathered 70-200mm lens... Nevertheless, he trodded on, thinking that might as well, could be a good time to really enjoy the surroundings and not get too fixated in capturing shots...

The first thing that amazed Choco was when he was crossing a bridge across a stream, he realised that the stream was full of fish!!! There were even fish that 'flew' out of the water surface even!!! Not once or twice, but all the time!!! Choco stood rooted on the bridge watching these flying fish for a good 8 mins or so...

Then came the biggest surprise... As he was walking pass a look-out point beside the stream, he saw three nature observers armed with binoculars and a mega long camera lens. One of the observer kept looking at Choco, and Choco wondered if he was making too much noise (just light foot steps) and was disturbing them.

Curiosity got to Choco and he went forward to find out what they were engrossed in...

The moment he got near them, the lady who was looking at Choco moments ago, pushed her binoculars into Choco's hands and asked him to look at the opposite bank. For some cubs...

Choco was wondering initially what cubs he was supposed to look at... It was only when he peered into the binoculars that he saw a few SEA OTTER cubs!!!!!

Choco has seen sea otters in the zoo and on TV before... but not in the wild!! And never had he thought that such creatures could be found in Singapore!!!

Then moments later, the parents of the cubs appeared as well... The few nature observers got very excited and the lady (she's a staff of the wetland reserve) told him that they usually only see a pair of otters if they appear (which isn't too often), and this is the first time they see a family of them!! A quick count and there were two adults and 4 cubs in all!!!

They saw them swim, caught fish to eat, and swam past us in the opposite bank, till they disappeared into the far end of the stream...

The staff of the reserve told Choco that he's very very lucky indeed to see a family of sea otters here, and even more so since it's the first time that he's been to the weland reserve!!!

Lucky indeed... Choco felt very excited to know that in a concrete society like S'pore, a small part of the country is being conserved in it's most natural form and wildlife are actually thriving. And what Choco felt most happy about was that everyone in the country could come and learn and appreciate nature, or whatever that's left in the country...

We conserve what we love...
We love what we are taught to love...

We have much to do to eduacate our young what to love... so that they in turn will conserve what we all love...

Master Choco will return to this beautiful wetland again... and the next time, he'll go back with his 70-200mm light-saber...