Wildlife of Singapore


The wildlife of Singapore is surprisingly diverse despite its rapid urbanisation. The majority of fauna that still remains on the island exists in various nature reserves such as the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve and the Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve.
In 1819, when a British trading post was first established on the island, Singapore was still nearly entirely covered in rainforests. During that time it still contained flora shared with the Malay Peninsula, but the biodiversity of the fauna was even then relatively low. Following the establishment of the trading post, rapid deforestation began due to crop cultivation. Deforestation of Singapore was largely completed by the 20th century. By some estimates, there has been a loss of 95% of the natural habitats of Singapore over the course of the past 183 years. Due to the deforestation of Singapore, over twenty species of freshwater fish and 100 species of bird as well as a number of mammals have gone locally extinct. A 2003 estimate has put the amount of extinct species as over 28%.
In modern times, over half of the naturally occurring fauna and flora in Singapore is present only in nature reserves, which comprise only 0.25% of Singapore's land area. Estimates made in 2003 have said that the rapid habitat destruction will culminate in a loss of 13-42% of populations in all of Southeast Asia.
To combat these problems, the Singaporean government has made the Singapore Green Plan in 1992 and the new Singapore Green Plan in 2012 to continue it. The plan aims to keep tabs on the unstable populations of fauna and flora, to place new nature parks, and to connect existing parks. In addition, there are plans to set up a "National Biodiversity Reference Centre". The last goal has been reached in 2006 when the centre was founded. Since its foundation it has been formulating various specific initiatives including attempts to conserve the hornbill and the rare dragonfly Indothemis limbata.

Fauna

Mammals

Singapore has roughly 80 species of mammals including 45 species of bat and three species of non-human primates. Currently the only introduced species in Singapore is the variable squirrel. The abundance of bats however has been decreasing rapidly due to a habitat loss of over 95%.

Birds

Singapore is the occasional home of 395 species of birds.

Reptiles

Singapore contains a relatively large number of reptiles, a total of about 110 species. Most of the species, roughly 75 are snakes.

Amphibians

Singapore has 30 species of amphibians.

Flora

Singapore currently contains 1358 species of native vascular plants, of which approximately 759 are critically endangered.