Hidupan Liar, Perbandaran dan Kehidupan Bersama - Sesi Bersama ACRES

Saat Singapura berusaha menjadi kota dalam alam, kami melihat semakin banyak kasus konflik manusia-satwa liar belakangan ini, seperti monyet masuk ke rumah, serangan babi hutan di Yishun, dan yang terbaru serangan gagak di Bishan.

Kami berbincang dengan Ms Anbarasi Boopal, co-chief executive dari Animal Concerns Research and Education Society (ACRES), tentang pandangannya tentang satwa liar, urbanisasi, dan apa artinya hidup berdampingan dengan satwa liar.

“Satwa liar merebut kembali kota kita” menjadi berita utama di seluruh dunia selama COVID. Apakah kamu melihat peningkatan besar dalam panggilan konflik satwa liar di Singapura?

“Sebelum COVID, kami menerima 800 panggilan sebulan. Saat COVID, angka itu dua kali lipat menjadi 1700! Tapi saya melihatnya sebagai 1700 peluang untuk meningkatkan kesadaran tentang satwa liar. Semua orang bekerja dari rumah, sebagian besar yang menelepon probably karena mereka pertama kali mengamati burung bersarang di jendela mereka. Jadi ini hal yang bagus, sebenarnya! Ada ketertarikan yang meningkat terhadap alam dan keinginan untuk belajar tentang apa yang harus dilakukan, apa yang tidak boleh dilakukan.”

Bagaimana ACRES mengelola konflik manusia-satwa liar?

"Ini memang benar! Pengurusan hidupan liar biasanya bermula dengan perubahan tingkah laku manusia, habitat dan infrastruktur. Dan langkah terakhir adalah di mana anda campur tangan di peringkat haiwan, seperti pemindahan.

Contoh terbaik tentang perubahan habitat dan infrastruktur ialah Kes musang air di Bukit Seletar. Kami ada satu kawasan panas di daerah Seletar di mana kejadian di mana musang air masuk ke rumah orang dan memakan ikan Koi yang mahal mereka. "

"Pemindahan tidak akan berkesan kerana musang air lain akan masuk selagi ada ruang kosong. Jadi, penyelesaiannya adalah dengan mewujudkan langkah-langkah penghalang seperti melindungi rumah daripada musang air. Apabila musang air bau ikan dan sedar mereka tidak mudah sampai ke situ, mereka akan berputus asa dan berpindah ke sumber makanan seterusnya."

Kami (ACRES) telah melakukan ujian perintis di beberapa rumah dan mengarahkan mereka agar memasang jaring lebih tinggi dan licin agar musang air tidak dapat memanjat masuk. Ia berfungsi dengan baik!"

"Sangat menyenangkan melihat semua orang bekerjasama - daripada penduduk tempatan (penduduk, Persatuan Penduduk) hingga kepada Kumpulan Kerja Musang Air (Acres, NParks, penggemar musang air dan penyelidik NUS)."

Mengapa terdapat lebih banyak masalah hidupan liar kebelakangan ini?

"Apabila kami membersihkan hutan untuk membina bangunan, habitat liar akan hilang atau terpecah-belah. Dengan kurangnya hubungan, mereka akan berkumpul di ruang hijau yang sama dan sebab itulah kita semakin banyak menerima panggilan seperti civet di bumbung rumah orang."

And I think Singapore is going through a change in our social structure. I come from a place where we live with our parents until they are ripe old. But now we are seeing more importance on privacy, people wanting to move out into their own homes."

"Even though we want all the forests to be preserved, we recognise that there is a need to build more homes and we attend planning and building engagements with HDB and LTA. They engage us to go through their building plans, pre-empt problems, and give constructive input. There were no such engagements 10 years ago, so we’ve definitely come a long way."

Where is Singapore now in terms of being a City in Nature and learning to coexist with wildlife?

“Everyone knows that you shouldn’t feed wildlife and why it's bad (because animals will associate humans with food and come into our spaces). It took us a while, but we’ve achieved that.

And beyond helping people to exercise tolerance and implement exclusion measures like otterproofing their homes, we're also pushing for policy and legislative level change.

We got a call from someone saying that they were scared of a hornbill that kept sitting on their balcony. If I asked them to do exclusion measures, it would mean putting up a mesh. And I can totally empathise with them feeling that, ‘I have a balcony to enjoy the ambiance, and you’re telling me that I can’t enjoy the view?’"

"So for that specific case, we said, ‘okay, the hornbill perches because it's a nice balcony railing, right? So we’ll just fit a tense metal wire on top.' That was it. The hornbill didn’t want to perch anymore because it's very irritating to them. So it left! If birds like pigeons cannot perch, they won’t poop on windows and town councils will spend less resources handling complaints. 

So in terms of legislative change - for the new HDBs that have yet to be built - can it be mandated that ledges have to be of a certain narrow width to prevent birds from perching?"

What projects are you currently working on now?

“ACRES is part of the core committee for Our Wild Neighbours, a joint initiative between NParks, Acres, the Singapore Zoo and the Urban Wildlife Working Group (UWG), which was launched in 2022 by Minister Desmond Lee."

"We’re mainly focusing on promoting coexistence, but instead of just telling people don't feed and don't approach wildlife, we also want to feature stories of the local efforts in rescue, rehab and release for these animals. 

So at least residents know that there is a group out there actively working on this. Like ‘oh, this has happened before and if a specific exclusion measure worked at your place, then you can share it with the rest of us.' It puts their mind at ease and empowers them to know that they can do something."