The long tailed macaque is a common creature encountered in the urban jungle that is Singapore. They have adapted to the ecological conditions and is easily the most familiar primate that one could possibly encounter in forested areas and in nature reserves.
Much awareness needs to be raised for this creature, as I have personally observed some parkgoers oblivious to the dos and don’ts when encountering it be it on a bridge railing, above them in the branches, or right in front on the ground, and even sadly on occasion, roadkill.
Thus, I present an infographic designed to help the public to raise awareness of this primate.
(I apologise for the choppy image arrangement as I could not get the embedded HTML code to load in WordPress. For a site hosted version, please click here. )
I chose a series of infographics because it could reach out to any major demographic and would be easier to understand. I was quite happy to find visuals that fit the wildlife kind of theme I was looking for and I was quite satisfied with how it turned down in the end.
I showed my series of infographics to my classmates when I returned to school during Week 2 of June. Adequately wearing masks to prevent the spread of COVID-19, I took them through the infographic and presented some extra information and entertained questions, as shown. My audience which would be classified as youths aged 16 to 17 found it quite enlightening to know more about these creatures, and surprisingly many were able to share a bit about their own encounters with these primates, be it outdoors and indoors. There was also quite a bit of banter about NParks guidelines of how to deal with the macaque if it enters one’s home, and that one of my classmates relatives had poached one before. Those were among many interesting questions were raised and I was pleasantly surprised that it turned out that well.
Definitely the most interesting part of this experience was finding out this information myself and doing the research, and as a park frequenter, if anything has helped me to better familiar with these primates as part of Singapore’s biodiversity. I also found out about some social efforts in attempting to reach out to the general public about this animals similar to mine and I was quite inspired by what I managed to learn from there.
My takeaway from this activity, as the final one in my BFF journey for 2020, is really about the joy one can find in reaching out to the wider community and sharing what one knows about Singapore’s ecosystem. For such rich biodiversity to thrive in Singapore’s urban development race is such a remarkable feat and without a doubt, collective effort is paramount to keep them around for future generations.
To end off, a quote from Ernest Hemingway, “The Earth is a fine place, and worth fighting for”.
I thoroughly enjoyed the process of doing this Act for Nature and look forward to seeing some more of what other BFFers have in store to advocate.
BFF Biodiversity Challenge 2020 
