Showing posts with label Save the Common Birdwing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Save the Common Birdwing. Show all posts

Friday, July 15, 2011

Project - Save the Common Birdwing (concluding Part 3)

The final sharing sessions of the "Save the Common Birdwing" project were held on 2 days, 30th May '11 and 24th June '11 with about 20 schools turning up for the event.Most schools feedback that there was no sighting of the Common Birdwing in their respective school premises. Schools which encountered difficulties with growing the host plant went back with more seeds and potted plants. This was planted by Mr Neo from Keming Primary School where the Dutchman's Pipes were cultivated in pots with a small trellis for the creeper to cling on.
Hopefully with the continual effort from the schools, there will be an increase in the sightings of this majestic butterfly. Mr Syaiful from Hortpark also took this opportunity to dispel some of the common misconceptions people may have on butterfly in his sharing session.
For schools that turned up for the sessions, not only did they get potted Dutchman's Pipe plant, they also went back with a set of notes and some attractive file folders.
Mr Syaiful, conducted an one-to-one sharing consultation session with one a teacher. At the end of this 2-day event, the teachers took a walk to the butterfly enclosure to take a look at the eggs and caterpillars of the Common Birdwing.
Besides the surroundings of the Hort Park such as the old Alexander Hospital and Kent Ridge Park, you may find Common Birdwing in some parts of out nature reserve such as the Dairy Farm Park and Mandai areas.Hopefully, with more butterfly host plant being cultivated, we will be able to see more butterfly activities around the whole island.This definitely is not the end of our quest and effort to save Common Birdwing and Common Rose butterflies. With this newly-gained experience, hopefully we can hone and improve it for our next wave of butterfly conservation effort.

It has been a pleasure working with Hortpark and Butterflycircle in this project.

Sunday, July 3, 2011

Project - Save the Common Birdwing(Part 1)

This is an initiative jointly organised by Hortpark, Oh Chin Huat Hydroponic Farms Pte Ltd and ButterflyCircle in an appeal to all schools in Singapore to grow a butterfly larval host plant in their school compound to enhance the survival rate of one of our largest native and magnificent butterflies on this island, the Common Birdwing (Troides helena cerberus).

This exercise is to mark out the area where the Common Birdwing are active and hopefully through this, will increase the numbers of Common Birdwing.

Over a period of 3 days, 12th, 15th and 18th Nov 2010, a total of 95 schools participated in our briefing session.
Valued participants from various schools arriving...Syaiful spearheaded the session, explaining what to do and what to look out for during the survey period. Liyanna, who is also from Hortpark, helped in some of the sessions.Oh' Farms then followed up by explaining on how to grow and take care of the host plant, Aristolochia acuminata."All participating schools will be given seeds and young seedlings of the host plant to grow in your school compound," stressed Tony, an instructor from Oh' Farms.An introduction of some of the herbs and spices along the path to the Butterfly Enclosure.
Finally, the participants toured the Butterfly Enclosure, admiring the flying beauties up close.

On behalf of Hortpark, Butterfly Circle and Oh' Farms, we would like to express our heartfelt appreciation to all schools who participated in this initiative. Hopefully, through this exercise, we would be able to learn much from each other. But more importantly, giving our flying jewel king a second chance to multiply!