“Dear fellow educators and friends of biodiversity,
“Our school has come a long way with our Environmental Education programme. Since 2013, we started our habitat enhancements on our campus, transforming the school grounds into a safe haven for wildlife, a perfect classroom to learn about co-existence between human and wildlife.
“After returning to school from the June holidays, a cleaner uncle recognized me and told me about the nesting of a Pink-necked Green Pigeon family at the same spot. I got students to set up the poles to cordon off the nesting area.
“On 26 June, even in the rain, the female (above) continues to stay at the nest faithfully.
“On 27 June, the male Pink-necked Green Pigeon (below) took over the duty from his mate to look after the two eggs.
“This is a good example of sharing of parental duties.
“We encouraged our staff and students to visit this pair of faithful parents while keeping a distance away to respect the privacy.
“On 19 July, the fledglings have gained strength and flew off from their nest to establish their new lives.
“This marks the end of our #cwsswildliferescue mission for this family!!
“Staff and students in my school are aware that if they see any animal that is sick/injured, in distress, or require wildlife protection, they are required to take a clear picture of the animal and report the sighting to the General Office immediately. Ms Lye and myself will be informed and will respond to the case as we are trained as wildlife rescue volunteers with ACRES.
“Lastly, you may want to view this video on Human Wildlife Co-existence in CWSS, which would help to bring context to how we mitigate wildlife encounters in the school.”
Jacob Tan Guanrui
Senior Teacher (Biology)
Commonwealth Secondary School
Singapore
31st July 2019
