The largest forested area in Singapore is the Central Catchment, which is mainly secondary forest but there is still some untouched forests down by the three major reservoirs. The largest area of primary forest is the Bukit Timah reserve.
These two areas have been cut off from each other for some twenty years by highways.
A green bridge, called the Eco-link, has now been built to connect the two, at a cost of about 16 million dollars. It’s approximately 300 metres long, 50 metres wide at its narrowest, and it passes over the highways. It is being planted with native vegetation, and it is hoped that reconnecting the areas will bring benefits to the mammals, reptiles, amphibians and arthropods that inhabit the two areas.

dv said:

The largest forested area in Singapore is the Central Catchment, which is mainly secondary forest but there is still some untouched forests down by the three major reservoirs. The largest area of primary forest is the Bukit Timah reserve.
These two areas have been cut off from each other for some twenty years by highways.
A green bridge, called the Eco-link, has now been built to connect the two, at a cost of about 16 million dollars. It’s approximately 300 metres long, 50 metres wide at its narrowest, and it passes over the highways. It is being planted with native vegetation, and it is hoped that reconnecting the areas will bring benefits to the mammals, reptiles, amphibians and arthropods that inhabit the two areas.

Do they have any proboscis monkeys in there?

Sounds like an interesting experiment/project.

Any pictures available?

Peak Warming Man said:

dv said:

The largest forested area in Singapore is the Central Catchment, which is mainly secondary forest but there is still some untouched forests down by the three major reservoirs. The largest area of primary forest is the Bukit Timah reserve.
These two areas have been cut off from each other for some twenty years by highways.
A green bridge, called the Eco-link, has now been built to connect the two, at a cost of about 16 million dollars. It’s approximately 300 metres long, 50 metres wide at its narrowest, and it passes over the highways. It is being planted with native vegetation, and it is hoped that reconnecting the areas will bring benefits to the mammals, reptiles, amphibians and arthropods that inhabit the two areas.

Do they have any proboscis monkeys in there?

There are no proboscis monkeys in Singapore.

The only two species of according-to-Hoyle monkeys in Singapore are the banded leaf monkey and the long-tailed macaque.

Eco bridges are actually quite common. There are a few in Australia.

Aquila said:

Sounds like an interesting experiment/project.

Any pictures available?

There are some pictures here.

http://butterflycircle.blogspot.sg/2013/10/greening-of-eco-link-bke.html

Note that the actual greening part has scarcely begun.

The area will not be open to the general (human) public for the first few years as the trees get established.

The Rev Dodgson said:

Eco bridges are actually quite common. There are a few in Australia.

So they are, but this is the first one in Singapore, and supposedly the first in SE Asia.

…and, of course, any areas of native forest in Singapore are much rarer than those in Australia.

I will be interested to see whether or not the banded leaf monkeys make their way over to Bukit Timah, given the greater variety of trees in that area. (At present, it is considered that there are 30 to 40 BLFs remaining, all in the Central Catchment area.

The NK DMZ albeit being a ribbon has been a haven for wildlife. Except for the odd snow leopard that steps on a landmine. Chernobyl as well though it would be nice to see a few laser eyed glowing mutants.

dv said:

The Rev Dodgson said:

Eco bridges are actually quite common. There are a few in Australia.

So they are, but this is the first one in Singapore, and supposedly the first in SE Asia.

OK, I’m not knocking it.

(But I’m pretty sure there is one in Vietnam)

I like this idea

they need to make sure that there is no way animals can get onto the roads

one idea I’ve had for over here is similar to this idea

you fence/ barrier the main highway and every few kilometres put a large bridge over any low area/ flood prone area/ creek

the animals can pass under the road and rarely be able to access it

this way we can reduce the road kill

dv said:

Aquila said:

Sounds like an interesting experiment/project.

Any pictures available?

There are some pictures here.

http://butterflycircle.blogspot.sg/2013/10/greening-of-eco-link-bke.html

Note that the actual greening part has scarcely begun.

The area will not be open to the general (human) public for the first few years as the trees get established.

Very cool

wookiemeister said:

they need to make sure that there is no way animals can get onto the roads

one idea I’ve had for over here is similar to this idea

you fence/ barrier the main highway and every few kilometres put a large bridge over any low area/ flood prone area/ creek

the animals can pass under the road and rarely be able to access it

this way we can reduce the road kill

It is a nice idea but it would be tough to engineer.