Photo credit: Loke Peng Fai
Two males wrestling. Photo credit: Perlyn Chng
Scientific name: | Varanus salvator
Common name: | Malayan Water Monitor
Family: | VaranidaeUp to 3 m

It is a large greyish brown lizard with leathery skin and non-overlapping scales. Its tongue is slender and forked. In Singapore, it is often mistaken for the Estuarine Crocodile (Crocodylus porosus) and is also a smaller relative of the Komodo Dragon (Varanus komodoensis). You can usually spot a few of them roaming around Jurong Lake Gardens.

The Malayan Water Monitor eats fishes, frogs, crabs, birds and other small animals, and has been known to scavenge on dead animals. It hunts during the day. This generalist diet allows it to be very adaptable to even highly disturbed environments. 

These reptiles are usually shy, preferring to run from disturbance. It is advisable to leave them alone as they may become aggressive when cornered. 

It can be found in our forests, mangroves, parks and gardens, and tends to stay close to water bodies. It is mainly terrestrial but can also climb trees. It can sometimes be seen diving into the water from treetops at mangroves at Pasir Ris Park and Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve. It can also be found in urban areas, usually near canals. It is distributed from Sri Lanka and southern China to Southeast Asia.

When you see two monitors “hugging” each other, they are actually two males engaged in a wrestling match. The one that pushes the other onto the ground wins the favour of the female monitor they are trying to impress!

Carpenter bees from the genus Xylocopa are large and often hairy bees that are usually dark coloured and about 20-30 mm in length. 

True to their name, they create burrows in solid wood, usually dead tree trunks and branches or timber used for construction. These burrows branch out into many parallel passageways. Brood cells in their nest are filled with pollen and deposited with a single egg each. Unlike honey bees, which live in colonies with a single egg-laying female (the queen), Carpenter Bees are considered solitary bees which live singly or in small groups. All females are able to reproduce.

In addition to being large, they also buzz loudly while foraging for nectar and pollen from many trees and shrubs. Despite this, they are peaceful giants that are relatively docile and harmless. They carry out buzz pollination, where they grab onto flowers and buzz at a specific frequency, releasing pollen in the process. They function as pollinators of many local plants such as Sendudok (Melastoma malabathricum) and Simpoh Air (Dillenia suffruticosa). 

About 13 species of carpenter bees have been recorded in Singapore. Here are some common species found in Jurong Lake Gardens.