Nature's Amore Photography: January 2016

I Finally met aliens .. ☺️

So I was invited by one of my Facebook Friend to volunteer for Horseshoe crab rescue and research program and I signed up (obviously haha). I had heard about Horseshoe crab before but I had never seen one except in photos so I was very excited about this program.

It was indeed fantastic. They really look Like aliens isn't it?

Horseshoe Crab

This program is run by Nature Society Singapore on monthly basis to rescue and Collect data of Horseshoe crab population on Singapore shores. There are in total 4 species of Horseshoe crab in the world and Singapore happens to be home to 2 of them. The Mangrove horseshoe crab (Carcinoscorpius rotundicauda) which is also the smallest horseshoe, and the Coastal horseshoe crab (Tachypleus gigas).

Coastal Horseshoe Crab Mold only

Mangroves Horseshoe Crab

These are the 4 known species of Horseshoe Crabs:

• Carcinoscorpius rotundicauda, the mangrove horseshoe crab, found in Southeast Asia

• Limulus polyphemus, the Atlantic horseshoe crab, found along the American Atlantic coast and in the Gulf Of Mexico

• Tachypleus gigas, found in Southeast and East Asia

• Tachypleus tridentatus, found in Southeast and East Asia

So we all met at this "nameless Street" ( yes there is no name assigned to this street) near Mandai mudflats and there standing was Roshan ( in serious looks ) and he asked me in stern tone "are you here to volunteer" and I got scared at first, felt as if I have come to a military camp haha said yes and registered my attendance. Post the attendance process was over Vani gave us a brief intro and explained in details what Horseshoe crabs are and how to identify then and differentiate between the male and female, Mangrove and costal species, mating pattern etc.

We were then divided into teams and I was in the team lead by none other than Roshan. I was assigned the duty to collect the data so the entire team will go into the mud field to collect the Horseshoe crabs and bring it to me and Roshan post which Roshan will take measurement and collect data on the gender. I will take that data and input the same in the system.

I must say it was a good learning experience. Horseshoe crabs resemble crustaceans, but belong to a separate subphylum, Chelicerata, and are closely related to arachnids. The earliest horseshoe crab fossils are found in strata from the late Ordovician period, roughly 450 million years ago.

We also found one fishing net drifting In the water and from the photos below you can see till what extent it will damage the marine life.