With NTU situated at the boundary of the Western Water Catchment, home to four reservoirs, it’s not a surprise that the campus is teeming with rich biodiversity. At the same time, this has led to the rise in human-wildlife conflict in the area. It’s thus imperative that strides be made towards harmonious coexistence as an NTU community, something that Earthlink NTU has been working towards under its Nature pillar through events like NTU BioBlitz.
Lead by the club’s Nature Guiding portfolio, NTU BioBlitz 2021 aimed to raise awareness and encourage appreciation of the biodiversity found on campus. This was done through a two-pronged approach: campus surveys and the EcoClick 2021 Nature Photography Competition.
The campus surveys were held to document wildlife fauna on campus and through these surveys, the club confirmed sightings of both rare (Banded Bay Cuckoo, Common Kingfisher) and endangered species (Sunda Pangolin, Spotted Wood Owl). In just two weeks, more than 400 sightings and 150 species were counted. This data will be retained within the Nature Guiding committee to better advise conservation-related on-campus policies. Secondly, the event exposed participants to nature watching, as they learned how to identify and spot wildlife in the field. Participants enjoyed learning about our local wildlife and seeing them in action during the surveys.
The EcoClick 2021 Nature 2021 Nature Photography Competition was themed “Beautiful Biodiversity on Campus” for submissions of photos taken within the NTU campus. 60 submissions were received from 25 individuals. The guest panel of judges included prominent conservationists and photographers, such as Nature Society Singapore president Shawn Lum, award-winning nature photographer Jayaprakash Bojan and NParks community parks manager and photographer Zestin Soh. The panel was impressed by the quality of work submitted and the project culminated in a public exhibition in North Spine, where high-quality photographs of the top 20 submissions were printed and displayed.
The committee believed that the event achieved its objectives of raising awareness about NTU’s campus biodiversity through the campus survey and served to highlight to the NTU community the beauty through the wildlife photography exhibition. Earthlink has encouraged continued learning about campus biodiversity through the setting up of a Telegram group chat for students to share about their biodiversity sightings.
For those who did not know that much about biodiversity at first, I think this (photography competition) theme really got them to look more closely and discover them! I believe this theme got me to think more about the behaviours, actions and adaptations of animals and plants and how I could capture these moments better. Jared Tan, Participant
About EarthLink NTU
EarthLink is the largest student-led environmental club in NTU that promotes environmental protection and sustainability among students and residents.
The club has 10 dedicated portfolios that are constantly updating its objectives in order to address the ever-changing global climate. A few noteworthy large-scale activities and initiatives are its annual Overseas Community Engagement Programme (OCEP), EcoPromise, Earth Hour, Greenfest, and the most recently Get Woke.
It also organises events that fill up niche areas such as nature-guided walks, where a dedicated portfolio leads participants to various locations around Singapore and exposes them to the diverse flora and fauna existing within the nation.
** UPDATE (4 October 2021)
NTU BioBlitz 2021 by Earthlink NTU was one of the two projects which clinched the Mr and Mrs Kwok Chin Yan Award for Student Initiative at Student Leaders’ Night 2021.
We would like to express our heartiest congratulations to the team for a job well done. Watch the video below to hear from the organising team.