Hornbills, otters and even a tapir: Singapore is rewilding
Once-lost species are coming back to the densely built-up city-state
THE SINGAPOREAN grandee is livid. The otters have got at his prized Koi carp again. They swim up the canal, slither over his fence and plunge into his pond. Taking just a bite out of every fish, they leave a trail of devastation. The grandee’s loss represents a remarkable gain for the world’s second-most densely populated country (after Monaco). The smooth-coated otter of South and South-East Asia is a threatened species that had disappeared from Singapore by the 1970s, when fast economic growth was prioritised over all else and Singapore’s waterways were clogged with waste.
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This article appeared in the Asia section of the print edition under the headline “Otterly loriculus”
From the September 16th 2023 edition
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