Rifle Range Nature Park in Singapore advertises Colugo as a main attraction there. It has a trail named Colugo Trail, there are Colugo decorations along the boardwalk portion of the trail. A viewing deck over quarry wetland is named Colugo Deck.
A Colugo sign on a post
Colugos are shy, nocturnal, solitary, tree dwelling animals found in the tropical forests of Southeast Asia, and in particular at the Rifle Range Nature Park.
We did not see it during our several visits there in the mornings. Since colugos are nocturnal, we gave up the hope to see them in person until a morning 4 weeks ago a hiking group took pictures of a colugo at the park.
We went there on Sunday morning, September 14 to try our luck. It was a beautiful sunny day. Everything looked fresh and clean because of the rain previous day.
We walked slowly along the boardwalk on Colugo Trail. Colugos were no where to be found. But we did see many beautiful flowers and many common bids this morning, ash tailors, black napped orioles, pacific swallows, blue tailed bee eaters, yellow vented bulbuls, crimson sunbird, and banded woodpecker ...
pouch of a carnivore tree to catch insects
crimson Sunbird
banded woodpecker
yellow vented bulbul
a pair of pacific swallows
A blue tailed bee eater
We were still looking out for the colugos on the return hike... and then we saw a group of people taking pictures of something on the boardwalk,... a colugo was resting on a tree trunk in the woods!
If it were not its eyes and reddish ear canal, I would not be able to see it.
The colugo stayed stationary. I took many photos of it
We were about to leave, then it started to move, licking its membrane wings, right side, then left side. It stretched one arm, and clawed onto a branch, and hang in there.
It was not alone, it carried a baby colugo! (I did not realize this until I was home looking at photos, in fact the baby was in every photo of the mother colugo!)
What a serendipity !
a colugo hugging a tree trunk
licking its right wing
turning its head to left
licking its right wing
the mother colugo hanged onto a tree branch, and the babe colugo sticked its head out of the pouch
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