SINGAPORE – The year 2025 was marked by discovery, odd-coloured animals and the grand return of a marine giant.
These are The Straits Times’ highlights of the year as reported in the NUS Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum’s journal Nature In Singapore, which documents key biodiversity sightings in the Republic.
The year featured at least 24 species recorded for the first time in Singapore, of which more than half were molluscs – proof that even in a heavily urbanised city-state, there is still more to discover.
Records are usually published some time after the actual encounters, often because time is needed to establish the species’ identities or to lower the risk of inviting poachers.
Mr Loh Kok Sheng was combing the intertidal waters off Labrador Nature Reserve on Oct 10 when he came across a squiggle of blue and green that left him as happy as the clam he spotted in a sandy patch – a fluted giant clam (Tridacna squamosa), one of the world’s largest bivalves and a species considered critically endangered in Singapore.
“I was very shocked and pleasantly surprised to see it because we have been surveying Labrador across the years and had not seen it before,” said Mr Loh, a volunteer who was documenting Singapore’s intertidal shores as part of routine surveys for marine enthusiast group WildSingapore.
Before the encounter, the giant clams he and his team found were largely restricted to the city-state’s offshore islands, with the nearest being Sentosa, added the teacher, who has been helping out in such biodiversity surveys since 2006, when he was a biological sciences student at the National University of Singapore (NUS).
The specimen, measuring about 35cm long, is the first giant clam seen off mainland Singapore since the 1990s, according to Dr Neo Mei Lin, a marine ecologist at NUS’ Tropical Marine Science Institute who has studied the animals for nearly two decades.
The rediscovery at Labrador Nature Reserve suggests that the last mainland rocky shore habitat here remains a significant refuge for the species, wrote Dr Neo and Mr Loh in a biodiversity record published in November.
Giant clams are key sources of food and shelter for reef animals; even their faeces have been found to be highly nutritious for fish. Of the five species of
giant clams
once recorded in Singapore, only two remain. The other is the locally endangered boring giant clam (Tridacna crocea), named for its ability to bore into corals.
While these colourful clams once dotted the reserve, according to a book published in 1994, neither species was seen during surveys of the area between 2009 and 2020.
For Dr Neo, the finding shows that the busy coastline of Singapore can still serve as an important refuge for the clams.
“We know that the coastline of mainland Singapore will continue to face increasing development in the near future,” she said, citing projects like the
upcoming Long Island reclamation
in the waters off East Coast Park.
