In the shade of the tall trees, the monkeys were quietly being monkeys. They were not afraid, but didn't disturb me either. This probably means that people do not feed the monkeys here. Hurray!There were several boisterous young monkeys and of course, they were busy playing. Running after one another, up and down trees, tumbling in balls of fur. This little one was literally swinging from tree to tree!
Several adults were patiently foraging among the fallen leaves on the forest floor.
Another monkey was foraging in the thickets of flowering and fruiting Melastoma bushes.
Wild monkeys know how to find food in the forest. There is no need to feed them. In fact, feeding changes their behaviour and eventually makes them aggressive towards humans. When humans then complain, these monkeys have to be caught and killed.One of the monkeys took a closer look at me. After sitting down to show me its teeth, it went away.
I've met these monkeys on other trips, having breakfast at Admiralty and playing at nearby Sungei Cina. Let's hope they stay wild!There is a small patch of mangroves in this park, with the usual mangrove favourites: mudskippers!
I have not seen so many Giant mudskippers squeezed up close together! There are SIX in this photo.
Here's a closer look at the six mudskippers in the photo above.
Giant mudskippers are terribly quarrelsome. As the incoming tide squeezed them closer together, it was only a matter of time before the irrate fishes got rude and aggressive, showing one another The Fin.
One of the amazing plants at Admiralty are the huge rattans that sprawl near the mangroves.
The rattan is a climbing palm which is well equipped for getting up to high places. To clamber up trees, this limber skinny plant has alarming spines all along the trunk. The graceful leaves that sway in the wind are armed with long long tips lined with grapling hooks that latch onto surrounding plants. People who try to walk through a rattan thicket soon realise why the plant is sometimes called the 'Wait-a-minute' plant.
Upstream from the mangroves are lush grassy meadows along a stream, that is actually fed from a monsoon canal!
Dragonflies zoom around the waterside plants. In the water, some fishes and one large lazy Red-eared slider terrapin. These introduced turtles are not native and usually released by people into our waterbodies. These turtles can do serious damage by eating our native wildlife, and competing for space and food with our native wildlife. We should never release our pets into the wild.
A dead leaf flies off when I pass by, it's a butterfly! Although it appears drab when its wings are closed, it has pretty patterns when it opens up its wings.
Another butterfly is pretending to be a dead leaf in a bush.
There were several Nephila spiders in their gianormous orb webs that span between trees.
I made a quick check at the big Putat Kampong (Barringtonia racemosa) that is growing here. The ground beneath is strewn with its pretty pink fluffy flowers.
There are many dangling inflorescences of the pretty pink flowers on this big tree. But only a few have set into the strange angular fruits.
There were a few of these pretty trees with tear drop shaped leaves and very strange white, shiny ball-shaped things - fruits, flowers? I have no idea what it is.
Another tree had long bunches of spiky velvety white things - fruits? flowers? It has heart shaped leaves with white undersides. Again, another mystery to me.
More about Admiralty Park in my earlier post about my first visit there.
