CNA938 Rewind - #TalkBack: If you're using a pram or stroller… stay off escalators?
CNA938 Rewind
Last Sunday afternoon, the wheels of a woman's stroller got stuck between the steps of an escalator at HarbourFront Centre, which then became dislodged. No one, including the woman and her baby, was hurt. While there isn't a law disallowing the use of strollers on escalators in Singapore, the Building and Construction Authority (BCA) strongly discourages the practice. Lance Alexander and Daniel Martin discuss further with Teo Orh Hai, Group Director for Electrical and Mechanical Engineering Group, BCA.
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Over the last decade, other monkey hotspots included Segar Road in Bukit Panjang and areas near the MacRitchie Nature Reserve, such as private estates in Bukit Timah and Upper Thomson Road. Residents in some of these areas continue to deal with monkeys daily. Licensed cat breeder Christopher Choy, 39, who lives in Upper Bukit Timah, said that he has encountered troops of macaques during his morning walks and sometimes they raid his backyard trees for fruit. 'My neighbours have complained and put up anti-monkey netting at their windows, fruit trees and ponds to stop them from entering the house. They also set up ultrasonic monkey repellent devices in the backyard to deter them,' said Mr Choy. A search by CNA TODAY on the e-commerce platform Shopee found advertisements of these devices labelled with promises in bold like 'No monkeys for 100 years!' on sale for about S$16 to S$22. Member of Parliament for Bukit Panjang SMC, Mr Liang Eng Hwa, who oversaw an incident in 2017 where monkeys were harassing residents at Segar said that he had a town hall to discuss the matter with affected residents then. Segar Residents' Committee helped to set up a WhatsApp chat group with Mr Liang and the residents to report appearances of the monkey. The issue was then resolved in two to three weeks after the monkeys were captured. 'We wanted to be responsive. And then whenever someone sighted a monkey, Acres would be able to go there quickly,' he said. He highlighted that Singapore has a couple of housing estates 'right at the doorstep' of nature reserves, which is the case for his ward Bukit Panjang, so it is natural that residents have to learn to coexist with them. 'There will be some of this wildlife that will come out from time to time. Some of them are transient, they come and then they leave. But let's say they stay around, and they start to go into homes, then we alert NParks,' he said. ONE PERSON'S ACTIONS CAN WRECK HAVOC FOR A WHOLE BLOCK Dr Andie Ang, who is head of primate conservation and Singapore programmes at Mandai Nature, said feeding wildlife is partly to blame for monkey home invasions and that all it takes is one person to wreak havoc on a whole block. The primatologist said that if a resident flings rice grains from a window to feed pigeons, for example, other wildlife, including monkeys, would climb towards that unit when they see food coming out. 'It's not just one monkey, but a troop. The alpha might go to the place that throws the food out, but the rest can then explore the neighbouring units. 'That's when the neighbours can complain and say 'I didn't do anything but the monkeys came to my house', not knowing that people around them might be doing things that they shouldn't be doing and so that is collateral damage to the rest,' said Dr Ang. She also said that rubbish bins that are not monkey-proof are like 'free vending machines' that are always there, consistently providing food and leading to 'unintentional feeding'. Overall, she said that there is a lack of awareness about the consequences of feeding wildlife. This means that 'a lot of education' needs to be put into place. She added that when people feed monkeys, they are giving the creatures "extra resources" outside of their natural habitat. As a result, they reproduce at a faster rate than their environment can support and they also lose their natural fear of humans and start to approach humans more. She has seen families giving food to crows, pigeons and turtles, which in turn attracts monkeys. She said that parents believe this is a way for their children to interact with wildlife. 'When we talk to some parents about how we shouldn't be feeding, the parents said, 'oh, it's just vegetables, it's natural food, it's not biscuits'. They don't understand that it's not about what you feed, it's the feeding itself.'
