BIODIVERSITY WITHIN OUR TAMAN

Dear Residents,

Do we residents know that we live in a Taman that has various fauna and flora besides human beings? So far, we have been living harmoniously with ourselves and with other beings. Yes, we are.

If you do not know, besides our normal residents' pets namely our pet dogs and cats, we also have other animals within our Taman.

Our Taman is located just behind a hilly reserved natural forest, so we do get visitations from our fellow animal beings.

On some occasions, we get visits by a family of monkeys who come out for the forest to forage for food. They open our rubbish bins and leave them ajar. At times, they can be mischievous by coming into our open kitchens to "steal" food. They may even climb onto our roof tops. Luckily, the troop always go back into the forest before they reappear as and when they feel like it.

Another interesting visitation is by a family of wild (may not be wild now as some residents have fed them ) boars with her litter of baby piglets. Normally, they visit the empty field at Jalan 6/98.

I was told once of their presence but thought it was a tale. However, I myself have seen them with my own eyes and has taken a photo of the wild boar with her 5 piglets about 2 years back!!!

They forage the grass patch and seek out worms. If you see a grass patch has been dug out, rest assured it is done by a family of wild boars. If you see them, please do not harass them. Let them be otherwise, the mother boar can charge at you as she is a protective mother like all mothers do.

Besides squirrels, snakes like pythons, feral dogs, we can also see birds in the mornings or evenings. They do cheep and fly around in pairs. We see magpies, mynahs and spotted doves just to name a few. May be there are others as well.

As a resident here, I am glad that we live in an area that is so diverse in fauna and flora.

Yes, some our pet cats and dogs do misbehave by weeing and poohing in some residents' premises. Dog owners should pick up their pet dogs faeces during their walks. Animals do have the call of nature like us humans. My apologies if these pets have offended you in one way or another.

However, for pet cats, they like to roam around freely. Please take note that cats do have a social order and the feline cats do take care of their brood (like humans) until they are big enough to "merantau" on their own.

How do I know this? One of my cats, Sunny, after taking care of him for the past 3 years, just wander off and never to return. I have others like Billy, Mimi and Kitty who carried out the same ritual. Animal nature, perhaps?

Let us humans be kind to our fellow living beings and live together in harmony. None of us or animal is perfect, so we should live and let live. Understand them and we will also understand ourselves better.

TW Kang