Two months ago, I was at the Lower Peirce reservoir looking for a Buffy Fish Owl that was mentioned by other bird photographers. Unfortunately, my timing was all wrong as owls normally come out in the late evenings and I was there in the mid afternoon!

Walking along the boardwalk, a fellow visitor noticed that I was carrying my long lens and mentioned to me that there was a flying lemur near the other part of the entrance. Carrying such a big contraption does have it’s benefits! I did not respond immediately as I was pre-occupied with photographing other stuff.

Later, I met another photographer who was there taking pictures of bulbuls (another kind of bird) bathing. He was an older gentleman who started chatting with me and later showed me around where the owl was suppose to be. As we walked along, he pointed to each location and what we may see along the way. Yet another visitor who had two kids tagging along again saw that we had long lens and mentioned that they just saw a flying lemur. One of the young kid, a boy offered to take us to that location.

Of course we tagged along. How can we disappoint a young kid?

At the location, hugging on one of the tree motionless was indeed a flying lemur or colugo. And it came with an extra head peeking out of it’s belly! A baby colugo. Apparently the colugo young spends the first 6 months of its life clinging on to its mother’s gliding membrane which folds up to a pouch.

A colugo (flying lemur) with a baby

A closer look at the adult

A closer look at the baby

Colugos are found in the tropical rainforest of South East Asia. They are nocturnal herbivorous creatures that spend the day resting. In this case, by hanging on to a tree. Their most distinctive feature is their ability to glide across treetops, using their outstretched gliding membrane. They are also known as Flying Lemurs although their are not lemurs and certainly cannot really fly.

In Singapore, they are found mainly in the Central Catchment area which encompass the Lower Peirce reservoir area. Since these photos were taken, there have been quite a number of sightings of these creatures, so I believe they are thriving for now.