SINGAPORE – When Mr Daryl Tan, an avid photographer of snakes, went on a trip to the mangroves at Pasir Ris Park in June 2023, he made a monumental discovery – a creature that was thought to be extinct in Singapore.
It was not a snake, but a fish whose existence had been recorded only in a watercolour painting more than 160 years ago.
The ladder gudgeon, or bostrychus scalaris, is a rare and little-known fish named for the stepladder-like banded pattern on its body.
French naturalist F. L. de Castelnau first documented the fish via a watercolour painting in a notebook compiled in Singapore between 1858 and 1862.
Mr Tan’s photographs, taken at the mangroves at Pasir Ris Park on June 3, 2023, might be the first photographic evidence of the creature’s existence in Singapore, said Dr Tan Heok Hui, an ichthyologist at the Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum.
Mr Tan, a 35-year-old educator, has been photographing snakes in Singapore since 2005, and began embarking on more night walks since late 2021 to observe more nocturnal species of snakes.
“That night, I saw that the tide was high, so I decided to drop by the mangroves at Pasir Ris Park to see what species of snakes I would be able to find at high tide and when the tide recedes,” he said.
“I was alone, and just as I was about to reach the mangroves, I heard a splash and turned to see a flash of white followed by a thin tail.”