14 August 2025

Singapore layover, July 2025

Raffles’s Banded Langur (Presbytis femoralis)

I spent two days in Singapore last month and went in search of two mammals: Sunda Pangolin and Raffles’s Banded Langur.

Sunda Pangolin Search

Sunda Colugo & infant (Galeopterus variegatus)

Singapore must now rank as the best place to look for Sunda Pangolin and several mammalwatchers have seen them here in the past year including Anna Bauerová in 2024.

Inspired by Anna’s report I got in touch with her friend John Lee who is now the go-to guy for help in finding a pangolin. John is a professional wildlife educator. He’s setting up a new website – wildlifeasia.org – and is also a ghost hunter who livestreams his supernatural searches on TikTok. Needless to say he’s an interesting character!

Although most – maybe all? – of Singapore’s parks are closed after dark there are some areas that are open 24 hours. John took me to one such area and we spent three hours together searching for pangolins on a friday night. I returned the next evening for another three hours alone. I didn’t find a pangolin. But thanks to John and his assistant’s spotting skills we saw some nice mammals on the first night. I saw less the next evening, in part because I was solely focussed on finding a pangolin and concentrating my search on the path and the edges of the forest, rather than in the trees. Pangolins do climb, but John said the majority of his sightings have been of animals crossing the road in front of him.

Lesser Indo-Malayan Chevrotain (Tragulus kanchil)

I promised John I would not share his pangolin location but you can email him here and try to arrange to go out with him. He seems happy to take mammalwatchers out for a few hours searching when he is available. Finding a pangolin may not have been as easy as I had hoped, but I suspect with four or five nights searching, particularly in the early hours of the morning and not at the weekend, you have a strong chance. I heard that the next mammalwatcher to go out with John was successful.

Javanese Flying Squirrel (Iomys horsfieldii)

During two evenings I saw a great many Sunda Colugos. At least 20 on the first evening alone! The most interesting mammals were two flying squirrels in different spots. I think they are both Javan Flying Squirrel but will include three pictures here in case one of them could be turned into a Red-cheeked Flying Squirrel which occur in Singapore.

Javanese Flying Squirrel (Iomys horsfieldii)

The first two photographs are of the same animal which appears to be a Javan Flying Squirrel given the orange edge to its gliding membrane.

The animal below is a second individual. Probably a Javan Flying Squirrel too.

Javanese Flying Squirrel (Iomys horsfieldii)

We also saw dozens of Black Rats, several Lesser Mousedeer and sleeping Long-tailed Macaques.

Long-tailed Macaque (Macaca fascicularis)

The area is popular among herpers and we walked past several groups on the friday night. John showed one group this beautiful Wagler’s Pit Viper.

Wagler’s Pit Viper

And another group had found an impressive Reticulated Python.

Reticulated Python

Raffles’s Banded Langurs

Raffles’s Banded Langur (Presbytis femoralis)

My other target mammal was Raffles’s Banded Langur. This critically endangered monkey is found in the far south of Malaysia and Singapore. There are thought to be fewer than 400 left in the wild with around 60 of them in Singapore’s central catchment area.

Fortunately I had arranged to meet up again with Law Jia Bao, a scientist who has been studying the monkeys for several years and knows better than anyone where to find them. Law went out on a night walk with me in 2022 but I hadn’t had time to look for the moneys on that trip.

Law suggested we look around the Lower Pierce Reservoir at first light and after an hour he’d tracked down one of the resident families. He knew exactly which areas the monkeys frequent and without his help I doubt I would have found them. Law checks up on the langurs often, and his Instagram channel has some fabulous photos of them, so if you are planning to visit Singapore you could reach out to him.

Raffles’s Banded Langur (Presbytis femoralis)

We spent an hour watching a very relaxed group of monkeys who were feeding at the edge of one of the busiest sections of the park, apparently unperturbed by the many passers-by who stopped to take a look at what we were looking at. It feels like half of Singapore visit the reservoir to take their weekend exercise. Law spotted a Common Tree Shrew that morning, and we also saw Long-tailed Macaques and a Plantain Squirrel.

Thank you

A very big thank you to both John Lee and Law for taking me out and being so generous with their time, and to Anna Bauerová and other mammalwatchers for helping to put Singapore on the world pangolin map! Yet another place I need to return to.

Trip List

Sunda Colugo (Galeopterus variegatus)
Long-tailed Macaque (Macaca fascicularis)
Raffles’s Banded Langur (Presbytis femoralis)
Plantain Squirrel (Callosciurus notatus)
Javanese Flying Squirrel (Iomys horsfieldii)
Roof Rat (Rattus rattus)
Lesser Indo-Malayan Chevrotain (Tragulus kanchil)

7 species and 1 lifer

Long-tailed Macaque (Macaca fascicularis)

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Jon Hall
Genetically Welsh, spiritually Australian, currently in New York City. I’ve also lived and worked in London, Canberra, Paris and Lusaka, and watched mammals in over 100 countries.
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