My Ignorance.....

Wild deer hits car on highway, put to sleep by Wildlife Reserves Channel NewsAsia - Thursday, March 4Send IM Story Print Wild deer hits car on highway, put to sleep by Wildlife Reserves

SINGAPORE: A wild deer was injured along an expressway after it dashed onto oncoming traffic and hit a car Wednesday morning.

Police said they received a call at about 5.30am, saying that an injured deer was lying along the Seletar Expressway, near Mandai Zoo.

Eyewitnesses told MediaCorp that the deer was so big that it blocked an entire lane, causing a traffic jam.

A caller to the MediaCorp Hotline, Teo Ah Chong, said he stopped his car when he saw the deer on the expressway.

Mr Teo said the deer appeared to be "panicking" and ran into his car.

The Wildlife Reserves Singapore was alerted and it picked up the animal.

It told MediaCorp that the deer was badly injured and had to be put to sleep.

It had a deep gash on its hip and was bleeding from the nose.

Its antlers were also broken.

The Wildlife Reserves Singapore said the deer was a wild animal, aged between three and four.


When I read the above article and saw the beautiful wild deer, I cried. A crazy animal lover like me always cries when I see a dead animal. I remember once when we were on our way to a park in Melbourne, I saw something lying on the side of the road. It appeared to some kind of creature. I wanted my brother-in-law to stop the car so as to take a look, but Sister Ean Ean stopped me. "Don't look. You'll surely cry again." Ir was a dead kangaroo that had been hit by a vehicle.

It suddenly dawned upon me that we actually have deers in this little island of Singapore! I have never realised that we have such beautiful wild animals in this little red dot! At first I thought the deer could have escaped from the zoo, but was surprised when I realised it was a wild deer and the authorities mentioned that we have only about 20 such wild deers left.

I have always loved to look at deers with their intricate antlers and beautiful designs on their hides. They look like natural tattoos in colours! I have also thought that deers could only be found in Canada and other countries but never in Singapore! Once when I was studying in Canada, I learnt that my landlady, Mrs. Smith, had cooked deer meat (venison) as the main course for our dinner. I refused to take the meat. That evening I only took more salad and soup.

Can you imagine herds of wild deers roaming among the forest of trees in the olden days in Singapore? But now deers, like many other wild creatures, are depleting in numbers, no thanks to the chopping down of trees, climatic upheavals, etc.

I hope the authorities would do something to take greater effort to preserve the depleting wild life and birds in Singapore, just like China has taken so much effort to preserve the giant pandas, so much so that they could even afford to loan two giant pandas to selected countries. I look forward to seeing the pandas next year.

How I wish I could be a relative of Noah and see all the animals in the Ark! Of
course I would have to bear with the jeers and sneers of ignorant people, and put up with forty days of continuous rainfall, but I would have so much joy and fun feeding and playing with all the animals in the Ark!

My best friend, Soh Wah, suggested that I should work in the zoo. Perhaps I will be a volunteer when I retire.....

Gan Cao