200: Points In Singapore's Natural History

The natural history of Singapore abounds with stories that are as remarkable as they are diverse. There are explorers who eat wild animals. And wild animals which eat people. Some discoveries are field-changing, like the only land snail that produces light. Research and discoveries made in Singapore also give rise to the commoditization of natural resources. This has geopolitical ramifications. As this knowledge solidifies into a more formal natural history, a place to store and study the resulting material arises. This leads to the foundation of one of the oldest museums in Southeast Asia, and with it the story of a whale that “still haunts the minds of those who saw it”. The origins of Singapore’s very own natural history museum are another remarkable story. In conjunction with ‘200: a natural history’, a Bicentennial exhibition at the Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum, this book gathers these stories and locates them in the larger context of Singapore’s natural history.