I was taking a stroll around Toa Payoh Sensory Park when something highly irregular caught my attention. In the middle of a water feature, partially submerged, lay a dead Knobbly Sea Star (Protoreaster nodosus). Yes, a knobbly. Looking at it, it had been preserved and dried; the colour all bleached out of it.
Some pet shops (not limited to, I think, that specific one in the town area) do sell ‘exotic’ creatures like Knobblies, among other, ‘pets’. They may live for a little while in captivity, but I daresay that most do not survive. A while back, I read about there being sales of these stars - preserved - in some shops, apparently as a curio (thanks Ria, for trying to help me find the article); their value indicated by a price tag.
Does that sound right to you?
Knobblies are listed as 'threatened', their numbers having taken a plunge due to over-collection for the live aquarium trade, among other things. Like everything else, the best way to halt supply is to curb demand...
This entry reminds me of a cat at my camp's guardroom.
ReplyDeleteWhile i was performing my sentry duties at 2am in the morning, i saw that particular cat coming into my camp with a toad in its mouth. The cat was trying to kill the toad by chewing and crushing its bone. It didn't eat the toad. The toad died eventually. The next morning, i observed that the cat has killed another bird.
As much as i despise the cat for its cruel acts, i am reminded that we human beings are cruel to nature in our own way too.
yc