MacRitchie Reservoir is Singapore’s oldest reservoir filled with wildlife, which makes it a perfect destination for nature-lovers or hikers.
However recently, something strange was discovered at Singapore’s beloved reservoir.
Facebook user Karen Lythgoe shared on Nature Society Singapore’s Facebook on 14th February a photo of a carcass probably washed ashore or brought by a predator who left the corpse unfinished. What’s more shocking is how the carcass resembles a prehistoric monster. Lythgoe took photos of the dead animal’s fierce-looking and wide-opened mouth filled with sharp teeth.
Notice how terrifying the corpse looks?
Being a major discovery, Lythgoe’s post was shared by over 1,700 users on Facebook. The creature really does look like it came out of a horror movie, so it’s not that surprising either. Some people on the platform suggested that it could just be the remains of a decaying alligator, as the creature has repeating patterns of scales all over its body.
But honestly, let’s not take this as something extraordinary and confirm things right on the spot, because the identity of this creature has been confirmed already. People may have been close to speculating the creature as an alligator, but instead, the creature is actually an alligator gar.
Overall, they don’t really resemble alligators apart from both creatures having long snouts, or possibly both their scales looking slightly similar. The most obvious one is the alligator being a fish and not a reptile-like an actual alligator.
Moreover, alligator gars are non-native creatures, meaning they’re not a common inhabitant found in Singapore. The ones that do get discovered in the freshwaters of Singapore might have been preserved as pets that were then released into the wild. Most of them found are usually individual creatures.
You can find alligator gars or purchase them in local aquarium trades. But it proves to be a challenge in keeping these fishes as pets, because of how excessively greedy these gars are. In addition, alligator gars grow to massive lengths that would require bigger tanks to preserve these creatures, something most homes cannot afford or are too small to fit these tanks.
Moreover, alligator gars can measure up to 300cm in length. Back in 2011, a gar with a length of 150cm was discovered by two fishermen at a Pasir Ris canal in Singapore.
Source: Uchicago News
Alligator gars are actually prehistoric creatures, which is how most people would describe such a creature due to its features. Dating back to almost 157 million years, gars belonging to a scientific family does have a lineage that goes back to those years, which is the time of the dinosaurs.
They are also considered “living fossils” since they look very similar to their ancestors in terms of their body features, and have not changed at all.
There are also rumours spawned by Facebook users that the washed-up alligator gar found by Lythgoe was the same one in a post 2 days before Lythgoe’s photos of the creature were uploaded. It was also posted in the same group.
Facebook user Yvonne Wong filmed a video of a monitor lizard feeding on a dead gar. But it’s not confirmed if this gar is the same one Lythgoe found. It probably wasn’t filmed in MacRitchie either. Having these two posts being shared on the same week in just a few days from each other made people think it is.
