Despite being commonly seen sunbathing and swimming in Singapore’s nature reserves, saltwater crocodiles (Crocodylus porosus) have been officially classified as extinct in Singapore in the IUCN Red List since the 1996 assessment. Our conservator Kate Pocklington hopes to change this with her new, freely downloadable e-book—Beast, Guardian, Island: The Saltwater Crocodile in Singapore.

Kate first learnt of the saltwater crocodile’s surprising status in Singapore while restoring a museum specimen that had been shot at the Serangoon River in 1887. This sparked a self-proclaimed “obsessive”, seven-year dig through newspaper archives, public reports and museum records, until she found herself with over 400 records since 1819.

The fruit of her labour is a book that presents a fascinating history of Singapore’s crocodiles, including their folklore, trade, distribution, sightings and human–crocodile interactions. The stories within are ample evidence that wild saltwater crocodiles have lived and continue to live in Singapore.

Changing the Way We View Them

Speaking to VICE in a recent article, Kate shares that she sees crocodiles as “elusive, misunderstood animals that have been severely overlooked in the region but are actually a huge part of natural history in Singapore.”

Although crocodiles are often perceived to be scary and dangerous creatures, their presence, as the largest reptilian predator at the top of the food chain, is marvellous for Singapore because it means that they have a stable, healthy habitat to live in. Studying their true population would help to shape the conservation measures that should be taken to protect the species.

Kate explains, “I don’t want to shine a spotlight on them; I don’t want them to be a fancy attraction—I just hope to have them be understood and feared less.”

Read the e-book now for everything you need to know—the history, myths, distribution, status—about Singapore’s saltwater crocodiles, and their portrayal as both beasts and guardians throughout time. Download the PDF here (5.24 MB)

An Artisan Turned Historian of Crocodiles

This new e-book is not the only product of Kate’s persistent research on crocodiles in Singapore. In July 2019, she authored Buayapura in conjunction with the Singapore Bicentennial, exploring the creature’s cultural and historical links with Singapore. Pick up the e-publication here (6.06 MB).

Throughout the years, Kate also weaved her local knowledge of crocodiles into multiple projects, most notably the museum’s Air Tenang exhibition held from November 2018 to February 2019. During the exhibition, her restoration work on Kaiser, a crocodile specimen donated by the Singapore Zoo, was on public display.

She also helmed the NUS Museum collaborative prep-room project in 2017, titled Buaya: The Making Of A Non-Myth. Activating her investigations and scientific inquiry through space, the evolving product was an interpretation of the crocodile’s eclipsed history using materials associated to the animal’s distribution and activity around Singapore.

More recently, Kate appeared in an episode of the CNA documentary series, ‘Into the Vault’, where an inquiry into the legend of the enigmatic white crocodile led NUS Bachelor of Environmental Studies undergraduate Elliot Ong to Kate at the museum. Watch it here!