Our Connection
History of wildcats in Singapore
Legend says that when Sang Nila Utama first arrived at the mouth of the Singapore River, he saw a majestic beast. He was told that it was ‘Singah’ by one of his advisors. In Hindu and Buddhist mythology, ‘Singah’ is Sanskrit for lion. It is from this sighting that Singapore got the name, ‘Lion City’ and till today, the symbol of the lion still remains a part of our national identity.
While we might not have had lions roaming our forest in the past, we did have the Malayan tiger, the Indo-Chinese leopard, and the leopard cat. With the expansion of agriculture and human habitation in the 1800s and 1900s, we lost our tiger in the 1930s and our leopard in the 1950s.
The smaller leopard cat has, however, survived till today.
Treasuring our natural heritage and national identity
A community mural project featuring our leopard cat was installed along the Singapore River, an iconic heritage site where the leopard cat would have once roamed. The mural aims to raise awareness that the leopard cat is now critically endangered in Singapore and for a nation whose identity was founded on an image of a mythical wild cat, losing the leopard cat will most certainly be a significant loss for Singapore’s natural heritage.
Contact SWAG or sign up to volunteer!
Email us:
info@swagcat.org
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