Green Trails Podcast

Podcast: Visit to Windsor Nature Park - can insects in Singapore’s backyard be foraged?

Ang Qing

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Synopsis (headphones recommended): Green Trails is a 4-part environment podcast special for 2024 where The Straits Times hits the ground with experts.

“Can this be eaten?” is an oft repeated question that every nature guide is familiar with. In July, Singapore

approved 16 species of insects

for consumption, to the delight of sustainable food firms and disgust of some Singaporeans.

But can bugs one day whet mainstream appetites like sambal stingray, a smokey South-east Asian dish crafted from the creature once considered as a “trash fish”?

A treehugger dragonfly at Windsor Nature Park.
ST PHOTO: ANG QING

In this third episode of Green Trails, our team speaks to members of the Entomological Network of Singapore, a group of insect researchers and hobbyists, about the stories of insects in the city-state and whether these creatures can be foraged.

Several species of checkered beetles were described from specimens collected in Singapore by renowned British explorer and naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace.
PHOTO: JAMES KHOO

At Windsor Nature Park, ST journalist Ang Qing meets Dr Sean Yap, a research fellow at Nanyang Technological University’s Tropical Ecology & Entomology Lab, Mr Foo Maosheng, a senior scientific officer at the National University of Singapore’s Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum, and entomological educator and consultant James Khoo.

For almost two hours, they discuss everything related to insects in Singapore - from the country’s historical link to beetle science, to how pretty privilege shapes research in the insect kingdom.