The Wonders of Nature in Pulau Hantu

Kingdom Animalia:

Fiddler crab (Uca)

Male fiddler crabs have one bigger claw to attract females. This shows the females that even with one big claw and one small claw, which will slow down and cut down their feeding time, they are still able to survive, which females find attractive.

Furthermore, these crabs, both female and male have eyes that are especially long, called stalk-eye. This enables them to watch out for their predators even under water.

They hide in burrows that they dig on their own during high tide or when predators, such as eagles, prey on them.

Hermit crab (Paguroidea)

As a hermit crab grows in size and no longer fits its current shell, it will shed and abandon its shell in search for another one. This is why we have many empty shells lying around and we should not remove it because it could be potential homes to the crabs.

Windowpane Oyster (Placuna Placenta)

A Placuna is a bivalve. It has a clam and interesting shell with sharp edges, which resembles a lamp shape. Despite them being oysters, they have no pearls in them.

Their shells will be shut if they are above water during low tide.

Kingdom Plantae: 

Spoon Seagrass (Halophila ovalis)

It is shaped like a spoon, hence its name Spoon Seagrass. It is able to grow in unstable sediments, and often seen covered in sand and mud.

They appear in both tropical and temperate waters, but is unable to survive in water temperature less than 10°C.

Rhu (Casuarina)

The leaves of this tree have a very special adaption in which they have thin and long leaves to reduce water loss. This is because at the mangrove, there is little water provided for the tree. So in order for them to survive, in such a dry habitat, they have to conserve water.

Kingdom Fungi:

Halocyphina villosa

It is a marine Basidiomycotina (type of fungi) common on mangrove substrata. They tend to form large numbers of small, whitish and more or less globose fruiting bodies that can be seen with the naked eye or with a hand-lens.

A large number of tiny basidiospores can be seen under the microscope fruiting body is squashed.