PETALING JAYA, April 20 — A Singaporean police duo is getting praise online for rescuing a monitor lizard from becoming potential roadkill on a busy highway.
A group from the educational Facebook page for Just Keep Thinking were out filming on Sunday when they spotted the reptile laying in the middle of the road near Republic Avenue.
They notified two police officers who immediately jumped into action to save the monitor lizard from getting hit by traffic.
A male officer initially tried to coax the animal to walk back to the roadside by steering it with its tail.
The attempts were unsuccessful, prompting the officer to carefully pick up the monitor lizard and deposit it on a grassy area behind the roadside barrier.
The officers later decided it would be better to move the monitor lizard as far away from the highway as possible and brought it over to the nearby Kallang Basin.
The policewoman in the video was also seen waving goodbye to the animal after they left it by the water.
Social media users have been giving the two police officers kudos for their swift action in saving the wild creature.
The videos were reposted by the road safety awareness page ROADS.sg and have gotten over 1,100 positive reactions from people on Facebook so far.
Terence Tay said it was encouraging to see police officers going above and beyond their duty to rescue an animal.
To those who question if it is the job of the police to do this, to me he's not doing his job as a police, he is simply being a kind and compassionate human being,” wrote Tay.
David Hoo said humans need to treat animals with the same respect that we offer to our neighbours especially in a densely populated country like Singapore.
“These animals are also our immediate neighbours now and need the kampung spirit too,” said Hoo.
According to Singapore’s National Parks Board website, the most common monitor lizard among the three found in Singapore is the Malayan water monitor which can grow up to three metres long.
The other two species are the clouded monitor lizard and the Dumeril’s monitor, which can grow to a length of one to 1.5 metres.
