SINGAPORE, Jan 5 — A couple who were driving along Bukit Timah Expressway (BKE) on New Year’s morning chanced upon an unexpected sight: A herd of sambar deer grazing openly by the roadside.

A video capturing the scene was shared on Monday (January 1) by TikTok user Jason Ng, who estimated seeing seven or eight deer at the time.

Replying to viewers’ comments, Mr Ng shared that he and his wife had been travelling southbound along the BKE at around 3am when they spotted what they initially thought was a group of wild boars.

The couple made a U-turn to get a closer look and realised it was a herd of deer.

In Mr Ng’s video, at least six of the animals could be seen grazing on a grass slope. He stated that the herd was spotted about 5km from Woodlands Checkpoint, near Mandai.

It was reportedly the first time Mr Ng, who hails from Malaysia, had seen deer along a road in Singapore in the 20 years he has been here, according to social news site MustShare News.

Mr Ng’s TikTok clip intrigued online users, attracting over 245,000 views and 7,400 likes as of this afternoon.

One user remarked: “I never knew we had wild deer in Singapore. What a scene.”

Some people took the deer sighting as a positive sign that nature is “flourishing” on the urban island.

A person wrote: “It shows that Singapore is healthy, sharing space with wildlife (thumbs up).”

Other users, however, argued to the contrary claiming that such sightings signal a loss in habitat for the animals.

One user pointed out: “It’s actually the opposite...when wildlife is near people and areas like these, (it) means they don’t have space anymore.”

Several online users also made references to an apocalyptic movie titled Leave The World Behind which features deer prominently throughout the film.

Just as in the movie, they joked that the appearance of the animals was a foreboding sign of bad things to come.

This is not the first time that the species native to Singapore have been spotted along roads here.

In April last year, a father and daughter reportedly encountered a single sambar deer crossing the road along Chestnut Park. Earlier in August 2022, a stag was killed by oncoming traffic as it tried to do the same along the BKE.

An animals-only overhead bridge, Eco-Link@BKE, was opened in 2013 to allow animals to move between the Bukit Timah and Central Catchment nature reserves without the risk of being run over by vehicles.

A similar crossing, Mandai Wildlife Bridge, was opened near the Singapore Zoo in late 2019. As many as 70 wildlife species had been spotted using it by February 2022, with the sambar deer sighted almost nightly.

Local wildlife photographer Tan Yong Lin told TODAY that he has observed an increase in deer sightings over the last couple of years, claiming that he personally encounters the mammals two to three times a month.

According to a report published in the journal Conservation Science and Practice on February 16 last year, the population of sambar deer is estimated to be growing in various forested areas, including parts of the Central Catchment Nature Reserve near MacRitchie and Bukit Timah.

The National Parks Board estimated the population to be around 15, in a separate study in 2021. — TODAY