Science project 2013

SCIENCE PROJECT AT SINGAPORE ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS

ANIMAL THAT WE RESEARCH ON : SIAMANGGROUP NAME : THE SIAMANG’S

GROUP MEMBERS : LEADER - MEINI MATHS EXPERT - HANISAH

SCIENCE EXPERT -GERALDINE TIME KEEPER - HAZWAN

GEOGRAPHY EXPERT - ZHEHAI MATHS EXPERT - ZHENGDA

CONTENTS PAGE

Interesting information about the animal Science Aspects -PHYSICS -CHEMISTRY -BIOLOGYValues AspectsNational Education Aspects5 Quiz questionGroup Reflection References

SCIENCE ASPECTS -PHYSICS

WHY IS THE SIAMANG ABLE TO RUN SO FAST?

• It has very long arms,adapted for movements in trees. • Their main way of traveling through the rain forest is by br

achiation.• During brachiation, the siamang hangs from a branch by o

ne hand while swinging its body around to allow the other hand to grasp the next handhold.

• Their extra-long arms help them cover up to 10 feet (3 meters) in a single swing.

HOW IS SIAMANG ABLE TO HAVE SUCH SUPERIOR STRENGTH?•Siamang have superior strength as it has long, gangling arms that are longer than their legs.HOW IS SIAMANG ABLE TO CAMOUFLAGE ITSELF?•Siamang live among leaves.They’re usually found in the trees at a height of 80 to100 feet (25 to 30 meters). Their furry bodies are black making people cannot recognize them.

SOME EXTRAORDINARY TRAITS THAT SIAMANG HAS :• Siamang can be twice the size of other gibbons, reachin

g 1 m in height, and weighing up to 14kg. Siamangs’ hands are a lot like ours.

• They have four long fingers and a smaller opposable thumb. Their feet have five toes like we have, but their big toe is opposable too.

• One other thing that sets the siamang apart physically from the other species of gibbons is webbing between their second and third toes.

• Siamangs can grasp and carry things with both their hands and their feet. They have a small, round head, and their arms are longer than their legs. Siamangs don’t have tails, and they have gray or pink throat sacs that expands to enhance their distinctive calls - which can be heard as far as two miles(6.5 kilometers) away.Their throat pouch that balloons out acts as a resonator to amplify calls.

SCIENCE ASPECTS -CHEMISTRY

• WHAT ARE SPECIAL MATERIALS THAT PARTS OF SIAMANG ARE MADE OF?

• Siamang's two digits on each foot are partially joined by a membrane—hence it has the name "syndactylus", from the Ancient Greek word.Siamang has large gular sac (found in both males and females of the species), which is a throat pouch that can be inflated to the size of the siamang's head, allowing the animal to make loud, resonating calls or songs.

• The siamang also has long, dense, shaggy hair which is the darkest shade of all gibbons. The ape has long, gangling arms that are longer than their legs. The average length of a siamang is 90cm, but the largest they have ever grown is 1 meter 50 cm. The face of this large gibbon is mostly hairless apart from a thin mustache.

SCIENCE ASPECTS -BIOLOGY

Birth of the SiamangSiamang mates usually stay together for life. They are fully grown and able to reproduce at 5-7 years old. Female siamangs are pregnant for about 8 months and usually have a single baby at a time; twins are rare. Newborn siamangs have much less hair than adult siamangs. Babies weigh only about 6 ounces at birth. This is less than the weight of a cup of water!

• Female siamangs carefully nurture their young. Babies can grasp their mother's fur to cling to the mother's belly soon after birth. They are weaned at about 1 year old. Young siamangs stay with their mother for about 5-7 years. The young then venture out (or are forced out by the same-sex parent) to start a new family group of their own.Siamangs live about 35-40 years.

HOW THE SIAMANGs can SURVIVE IN THE HOT WEATHER :

• In the dry season, the size of the siamang's daily range is larger than in the rainy season. The siamang in southern Sumatra undertakes less foraging than the siamang in other places because it eats more fruit and therefore consumes more nutrients, which results in less time needed for looking for food. Sometimes, the siamang will spend all of the day in one big fruiting tree, just moving out when it wants to rest and then coming back again to fruiting trees.

THE HABITAT OF SIAMANG :• The siamang inhabits the forest remnants of Sumatra Island and t

he Malay Peninsula, and is widely distributed from lowland forest to montane forest—even a rainforest—and can be found at altitudes of up to 3800 m.

SIAMANG IN GROUPS The siamang lives in groups of up to six individuals (four individual

s on average) with an average home range of 23 hectares.Unlike other apes, siamangs and gibbons do not make "sleeping nests." They simply sleep (alone or with a few individuals huddled together) in a fork between branches. They sleep sitting upright, resting on tough pads located on their rear ends.

VALUES ASPECTS

TWO CHARACTERISTICS : LOYALTY ：• Siamang is loyal. As they are one of the few animals known to

form permanent pairs.Siamang mates usually stay together for life. So we think siamang is very loyal to their partner.

• We choose loyal as one of the characteristics is because we think loyal is a very important characteristic in todays society.

RESPONSIBILITY :• Siamang is responsible. As female siamang will car

efully nurture their young and young siamang will be taken care by their mother for about 5-7 years. So we think the female siamangs are very responsible for their young.

• We choose responsibility as one of the characteristics is because responsibility is an value that we need to have in order to really get people's trust and respect.

NATIONAL EDUCATION ASPECTS

WE HAVE CONFIDENCE IN OUR FUTURE. UNITED,DETERMINED AND WELL-PREPARED,WE HAVE WHAT IT TAKE

S TO BUILD A BRIGHT FUTURE FOR OURSELVES,AND TO PROGRESS TOGETHER AS ONE NATION.

HARDSHIPS : -The siamang, as an arboreal primate, absolutely depends on the

forest for existence, so is facing a population decrease due to habitat loss, poaching and hunting.These illegal activities devastated the remaining tropical rainforest, especially in Sumatra.

-Siamangs are poached and hunted for the illegal pet trade, mostly for infant siamangs. Poachers often kill the mothers first, since siamang females are highly protective of their infants, and it is difficult to remove the infant without first killing the mother. Most siamangs on the market are infants, which often die during transportation.

Conservation : The siamang is known to occur in at least ten protected areas: Kerinci Sebla

t National Park, Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park, Gunung Leuser National Park, Way Kambas National Park and West Langkat Reserve in Indonesia, Fraser's Hill Reserve, Gunong Besout Forest Reserve, Krau Wildlife Reserve and Ulu Gombak Wildlife Reserve in Malaysia and the Hala Bala Wildlife Sanctuary in Thailand.

NO ONE OWES SINGAPORE A LIVING. WE FIND OUR OWN WAY TO SURVIVE AND PROSPER,TURNING CHALLENGE INTO OPPORTUNITY. HOW DOES SIAMANG ADAPTED ITSELF FOR SURVIVE :• Siamangs adapted to life on the tree as they travel through the rai

n forests by brachiation.They hangs from a branch by one hand while swinging its body around to allow the other hand to grasp the next handhold. Their extra-long arms help them cover up to 10 feet (3 meters) in a single swing. If they’re not swinging through the trees, they’re very likely walking along branches with their arms outstretched to help them keep their balance.

• The siamangs in southern Sumatra adapted to hot weather better than the siamang in other places because it eats more fruit and therefore consumes more nutrients, which results in less time needed for looking for food. Sometimes, the siamang will spend all of the day in one big fruiting tree, just moving out when it wants to rest and then coming back again to fruiting trees.

5 QUIZ QUESTIONS• The siamangs lived by it's own or in family grou

ps?• Where the siamangs lived?• How does the siamangs adapted the life on tre

es?• Why did the siamangs sing?• What does the siamang's throat pouch that ball

oons out acts as?

GROUP REFLECTION

- This learning trip to the zoo has helped our group members to know more about the animal that we research on. ~HANISAH

- We think that this learning trip is very useful as we really learned a lot of new things from it. ~ MEINI -By doing this science project,we have learned how to do Internet research. ~ZHEHAI -At first we don’t have confidence to finish this project as we did not find out much information about siamangs in the zoo. ~GERALDINE -Then,we try to find information about siamangs on the internet.In the end,we managed to finish this project on time by using the informations from the internet and our own explanations. ~HAZWAN -So we think this project is beneficial as it did not only helped us to learn more about siamangs,it also helped us to learn how to do internet reasearch. ~ZHENGDA

REFERENCES

• http://www.sandiegozoo.org/animalbytes/t-siamang.html

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siamang#Habitat_loss

• http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/apes/siamang/

THANK YOU