Singapore Zoo Singapore Zoo species list 2018

C

Calyptorhynchus

Well-Known Member
Just occurred to me that a complete review of the Singapore Zoo has not been posted, and we all know how much we all love a species list ;)!
So without further due:

The Singapore Zoo is located in the Mandai area, and it sits side by side to the River Safari (the newest WRS park and also the one with the lowest quality by most accounts) and the Night Safari.
It is surrounded by a nature reserve and generally it is themed as a rainforest park.
The zoo specializes in primates and in very open concept enclosures, and recently opened what is to me one of the best reptile houses around at the moment.
I'll divide the zoo in areas, more or less according to their map.

ENTRANCE AREA

Open Exhibit
Cotton-top Tamarin

Free-ranging primates
Ring-tailed Lemur
Brown Lemur
White-faced Saki

TREE TOPS TRAIL

Large island-style exhibit
Siamang
False Gharial

Smaller paddock on the right side
Greater Mousedeer

Small open exhibit connected to a lower pool with underwater view
Asian Small-clawed Otter

Bornean Exhibit (a large, glass-fronted aviary with a pond w/ underwater view)
Proboscis Monkey
Barking Deer
Sunda Oriental Pied Hornbill
Painted Terrapin
Red Arowana
Bala Shark
Clown Loach

Outside Pond
Giant Asian Pond Turtle
Arowana
 
Going straight at the Otters, you reach three island exhibits, surrounded by a common moat:

Gibbon Island (3 exhibits)
Buff-cheeked Gibbon
Black Spider-monkey
Red Ruffed Lemur

Great White Pelican

Opposite the last island is one of the zoo's most contentious exhibit, dedicated to polar animals.

Frozen Tundra (3 exhibits)
Polar Bear
Racoon Dog
Wolverine

Moving ahead, and having a glimpse at the free-ranging orangutans (described ahead), we enter:

Wild Africa (8 exhibits)
White Rhinoceros
Plain's Zebra / Black Wildebeest / Ostrich
Giraffe
African Hunting Dog
Cheetah
Desert Warthog
Meerkat
African Lion

Cat Country (4 exhibits)
Leopard
Naked Mole Rat (with a Ball Python small tank integrated)
Puma
 
Turning left to the slope after the puma, we find the most recent exhibit at the zoo, and by far the best one in my opinion - Reptopia. This replaces the old snake house and is mostly indoor, with large exhibits, well-themed and with glass dividers, giving you the impression of being even bigger.

Area 1 - Indo-pacific
Inside exhibits:
Reticulated Python / Burmese Python / Mangrove Snake
King Cobra
Fiji Banded Iguana / New Caledonia Giant Gecko
Green Tree Python / Whipsnake / Elephant Trunk Snake / Puff-faced Water Snake
Solomon Island Skink / Emerald Tree Monitor / Roti Island Snakenecked Turtle

Outside yards
Crocodile Monitor / Painted Terrapin / Fly River Turtle
Chinese Alligator / Chinese Stripe-necked Turtle / Chinese Box Turtle

Area 2 - Africa & Madagascar (7 exhibits)
Gaboon Viper
Ball Python
Giant Day Gecko
Forest Giant Scorpion
Meller's Chameleon
Panther Chameleon / Flat-shelled Spider Tortoise
Henkel's Leaf-tailed Gecko

Area 3 - South America
Outdoor aviary (walk-in)
Dwarf Caiman
Yellow-spotted River Turtle
Red-legged Tortoise
Green Iguana
Chanel-billed Toucan

Jewel Tanks (2 exhibits)
Eyelash Viper / Blue Poison Dart Frog
Giant Monkey Frog

Large exhibit w/ underwater view
Caiman Lizard / Matamata / Plumed Basilisk

Deserts of the World (5 exhibits)
Western Diamondback Rattlesnake / Gila Monster
Red-knee Tarantula
Bearded Dragon / Blue-tongue Skink / Shingleback Skink / Frilled Neck Lizard
Veiled Chameleon / Ornate Spiny-tailed Lizard / Hermann's Tortoise
Regal Horned Lizard

Hatchery (7 small exhibits)
Electric Blue Gecko (3 exhibits)
Big-eyed Viper
Blue Poison Dart Frog
Giant Monkey Frog
Ornate Spiny-tailed Lizard
 
Ref. to this list, Zoo Singapore is from a (at least) decend number of (african) antelope species obviously now down to only one (black or whitetailed wildebeest). What a shame! Remember that I have seen nyala, springbock, oryx, south african hartebeest, eland (among others) there.
Although some are (or might be) transfered to Night Safari, it is a loss for the zoo itself.
 
zoomaniac said:
Ref. to this list, Zoo Singapore is from a (at least) decend number of (african) antelope species obviously now down to only one (black or whitetailed wildebeest). What a shame! Remember that I have seen nyala, springbock, oryx, south african hartebeest, eland (among others) there.
Although some are (or might be) transfered to Night Safari, it is a loss for the zoo itself.
Click to expand...

Indeed, the Zoo and Night Safari have phased out many antelope species. Off the top of my head, over the years the Zoo or Night Safari have had the following species of antelope at one point or another:

Common eland
Greater kudu
Wildebeest
Cape hartebeest
Gemsbok
Blesbok
Bontebok
Springbok
Thomson's gazelle
Impala
Nile lechwe
Kafue lechwe
Red duiker
Blue duiker
Nilgai
Blackbuck

Of the 4 remaining species, only Nyala and Eastern Bongo are being bred at Night Safari, with a single Black wildebeest left at the Zoo and a single Scimitar-horned oryx left at Night Safari.
 
@Calyptorhynchus Thanks for starting this thread! There's a small pond with some Leopoldi freshwater stingray next to the Cotton-top tamarins at the Entrance. At Reptopia, it's the Parson's rather than Meller's chameleon, Redleg rather than Red-knee tarantula; the Deserts section also has Rough knob-tailed gecko, Hatchery has Crested gecko, and Aviary has False map turtles.
 
How sure are you that Singapore keeps Desert warthog and not ordinary Common warthog?
 
Zooish said:
They are Common warthogs, but the Zoo has always labelled them as Desert warthogs.
Click to expand...
I think this is to do with the split of warthogs into two species. The name used for the "whole" pre-split species was Phacochoerus aethiopicus. When they were split the Common Warthog became P. africanus and the Desert Warthog retained the original binomen.

I suspect that Singapore took note of the split but basically just replaced the common name (i.e. keeping aethiopicus as the scientific name and then therefore using Desert Warthog as the common name, rather than using the correct changed designation).

They did the same thing with their Babirusa when that species was split, keeping the "original" scientific name and changing the common name to fit that (i.e. Buru Babirusa, when in fact they have the standard northern B. celebensis).
 
Zooish said:
@Calyptorhynchus Thanks for starting this thread! There's a small pond with some Leopoldi freshwater stingray next to the Cotton-top tamarins at the Entrance. At Reptopia, it's the Parson's rather than Meller's chameleon, Redleg rather than Red-knee tarantula; the Deserts section also has Rough knob-tailed gecko, Hatchery has Crested gecko, and Aviary has False map turtles.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the amendments;). You are absolutely correct.
 
Zooish said:
Indeed, the Zoo and Night Safari have phased out many antelope species. Off the top of my head, over the years the Zoo or Night Safari have had the following species of antelope at one point or another:

Common eland
Greater kudu
Wildebeest
Cape hartebeest
Gemsbok
Blesbok
Bontebok
Springbok
Thomson's gazelle
Impala
Nile lechwe
Kafue lechwe
Red duiker
Blue duiker
Nilgai
Blackbuck

Of the 4 remaining species, only Nyala and Eastern Bongo are being bred at Night Safari, with a single Black wildebeest left at the Zoo and a single Scimitar-horned oryx left at Night Safari.
Click to expand...

It's indeed a shame, though I would say the zoo doesn't have that much space for large animals... but hopefully some will make their way back with the new masterplan. I hear the collections director is quite keen to bring in new species.
 
Fragile Forest

Together with Reptopia this has to be the best area in the zoo.
The place is broken up in three main components:

Entrance Room
With 6 tanks displaying:

Water scorpion
Tree Nymph
Dragon-headed Katydid / Rhinoceros Beetle
Pond Skater
Giant Toad
Malayan Horned Frog (with tadpoles in the water body)

Biodome
This is a walk-through aviary, that rivals those of Jurong in splendor. Not all species I saw were identified, so I may have missed a few ones:

Malayan Flying Fox
Lesser Mousedeer
Prevost's Squirrel
Variable Squirrel
Ring-tailed Lemur
White-faced Saki
Two-toed Sloth (needed a keeper's help for this one :-))

Red-sided Eclectus
Red Lory
Great Argus
Malay Peacock-pheasant
Baer's Pochard
White-winged Wood-duck
Carolina Wood Duck
Spotted Whistling Duck
Chinese Hwamei
Toco Toucan
Common Crowned Pigeon (some were hybrids)
Nicobar Pigeon
Pied Imperial Pigeon
Green Imperial Pigeon
Pinon Imperial Pigeon
Peruvian Pigeon
Bruce's Green Pigeon
Zebra Dove

Green Iguana
Red-bellied Short-necked Turtle
Fly River Turtle

Leopoldi (?) Stingray

In the airlock there is a pair of Golden Lion Tamarins and some Butterflies.

Discovery Outpost

This is an interactive area, with many invert tanks and a window that can open, where keepers talk to visitors and some inverts are used to hold and touch. I didn't get a species list but there were LOTS of tarantulas, including a Gooty Ornamental, some butterfly pupae, Stick insects, Madagscar Cockroaches, and many many more.

Before exiting there is a small mangrove tank with
Hermir Crab
Archer Fish
Half-beak
Cardinal Fish
 
Once you go out of the Fragile Forest, you find two glass-fronted small aviaries, that face the tram station. These look really good and are home to some calitrichids:

Red-bellied Tamarin
Goeld's Monkey / Pygmy Marmoset

Behind there is another glass-fronted exhibit, home to a female group of

Proboscis Monkey

Moving forward, one finds two open exhibits, surrounded by a moat. The smallest one has:
Mandril

and the largest one has a nice family group of:
Chimpanzee
 
Just realized I totally dropped this mid-way :eek:!

Anyway, I'll skip the children's zoo (called Rainforest Kidzworld), as it was pretty lame and is apparently now undergoing some renovations, and will move to a new location sometime next year.

After the Chimps, you come across a crocodile exhibit (Sungei Buoya), where two exhibits with underwater viewing display:

Estuarine Crocodile
False Gharial

Up the slope, you return to the reptile area, this time the Reptile Gardens. This is not as up-to-date as the new reptopia, but still have some very cool species:

Small pond on the left side of the slope
Indian Gharial
Southern River Terrapin

Tortoise Shell-ter (the former small mammal house)
Elongated Tortoise / Clouded Monitor
Leopard Tortoise / White-throated Monitor
Red-foot Tortoise / Black-and-white Tegu / Sun Conure
Indian Star Tortoise
Burmese Star Tortoise
Ploughshare Tortoise (:cool:)
Radiated Tortoise / Veiled Chameleon

Mid-size glass-fronted exhibit w/ a small pond
Indian Gharial
Brown Tortoise
Painted Terrapin

back-tracking a bit towards reptopia again, you find four open paddocks displaying:

Komodo Dragon (2 exhibits)
Aldabra Giant Tortoise (huge specimens)
Rhinoceros Iguana / African Spurred Tortoise
 
Calyptorhynchus said:
Anyway, I'll skip the children's zoo (called Rainforest Kidzworld), as it was pretty lame and is apparently now undergoing some renovations, and will move to a new location sometime next year.
Click to expand...

A new Kidzworld will be built at an adjacent smaller site opposite tram station 4. What's more exciting is what will take over the current 2-hectare Kidzworld site. If what I'm hearing is right, a new Asian elephant exhibit will be built there.
 
Calyptorhynchus said:
Once you go out of the Fragile Forest, you find two glass-fronted small aviaries, that face the tram station. These look really good and are home to some calitrichids:

Red-bellied Tamarin
Goeld's Monkey / Pygmy Marmoset

Behind there is another glass-fronted exhibit, home to a female group of

Proboscis Monkey
Click to expand...

The proboscis monkey collection will be consolidated to the exhibit near the Zoo entrance. The current proboscis monkey exhibit next to Fragile Forest will house Celebes crested macaques instead. Not sure what species will take over the existing macaque exhibit at Primate Kingdom.
 
Zooish said:
A new Kidzworld will be built at an adjacent smaller site opposite tram station 4. What's more exciting is what will take over the current 2-hectare Kidzworld site. If what I'm hearing is right, a new Asian elephant exhibit will be built there.
Click to expand...

Yes, there was a plan to develop a 'Giants of Sundaland' project, involving the family of female Asian elephants, greater Asian rhinoceros and Malayan tapir.

Its design would have been reminiscent of Denver Zoo's 'Asian Tropics', tho with much more foliage and savannah-like immersion for the guests, almost like a simulation of the Kaziranga floodplain.

Sadly, I think it has since been dropped.
 
Last edited:
Calyptorhynchus said:
Fragile Forest

Together with Reptopia this has to be the best area in the zoo.
The place is broken up in three main components:

Entrance Room
With 6 tanks displaying:

Water scorpion
Tree Nymph
Dragon-headed Katydid / Rhinoceros Beetle
Pond Skater
Giant Toad
Malayan Horned Frog (with tadpoles in the water body)

Biodome
This is a walk-through aviary, that rivals those of Jurong in splendor. Not all species I saw were identified, so I may have missed a few ones:

Malayan Flying Fox
Lesser Mousedeer
Prevost's Squirrel
Variable Squirrel
Ring-tailed Lemur
White-faced Saki
Two-toed Sloth (needed a keeper's help for this one :))

Red-sided Eclectus
Red Lory
Great Argus
Malay Peacock-pheasant
Baer's Pochard
White-winged Wood-duck
Carolina Wood Duck
Spotted Whistling Duck
Chinese Hwamei
Toco Toucan
Common Crowned Pigeon (some were hybrids)
Nicobar Pigeon
Pied Imperial Pigeon
Green Imperial Pigeon
Pinon Imperial Pigeon
Peruvian Pigeon
Bruce's Green Pigeon
Zebra Dove

Green Iguana
Red-bellied Short-necked Turtle
Fly River Turtle

Leopoldi (?) Stingray

In the airlock there is a pair of Golden Lion Tamarins and some Butterflies.

Discovery Outpost

This is an interactive area, with many invert tanks and a window that can open, where keepers talk to visitors and some inverts are used to hold and touch. I didn't get a species list but there were LOTS of tarantulas, including a Gooty Ornamental, some butterfly pupae, Stick insects, Madagscar Cockroaches, and many many more.

Before exiting there is a small mangrove tank with
Hermir Crab
Archer Fish
Half-beak
Cardinal Fish
Click to expand...

Riverine stingrays in the Fragile Forest's pond are Potamotrygon motoro.

Exact species in the mangrove riparium include:

Hermit crab: Coenobita perlatus
Sesarmidae: Episesarma spp. (?)
Halfbeaks: Zenarchopterus buffonis
Archers: Toxotes jaculatrix, T. chatareus (?)
Cardinalfish: Sphaeramia orbicularis
Monodactylidae: Monodactylus argenteus
Scatophagidae: Scatophagus argus
Acanthuridae: Acanthurus triostegus(?)

Formerly, turtles were also present:
Malaclemys terrapin (1.1)
 
Shaun_Casuarius said:
Yes, there was a plan to develop a 'Giants of Sundaland' project, involving the family of female Asian elephants, greater Asian rhinoceros and Malayan tapir.

Its design would have been reminiscent of Denver Zoo's 'Asian Tropics', tho with much more foliage and savannah-like immersion for the guests, almost like a simulation of the Kaziranga floodplain.

Sadly, I think it has since been dropped.
Click to expand...

Interesting. I don't think it has been dropped completely. The plan is still to build a new Asian elephant exhibit at the current Kidzworld site, after the new Kidzworld is ready (which is still some time away as i understand the design has yet to be finalised).

The Indian rhinos will get their own new exhibit at Night Safari soon. And the plan is to convert a large section of Night Safari's West Loop into a concept similar to "Giants of Sundaland", minus rhinos.
 
Zooish said:
Interesting. I don't think it has been dropped completely. The plan is still to build a new Asian elephant exhibit at the current Kidzworld site, after the new Kidzworld is ready (which is still some time away as i understand the design has yet to be finalised).

The Indian rhinos will get their own new exhibit at Night Safari soon. And the plan is to convert a large section of Night Safari's West Loop into a concept similar to "Giants of Sundaland", minus rhinos.
Click to expand...
Sounds awesome!

Yea, I rmb Dr Cheng mentioning the conversion of the Night Safari's Cape giraffe habitat into one suitable for Indian rhinos.

Appreciate the update. Really looking forward to the west loop's future development!
 
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