That's totally fine, feel free to do so! I do actually have a question - have you been to the new primate complex that's opened since I went, and how was that? Have there been other developments since summer 2023?
Amur leopard's Summer travels
That's totally fine, feel free to do so! I do actually have a question - have you been to the new primate complex that's opened since I went, and how was that? Have there been other developments since summer 2023?
BangBang_KOR
New Member
Thank you for permission!
Actually last year's primate pavilion construction was more like an upgrade for walkways and office spaces. There were only minimal changes in exhibits - improvement for viewing glass, flooring, lighting and indoor exhibit, additional shades, etc. A long-term plan to renovate the place does exist but it isn't the very next on the list.
For now, construction of jaguar's new home is in the early stages. It will be placed in the outdoor area of South American Pavilion. Unfortunately, the puma passed away last year and I guess the zoo have chosen to focus on jaguar from now on instead of bringing another puma in.
Figured I'd chuck this in this thread as it doesn't really warrant a separate one, but here are my thoughts on Lisbon Zoo and the Oceanario.
Lisbon Zoo
I found it a very frustrating visit. Nothing there struck me as particularly well done except the Iberian lynx complex, which was ironically too good (for the animals) in that you have practically no chance of seeing the lynxes. In the same mini-complex is an immense, thickly-planted exhibit for rabbits with no clear viewing points - similarly, the animals are all but impossible to see. The signage was great and informational, but surely this is an issue they could have foreseen? Putting one of the most elusive animals on Earth in an exhibit where a tiger would be hard to find is obviously not going to make for the best visitor experience. Formerly they had a CCTV stream with cameras showing the indoor quarters and the far reaches of the enclosure (yes, it is that big), but that's been taken down for whatever reason. So basically the odds of seeing a lynx are incredibly slim and it's virtually a waste of time to visit if that's your only objective, unless you want to spend a couple of hours hallucinating a little grey spotty cat in thick woodland.
The rest of the zoo isn't very good, but for different reasons. Swathes of it are pretty middling enclosures, many of which are definitely on the small side but seem passable. Then there's a central core which is just largely barren cages for parrots and monkeys. Then as you walk around you see all your ABCs in enclosures that are about a third or a fifth the size you'd normally see them in. The tiger complex (and I guess the ape complex too, although it hasn't escaped from the manicured lawn + climbing structure combo) are decent, but are soured slightly by poor indoors and the ever present temple theming.
The reptile house is the real low-point though. Entering, you get a tiny tank for piranhas, and then three empty tanks in a row. As it happens it would probably be better if things were that way throughout because it's mostly pretty grim stuff. What you notice throughout is that the reptiles are in dark grotto exhibits, which might be ok if there was any sort of furnishing/greenery but instead it's just mock rock. The alligator pool was fine but other than that pretty much every terrarium was poor. The high-point was a terrapin pool which was massively overstocked and with not enough land area to fit all the turtles.
All in all, probably don't visit unless there's a species you absolutely want to see. And if that species is the Iberian lynx, then probably still don't visit (for the aforementioned reasons). Really don't have much good to say about this zoo - it has a cable car? Was closed on my visit though. It's also pretty expensive, 30 euros for a ticket. Get a really nice meal instead, Portuguese food is great.
Oceanario de Lisboa
This was a much better facility. It works in a similar-ish way to Osaka - you go to the top and then work your way down around a big central tank, with multiple peripheral tanks for other animals. It's a great system, and another little perk is that there are windows between the peripheral tanks and the main open ocean one, so you'll see large sharks swimming in the background of the reef tank for example.
Main tank has the Ocean sunfish, plus an above average lineup of cool rays, guitarfish, large sharks and barracuda), and a couple of sizeable schools of smaller fish too. It's well designed, with no cross-viewing and lighting. As you go around it you hit multilevel exhibits for seabirds (puffins, guillemots and oystercatchers with a deep pool with large fish), sea otters (very sweet), and a reef exhibit, plus a bunch of smaller tanks with flatfish, ratfish, anemones and so on. It's a lovely set up.
The one issue is the signage. For such a high profile aquarium, it's really bad if I'm honest. I understand that when you have tanks with many species you don't necessarily want to flood the surroundings with LED signs, but far too many times there were tanks with 20+ species having only a single species signed (and much of the time this was an apparently completely random choice of which would be signed - tank with a massive moray eel and several more large fish species only had a seastar signed...).
Overall, far better than the zoo, half wish I'd gone to Oceanario and Vasco de Gama instead, as I've heard good things.
Lisbon Zoo
I found it a very frustrating visit. Nothing there struck me as particularly well done except the Iberian lynx complex, which was ironically too good (for the animals) in that you have practically no chance of seeing the lynxes. In the same mini-complex is an immense, thickly-planted exhibit for rabbits with no clear viewing points - similarly, the animals are all but impossible to see. The signage was great and informational, but surely this is an issue they could have foreseen? Putting one of the most elusive animals on Earth in an exhibit where a tiger would be hard to find is obviously not going to make for the best visitor experience. Formerly they had a CCTV stream with cameras showing the indoor quarters and the far reaches of the enclosure (yes, it is that big), but that's been taken down for whatever reason. So basically the odds of seeing a lynx are incredibly slim and it's virtually a waste of time to visit if that's your only objective, unless you want to spend a couple of hours hallucinating a little grey spotty cat in thick woodland.
The rest of the zoo isn't very good, but for different reasons. Swathes of it are pretty middling enclosures, many of which are definitely on the small side but seem passable. Then there's a central core which is just largely barren cages for parrots and monkeys. Then as you walk around you see all your ABCs in enclosures that are about a third or a fifth the size you'd normally see them in. The tiger complex (and I guess the ape complex too, although it hasn't escaped from the manicured lawn + climbing structure combo) are decent, but are soured slightly by poor indoors and the ever present temple theming.
The reptile house is the real low-point though. Entering, you get a tiny tank for piranhas, and then three empty tanks in a row. As it happens it would probably be better if things were that way throughout because it's mostly pretty grim stuff. What you notice throughout is that the reptiles are in dark grotto exhibits, which might be ok if there was any sort of furnishing/greenery but instead it's just mock rock. The alligator pool was fine but other than that pretty much every terrarium was poor. The high-point was a terrapin pool which was massively overstocked and with not enough land area to fit all the turtles.
All in all, probably don't visit unless there's a species you absolutely want to see. And if that species is the Iberian lynx, then probably still don't visit (for the aforementioned reasons). Really don't have much good to say about this zoo - it has a cable car? Was closed on my visit though. It's also pretty expensive, 30 euros for a ticket. Get a really nice meal instead, Portuguese food is great.
Oceanario de Lisboa
This was a much better facility. It works in a similar-ish way to Osaka - you go to the top and then work your way down around a big central tank, with multiple peripheral tanks for other animals. It's a great system, and another little perk is that there are windows between the peripheral tanks and the main open ocean one, so you'll see large sharks swimming in the background of the reef tank for example.
Main tank has the Ocean sunfish, plus an above average lineup of cool rays, guitarfish, large sharks and barracuda), and a couple of sizeable schools of smaller fish too. It's well designed, with no cross-viewing and lighting. As you go around it you hit multilevel exhibits for seabirds (puffins, guillemots and oystercatchers with a deep pool with large fish), sea otters (very sweet), and a reef exhibit, plus a bunch of smaller tanks with flatfish, ratfish, anemones and so on. It's a lovely set up.
The one issue is the signage. For such a high profile aquarium, it's really bad if I'm honest. I understand that when you have tanks with many species you don't necessarily want to flood the surroundings with LED signs, but far too many times there were tanks with 20+ species having only a single species signed (and much of the time this was an apparently completely random choice of which would be signed - tank with a massive moray eel and several more large fish species only had a seastar signed...).
Overall, far better than the zoo, half wish I'd gone to Oceanario and Vasco de Gama instead, as I've heard good things.
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Hi everyone,
By a fairly substantial stroke of luck I will find myself in Singapore very shortly (tomorrow) for over two months! While the majority of the time will be taken up by work, I will likely still have lots of opportunities to get out and visit various places on the island in search of wildlife (and, of course, good food). It's been a place that I've wanted to visit for years now, as I'm sure is the case with many on this forum, so when the chance arose, it was hard to pass up!
I'll be loosely documenting my travels on here, with particular focus on of course the wildlife as a priority, plus the Mandai parks and the new additions to the SEA aquarium. A great deal of planning has gone into the wildlife side of things, and I've been lucky enough to be able to ask a number of people both on here and beyond for advice - thanks in particular to @Giant Eland for some invaluable tips regarding my mammal targets!
Almost all of the species that I will see will be new to me, but there are some in particular that I want to have a good go at finding, and will definitely document my efforts here! Langurs, various kingfishers and darters are all very high up on my list, but there's other, potentially even more exciting possibilities along the way!
As a general point, I'd love to meet up with anyone (over 18) on here based over there (or happening to be there simultaneously)!
Hopefully I'll have my first proper outing and post up at some point in the next few days!
By a fairly substantial stroke of luck I will find myself in Singapore very shortly (tomorrow) for over two months! While the majority of the time will be taken up by work, I will likely still have lots of opportunities to get out and visit various places on the island in search of wildlife (and, of course, good food). It's been a place that I've wanted to visit for years now, as I'm sure is the case with many on this forum, so when the chance arose, it was hard to pass up!
I'll be loosely documenting my travels on here, with particular focus on of course the wildlife as a priority, plus the Mandai parks and the new additions to the SEA aquarium. A great deal of planning has gone into the wildlife side of things, and I've been lucky enough to be able to ask a number of people both on here and beyond for advice - thanks in particular to @Giant Eland for some invaluable tips regarding my mammal targets!
Almost all of the species that I will see will be new to me, but there are some in particular that I want to have a good go at finding, and will definitely document my efforts here! Langurs, various kingfishers and darters are all very high up on my list, but there's other, potentially even more exciting possibilities along the way!
As a general point, I'd love to meet up with anyone (over 18) on here based over there (or happening to be there simultaneously)!
Hopefully I'll have my first proper outing and post up at some point in the next few days!
Prochilodus246
Well-Known Member
I hope you enjoy your time in Singapore, hopefully you find the work you're doing over there just as fascinating as the wildlife as it sounded very interesting when you and I chatted about it.
Singapore is pretty great, but the island is quite small. If you ever get the chance, I'd definitely reccomend going across the border to Malaysia as well, really great wildlife to be found between both. Feel free to dm me for more info. I found all three of your listed target groups in Singapore, but probably not all the kingfisher species you are targeting. Have fun!
Day 1
Landed in Singapore at about 6am. Flight was overall good, but mostly because of the movies rather than the food if I'm honest. Most airports upon arrival you walk quite a prescribed route to passport checks, then have a little more freedom - in Changi you can take any number of shuttles and doors to various terminals before even reaching the checks. Having said this, it's a spectacular airport for the most part.
Once I was past the initial confusion upon arrival, it was mostly very cool. As it was very early it did feel a little like a ghost town but the whole place is absolutely spotless. The floor is quite literally shining. I could see my reflection in it at times. The bathrooms are similarly a pretty sleek experience. Interestingly in Singapore there seems to be a theme of there being a row of sinks at adult height and then a much lowered sink for kids. Very thoughtful stuff, I still remember the tribulations of sinks at head height. The airport is also covered in greenery, with the walls of at least two of the terminals partially covered in bromeliads and climbing plants, and of course the Jewel hall with its waterfall (not operational at that time) and forest. It's a very cool airport.
In Singapore the metro is called the MRT, so that's how I'll be referring to it from now on. Having wandered around the airport for a while, it was time to head into town. MRT stations are, you guessed it, also spotless. In the busier ones, they have ushers to direct people and help with inquiries. Every station is spacious and airy, comparable to maybe some of the larger stations on the Elizabeth Line in London for those who are familiar with them. Every single one is like this. The signage is clear, the payment system is intuitive and easy, the trains are clean (unsurprisingly, given the fine for eating or drinking on one is 500 SGD (about 400 USD or 300 GBP). Durian is also banned, somewhat understandably for anyone who has been in the vicinity of one. It's a fairly cheap system relative that of London or Paris too.
The rest of the day was largely devoted to sorting out my stuff and organising myself a little. Was pretty tired as I hadn't slept since early the previous day, but had to hold out until a relatively normal bedtime to not mess up the sleep schedule. Also had a little whistlestop tour of the food around town, and sorted out my eSIM.
Day 2
This was my first day of visiting the city proper. I started with a trip to the Botanic Gardens. These are pretty lovely - its a very large park, with multiple different zones. The one of greatest interest to me was the Rainforest area, which is pretty much a patch of forest with a boardwalk through it. As I was visiting pretty much in the middle of the day, it wasn't at its most lively (I'm hoping), but I still saw a fair few new species. In addition to the common ones, saw Red-legged crakes here, which was a very nice surprise, plus Slender squirrels.
The gardens as a whole are a bit odd too - a big portion of them are carefully manicured lawns with little robot lawnmowers all over the place, and then there's areas like the rainforest which are largely untouched. The result is some lovely vistas, some wilder places and then some bits that look straight out of a Bond movie to be honest, but it makes a nice ensemble. The orchid garden is (I think) the only paying bit of the garden, and is undoubtedly spectacular, with apparently the largest collection of tropical orchids in the world and some huge or highly rare specimens. It's well worth the visit, although prices are three times higher for foreigners and five times higher for non-students.
Next I took the MRT up to a place called Singapore Quarry. By and large it's a pretty spectacular place, with possibility of kingfishers, fish eagles and even eagle owls of late. However, I saw none of these as I was visiting in the middle of the day and pretty loud construction was happening in the tree the owl normally hangs out in. Oh well. Now's probably a good time to mention that if visiting Singapore for birding, it pays to join a few of the birding groups, as people post live updates with locations and even advice on which lens to bring, plus general advice for individual species, and the community is very welcoming.
I did, however, see bee eaters, a couple of sunbirds, plus swiftlets. I then walked North for a while to Dairy Farm Nature reserve. While the walk between the two is on a really wide path, (given the size of the vehicles that used to go to the quarry), the paths in the nature reserve are far more narrow. Here I saw wild boar, a startling experience for both of us really, plus some little ones.
Later on, I headed down to the business district. The CBD is quite impressive. The buildings within are much taller than, say, in London, but none are showy or tall for the sake of it. There are quite a few examples of interesting architecture both among the skyscrapers and more generally in the Marina area. the most poignant and famous example perhaps is the three 'pillared' Marina Bay Sands, which was (at least to me) unexpectedly huge and structurally impressive. The sheer affluence of parts of the city is pretty astounding. I'm pretty sure Singapore has the most malls of any city I've ever been to, as three days in I've been in at least twelve and it seems like there's one every block. It's also a city that is constantly in flux. While the CBD has little more room to grow within its borders, construction is ubiquitous around the island, and many of the developments are relatively recent.
I grabbed something to eat in the Marina Link mall and then had a walk all through the MBS complex, Gardens by the Bay and across the marina to the Eastern side, which I only reached as the sun was setting. This part of the bay is said to be pretty bird-rich, but I pretty much only saw three species (tern, pipit and sea eagle) and none of it seemed particularly conducive to bird life, but I'll give it a second chance later. It does give beautiful views over the bay though, and out into the straits which are packed with tankers and cargo ships, so would recommend either way. And finally capped off the evening with happening onto the supertree light show in the gardens (shown below for those who aren't familiar).
Next up is the zoo and night safari.
Landed in Singapore at about 6am. Flight was overall good, but mostly because of the movies rather than the food if I'm honest. Most airports upon arrival you walk quite a prescribed route to passport checks, then have a little more freedom - in Changi you can take any number of shuttles and doors to various terminals before even reaching the checks. Having said this, it's a spectacular airport for the most part.
Once I was past the initial confusion upon arrival, it was mostly very cool. As it was very early it did feel a little like a ghost town but the whole place is absolutely spotless. The floor is quite literally shining. I could see my reflection in it at times. The bathrooms are similarly a pretty sleek experience. Interestingly in Singapore there seems to be a theme of there being a row of sinks at adult height and then a much lowered sink for kids. Very thoughtful stuff, I still remember the tribulations of sinks at head height. The airport is also covered in greenery, with the walls of at least two of the terminals partially covered in bromeliads and climbing plants, and of course the Jewel hall with its waterfall (not operational at that time) and forest. It's a very cool airport.
In Singapore the metro is called the MRT, so that's how I'll be referring to it from now on. Having wandered around the airport for a while, it was time to head into town. MRT stations are, you guessed it, also spotless. In the busier ones, they have ushers to direct people and help with inquiries. Every station is spacious and airy, comparable to maybe some of the larger stations on the Elizabeth Line in London for those who are familiar with them. Every single one is like this. The signage is clear, the payment system is intuitive and easy, the trains are clean (unsurprisingly, given the fine for eating or drinking on one is 500 SGD (about 400 USD or 300 GBP). Durian is also banned, somewhat understandably for anyone who has been in the vicinity of one. It's a fairly cheap system relative that of London or Paris too.
The rest of the day was largely devoted to sorting out my stuff and organising myself a little. Was pretty tired as I hadn't slept since early the previous day, but had to hold out until a relatively normal bedtime to not mess up the sleep schedule. Also had a little whistlestop tour of the food around town, and sorted out my eSIM.
Day 2
This was my first day of visiting the city proper. I started with a trip to the Botanic Gardens. These are pretty lovely - its a very large park, with multiple different zones. The one of greatest interest to me was the Rainforest area, which is pretty much a patch of forest with a boardwalk through it. As I was visiting pretty much in the middle of the day, it wasn't at its most lively (I'm hoping), but I still saw a fair few new species. In addition to the common ones, saw Red-legged crakes here, which was a very nice surprise, plus Slender squirrels.
The gardens as a whole are a bit odd too - a big portion of them are carefully manicured lawns with little robot lawnmowers all over the place, and then there's areas like the rainforest which are largely untouched. The result is some lovely vistas, some wilder places and then some bits that look straight out of a Bond movie to be honest, but it makes a nice ensemble. The orchid garden is (I think) the only paying bit of the garden, and is undoubtedly spectacular, with apparently the largest collection of tropical orchids in the world and some huge or highly rare specimens. It's well worth the visit, although prices are three times higher for foreigners and five times higher for non-students.
Next I took the MRT up to a place called Singapore Quarry. By and large it's a pretty spectacular place, with possibility of kingfishers, fish eagles and even eagle owls of late. However, I saw none of these as I was visiting in the middle of the day and pretty loud construction was happening in the tree the owl normally hangs out in. Oh well. Now's probably a good time to mention that if visiting Singapore for birding, it pays to join a few of the birding groups, as people post live updates with locations and even advice on which lens to bring, plus general advice for individual species, and the community is very welcoming.
I did, however, see bee eaters, a couple of sunbirds, plus swiftlets. I then walked North for a while to Dairy Farm Nature reserve. While the walk between the two is on a really wide path, (given the size of the vehicles that used to go to the quarry), the paths in the nature reserve are far more narrow. Here I saw wild boar, a startling experience for both of us really, plus some little ones.
Later on, I headed down to the business district. The CBD is quite impressive. The buildings within are much taller than, say, in London, but none are showy or tall for the sake of it. There are quite a few examples of interesting architecture both among the skyscrapers and more generally in the Marina area. the most poignant and famous example perhaps is the three 'pillared' Marina Bay Sands, which was (at least to me) unexpectedly huge and structurally impressive. The sheer affluence of parts of the city is pretty astounding. I'm pretty sure Singapore has the most malls of any city I've ever been to, as three days in I've been in at least twelve and it seems like there's one every block. It's also a city that is constantly in flux. While the CBD has little more room to grow within its borders, construction is ubiquitous around the island, and many of the developments are relatively recent.
I grabbed something to eat in the Marina Link mall and then had a walk all through the MBS complex, Gardens by the Bay and across the marina to the Eastern side, which I only reached as the sun was setting. This part of the bay is said to be pretty bird-rich, but I pretty much only saw three species (tern, pipit and sea eagle) and none of it seemed particularly conducive to bird life, but I'll give it a second chance later. It does give beautiful views over the bay though, and out into the straits which are packed with tankers and cargo ships, so would recommend either way. And finally capped off the evening with happening onto the supertree light show in the gardens (shown below for those who aren't familiar).
Next up is the zoo and night safari.
Attachments
Day 3
While my morning and lunch were elsewhere, I had practically the whole afternoon free and as such decided it was high time I go to Mandai. The site is fairly easily accessible although it takes a fair bit of time from the city centre. On arrival, I was struck by the scale of the project. The infrastructure across the two zoos I visited yesterday was far, far beyond any zoo I've visited up to this point, and has to be the most impressive of any zoo(s) in the world. It doesn't feel like anywhere else would be able to, or feel the need to, go to such lengths. Having said this there's still work being done on the area and it did feel at times as if signage was slightly haphazard - hopefully on completion this will be better.
Singapore Zoo
The zoo was a pretty strange experience for me. It can be vaguely split into three big loops, so I'll break it down starting from the left and working my way rightwards.
Australasia is, for the most part, nice enough, but I don't understand some of the design choices if I'm honest. It starts with your fairly typical kangaroo walkthrough. The zone has two species of cassowary, which is pretty cool, but the Northern cassowaries are in a pretty exposed pen about ten metres from the visitor walkway in the walkthrough. I don't really understand what this achieves though - it's not great for the birds as they have no privacy and not much space, and not great for visitors either as the cassowary is always going to be pretty far. The Southern cassowary exhibit is as far as I could tell separated from the tree kangaroo outdoors by a narrow moat, and is too small if I interpreted its boundaries correctly. on the flip side, the tree kangaroo exhibits, indoor and out, are both great. A mixed bag I guess.
The elephant exhibit is, for a zoo that is typically regarded in the uppermost echelons, poor. It's probably worse than the Berlin Zoo exhibit to be honest, so I am very glad a new one is being built on a larger site, and hope that less space is taken up by an exorbitant pool. Not much more to say about it. An enclosed, part-time access rainforest area of the new exhibit like in Seoul would work brilliantly I think.
I recognise that's a fairly critical start to the review, but onto something good. Primate Kingdom is outstanding. In stark contrast to the elephant exhibit, it's a strong reminder of why Singapore is so highly regarded. The douc langur exhibit in particular is stellar and I couldn't have asked for a better (non wild) setting to see them for the first time. The other islands are similarly excellent. It mostly holds true throughout that the zoo's primate exhibits are up there with the best. To cap it all off, a Stork-billed kingfisher was loitering around the moats of the islands; a very cool bird indeed.
Next to Primate Kingdom is the Rift Valley exhibit. Safe to say I'm a fan of that one as well. Good vision, great execution, and the baboons are really great for it. Cologne could certainly learn from it. I didn't see the ibex, but there was more than enough spectacle from the one species. Next door are servals (in a passable enclosure), hyrax and cusimanse. Overall a high standard, very impressive.
Next to that is a sort of semi-aquatic animals area 'headlined' by Pygmy hippos. Good underwater viewing, but the land area was far too small from what I remember, and very little in the way of privacy. Next door are Chinese alligators, False gharial and Siamese crocodiles. Not sure about these exhibits either, but then again I don't know what the crocodilian stance on privacy is. Still too small for the two larger species though.
Next, the bottom middle loop. Treetops trail is the first exhibit you pass through on entry and is outstanding. Gibbons in huge trees, and a huge False Gharial in a large expanse of water below. Unquestionably excellent. Then a couple of suid enclosures which are largely middling, anoa-in-Berlin-type exhibits. Was lovely to see bearded pigs again though. The tiger exhibit is ok, not sure how old it is but it again reminded me of a slightly better version of Berlin's when it has the potential to be so much more. The other gibbon and lemur exhibits in this area are fine. The animal playground exhibit on the other side of the path seems a little random, which the not terribly contiguous three-species lineup of Fennec fox, Malayan water monitor and African penguin. Couldn't find the penguin exhibit easily, but the exhibits for the other two were pretty good, especially the monitor.
My favourite exhibit in the whole zoo was probably the Proboscis monkey exhibit. This has been said before but it's so well executed, with a sort of triphasic concept. In the water are arowanas and clown loaches, on the ground is Southern red muntjac and above them are the monkeys. They're very cool-looking animals with the strange morphology very much not limited to the nose.
The third and final loop begins with the Wild Africa zone. This is mostly ok, with nothing outstanding and some exhibits very borderline. The leopard exhibit is poor. The lion exhibit is fine but nothing special. Giraffes, rhinos and zebras (plus red river hogs and marabou) all in the same sort of enclosure that is, again fine but nothing more. And cheetah and wild dogs exhibited similarly. The fossa exhibit is definitely a step up though.
Next to it is Fragile Forest. This is mostly brilliant. The Santa Cruz ground doves are everywhere and so inquisitive - my new favourite dove/pigeon. Visiting this exhibit towards the end of the day was for me the best time - the viewing platform at the summit was crowded with an iguana on the floor, a sloth and a red ruffed lemur on the barriers and a multitude of flying foxes just inches away. Finlayson's squirrels and the chachalacas were also around. The rest of the aviary is nicely done but the mix is slightly odd. There are then terrariums on either side of the aviary, which are typically of high quality, plus a mangrove tank for Freshwater moray and archerfish. Overall, well executed but maybe lacked a clear focus? Only criticism.
Above that are more primate exhibits. I'll have to revisit these as I didn't give them too much time, but seemed to generally be of high quality. Below is the reptile area. If I'm completely honest, I didn't particularly like it, and I'm not entirely sure why. Part of it is the three-side glass fronted exhibits. I also didn't really understand the vision - there's the tortoise shelter area, but the giant tortoises are elsewhere, there's a crocodile monitor enclosure and a huge snake-necked turtle exhibit tacked onto the side of the Reptopia building (both of which were brilliant, by the way) but then the rest of the outdoor exhibits are elsewhere, multiple exits and it's all a bit of a maze. There's also an ok Sun bear exhibit next door. I'm assuming it's a product of the different parts of the area being built at different times and the vision changing over time, but don't know enough on that to make a judgement. The gharial exhibit is great though - deep pool and the Southern river turtles are (as in Prague, but with the Northern ones) the stars of the show.
The orangutan exhibit is a bit of a weird case, and I want to understand a bit better before reaching a conclusion. Of course the situation for the younger Sumatrans (I think?) is brilliant and innovative. Seeing orangs moving around like that high up is very special. The older ones have a fairly normal island, nothing special. But I don't understand which species are where. Is the indoor exhibit where the Bornean male is the only Bornean orang in the zoo, and if so does he have an outdoors? If the ones outside are Bornean, where are the Sumatran? Either way, the high line type idea is great and is a far better recreation of orang habitat than I've seen elsewhere.
That brings the review to a close. My photos of exhibits are pretty sparse, so I'd recommend looking at photos by snowleopard and others in the gallery, as the zoo is very comprehensively documented of course.
Hopefully this is a fair evaluation of the individual parts, I know I've been fairly critical in places but some bits didn't sit quite right. The overall atmosphere is lovely, the intact rainforest throughout the zoo is a pleasure to see and the wild birds very much form part of the experience. Didn't spot any colugos although that's probably my fault more than anything as I only remembered to look for them halfway through anyway.
Overall, Singapore Zoo is of course a very good zoo, with some outstanding exhibits, several of which are likely the best for their species anywhere. But I don't think it, in and of itself, compares to the best I've been to. Part of this is unavoidable - the virtual absence of birds besides the Fragile Forest exhibit (of course because of the world class bird park next door) for example. But some are definitely avoidable. Having said this, there is clearly a desire to remedy the more pressing things, like the elephant exhibit. I hope the leopard exhibit in particular is similarly dealt with. Weirdly, I thought it reminded me of Colchester Zoo if it was in a rainforest and substantially better for the most part (just to be clear Colchester is not on the same level despite being a very good zoo in its own right). Not sure where it ranks for me of the places I've been to, but probably somewhere in the high single digits? Anyways, let me know if you disagree, or if you can enlighten me further on the orangutan set up, would be much appreciated. Would love to hear other viewpoints.
Night Safari coming up soon with any luck.
While my morning and lunch were elsewhere, I had practically the whole afternoon free and as such decided it was high time I go to Mandai. The site is fairly easily accessible although it takes a fair bit of time from the city centre. On arrival, I was struck by the scale of the project. The infrastructure across the two zoos I visited yesterday was far, far beyond any zoo I've visited up to this point, and has to be the most impressive of any zoo(s) in the world. It doesn't feel like anywhere else would be able to, or feel the need to, go to such lengths. Having said this there's still work being done on the area and it did feel at times as if signage was slightly haphazard - hopefully on completion this will be better.
Singapore Zoo
The zoo was a pretty strange experience for me. It can be vaguely split into three big loops, so I'll break it down starting from the left and working my way rightwards.
Australasia is, for the most part, nice enough, but I don't understand some of the design choices if I'm honest. It starts with your fairly typical kangaroo walkthrough. The zone has two species of cassowary, which is pretty cool, but the Northern cassowaries are in a pretty exposed pen about ten metres from the visitor walkway in the walkthrough. I don't really understand what this achieves though - it's not great for the birds as they have no privacy and not much space, and not great for visitors either as the cassowary is always going to be pretty far. The Southern cassowary exhibit is as far as I could tell separated from the tree kangaroo outdoors by a narrow moat, and is too small if I interpreted its boundaries correctly. on the flip side, the tree kangaroo exhibits, indoor and out, are both great. A mixed bag I guess.
The elephant exhibit is, for a zoo that is typically regarded in the uppermost echelons, poor. It's probably worse than the Berlin Zoo exhibit to be honest, so I am very glad a new one is being built on a larger site, and hope that less space is taken up by an exorbitant pool. Not much more to say about it. An enclosed, part-time access rainforest area of the new exhibit like in Seoul would work brilliantly I think.
I recognise that's a fairly critical start to the review, but onto something good. Primate Kingdom is outstanding. In stark contrast to the elephant exhibit, it's a strong reminder of why Singapore is so highly regarded. The douc langur exhibit in particular is stellar and I couldn't have asked for a better (non wild) setting to see them for the first time. The other islands are similarly excellent. It mostly holds true throughout that the zoo's primate exhibits are up there with the best. To cap it all off, a Stork-billed kingfisher was loitering around the moats of the islands; a very cool bird indeed.
Next to Primate Kingdom is the Rift Valley exhibit. Safe to say I'm a fan of that one as well. Good vision, great execution, and the baboons are really great for it. Cologne could certainly learn from it. I didn't see the ibex, but there was more than enough spectacle from the one species. Next door are servals (in a passable enclosure), hyrax and cusimanse. Overall a high standard, very impressive.
Next to that is a sort of semi-aquatic animals area 'headlined' by Pygmy hippos. Good underwater viewing, but the land area was far too small from what I remember, and very little in the way of privacy. Next door are Chinese alligators, False gharial and Siamese crocodiles. Not sure about these exhibits either, but then again I don't know what the crocodilian stance on privacy is. Still too small for the two larger species though.
Next, the bottom middle loop. Treetops trail is the first exhibit you pass through on entry and is outstanding. Gibbons in huge trees, and a huge False Gharial in a large expanse of water below. Unquestionably excellent. Then a couple of suid enclosures which are largely middling, anoa-in-Berlin-type exhibits. Was lovely to see bearded pigs again though. The tiger exhibit is ok, not sure how old it is but it again reminded me of a slightly better version of Berlin's when it has the potential to be so much more. The other gibbon and lemur exhibits in this area are fine. The animal playground exhibit on the other side of the path seems a little random, which the not terribly contiguous three-species lineup of Fennec fox, Malayan water monitor and African penguin. Couldn't find the penguin exhibit easily, but the exhibits for the other two were pretty good, especially the monitor.
My favourite exhibit in the whole zoo was probably the Proboscis monkey exhibit. This has been said before but it's so well executed, with a sort of triphasic concept. In the water are arowanas and clown loaches, on the ground is Southern red muntjac and above them are the monkeys. They're very cool-looking animals with the strange morphology very much not limited to the nose.
The third and final loop begins with the Wild Africa zone. This is mostly ok, with nothing outstanding and some exhibits very borderline. The leopard exhibit is poor. The lion exhibit is fine but nothing special. Giraffes, rhinos and zebras (plus red river hogs and marabou) all in the same sort of enclosure that is, again fine but nothing more. And cheetah and wild dogs exhibited similarly. The fossa exhibit is definitely a step up though.
Next to it is Fragile Forest. This is mostly brilliant. The Santa Cruz ground doves are everywhere and so inquisitive - my new favourite dove/pigeon. Visiting this exhibit towards the end of the day was for me the best time - the viewing platform at the summit was crowded with an iguana on the floor, a sloth and a red ruffed lemur on the barriers and a multitude of flying foxes just inches away. Finlayson's squirrels and the chachalacas were also around. The rest of the aviary is nicely done but the mix is slightly odd. There are then terrariums on either side of the aviary, which are typically of high quality, plus a mangrove tank for Freshwater moray and archerfish. Overall, well executed but maybe lacked a clear focus? Only criticism.
Above that are more primate exhibits. I'll have to revisit these as I didn't give them too much time, but seemed to generally be of high quality. Below is the reptile area. If I'm completely honest, I didn't particularly like it, and I'm not entirely sure why. Part of it is the three-side glass fronted exhibits. I also didn't really understand the vision - there's the tortoise shelter area, but the giant tortoises are elsewhere, there's a crocodile monitor enclosure and a huge snake-necked turtle exhibit tacked onto the side of the Reptopia building (both of which were brilliant, by the way) but then the rest of the outdoor exhibits are elsewhere, multiple exits and it's all a bit of a maze. There's also an ok Sun bear exhibit next door. I'm assuming it's a product of the different parts of the area being built at different times and the vision changing over time, but don't know enough on that to make a judgement. The gharial exhibit is great though - deep pool and the Southern river turtles are (as in Prague, but with the Northern ones) the stars of the show.
The orangutan exhibit is a bit of a weird case, and I want to understand a bit better before reaching a conclusion. Of course the situation for the younger Sumatrans (I think?) is brilliant and innovative. Seeing orangs moving around like that high up is very special. The older ones have a fairly normal island, nothing special. But I don't understand which species are where. Is the indoor exhibit where the Bornean male is the only Bornean orang in the zoo, and if so does he have an outdoors? If the ones outside are Bornean, where are the Sumatran? Either way, the high line type idea is great and is a far better recreation of orang habitat than I've seen elsewhere.
That brings the review to a close. My photos of exhibits are pretty sparse, so I'd recommend looking at photos by snowleopard and others in the gallery, as the zoo is very comprehensively documented of course.
Hopefully this is a fair evaluation of the individual parts, I know I've been fairly critical in places but some bits didn't sit quite right. The overall atmosphere is lovely, the intact rainforest throughout the zoo is a pleasure to see and the wild birds very much form part of the experience. Didn't spot any colugos although that's probably my fault more than anything as I only remembered to look for them halfway through anyway.
Overall, Singapore Zoo is of course a very good zoo, with some outstanding exhibits, several of which are likely the best for their species anywhere. But I don't think it, in and of itself, compares to the best I've been to. Part of this is unavoidable - the virtual absence of birds besides the Fragile Forest exhibit (of course because of the world class bird park next door) for example. But some are definitely avoidable. Having said this, there is clearly a desire to remedy the more pressing things, like the elephant exhibit. I hope the leopard exhibit in particular is similarly dealt with. Weirdly, I thought it reminded me of Colchester Zoo if it was in a rainforest and substantially better for the most part (just to be clear Colchester is not on the same level despite being a very good zoo in its own right). Not sure where it ranks for me of the places I've been to, but probably somewhere in the high single digits? Anyways, let me know if you disagree, or if you can enlighten me further on the orangutan set up, would be much appreciated. Would love to hear other viewpoints.
Night Safari coming up soon with any luck.
Night Safari
This will be a quick one as I'm pretty tired and it's getting later over here. I visited Night Safari straight after the zoo, with dinner in between. Mandai is definitely structured in such a way to encourage people to spend the whole day there, at whichever parks, and this is pretty brilliantly achieved throughout. Again, the infrastructure is on a scale that I was really impressed by. The Creatures of the Night show is in a huge amphitheatre. It was strange leaving the relatively sparsely populated paths and then entering an amphitheatre which must have seated over a thousand people and was completely full to the brim. The show was well rehearsed and interesting, although I was disappointed not to see the hyenas as part of it, I still can't imagine how that would look or feel.
Overall, Night Safari is a superb idea, and a very special atmosphere that is incomparable to any zoo visit I've had previously. I'll cover the tram ride first. It's an interesting lineup of species and of course has very high demand as many of the top attractions are only (properly) visible from it. Most of the exhibits seem good, and I thought the Malayan tapir drive-through thing was very cool. Some of them I couldn't really tell if they were adequate or not, but one of the bull elephant exhibits seemed tight? Not entirely sure about the rest. It also seems as though the tram density might be a bit aggravating, especially to lions and tapirs, but again, not sure. Otherwise it's a nice concept.
The Pangolin trail is great. Being it being split into two was initially confusing but later made sense because I'm assuming it's to reduce congestion as it's where most visitors start off. I find it hard to detail how good the enclosures were because it's pretty unclear for many of them where exactly they end in the dark, but the general rule from my perspective was that the larger the animal, the less good the exhibit space-wise. Civets, pangolins and otters were housed very well for example, while maned wolves, white tigers and leopards less so by the looks. I saw every single species at the zoo except the gaur and devils (I think), and I'm not entirely sure how to interpret this. Either I got lucky, or the exhibits are too small/not enough privacy, or they're designed very cleverly. Probably a mix of all three.
The civet and bat walkthroughs are brilliant, with the added possibility of being showered in guano/bird poo making the latter even more immersive. Gharial exhibit was an exception to the loose rule above, as it was great. Was cool seeing so many porcupines so active too. The hog badgers were pretty uncooperative throughout the evening until one briefly ventured out - quite weird animals but very cool. Binturong exhibit mixed with masked palm civet is surely too small, especially for such a large bint? Conversely the other outdoor one is great. The devil exhibits are great from what I saw, although I didn't see the animals themselves. I really liked all the Australasian bit for that matter, especially the cave area.
What makes it a great experience is the atmosphere though of course. To have wild bats constantly zooming above you, the possibility of colugos and flying squirrels gliding above, the experience of hearing bushes crackling and having no idea what it was - all of this is unparalleled, at least from where I've been. The views over the reservoir from around the rhino viewpoint at East Lodge are amazing. What I really wonder is how it would look during the daytime though.
Overall, Night Safari is an exceptional experience. I think I enjoyed visiting it more than the zoo, but I'm not sure it's intrinsically better for the animals than the zoo. It's in a bit of a weird space where I can't compare it to other places I've been because it's hard to draw any parallels really. Again, would love to hear if anyone disagrees or has any additional info!
This will be a quick one as I'm pretty tired and it's getting later over here. I visited Night Safari straight after the zoo, with dinner in between. Mandai is definitely structured in such a way to encourage people to spend the whole day there, at whichever parks, and this is pretty brilliantly achieved throughout. Again, the infrastructure is on a scale that I was really impressed by. The Creatures of the Night show is in a huge amphitheatre. It was strange leaving the relatively sparsely populated paths and then entering an amphitheatre which must have seated over a thousand people and was completely full to the brim. The show was well rehearsed and interesting, although I was disappointed not to see the hyenas as part of it, I still can't imagine how that would look or feel.
Overall, Night Safari is a superb idea, and a very special atmosphere that is incomparable to any zoo visit I've had previously. I'll cover the tram ride first. It's an interesting lineup of species and of course has very high demand as many of the top attractions are only (properly) visible from it. Most of the exhibits seem good, and I thought the Malayan tapir drive-through thing was very cool. Some of them I couldn't really tell if they were adequate or not, but one of the bull elephant exhibits seemed tight? Not entirely sure about the rest. It also seems as though the tram density might be a bit aggravating, especially to lions and tapirs, but again, not sure. Otherwise it's a nice concept.
The Pangolin trail is great. Being it being split into two was initially confusing but later made sense because I'm assuming it's to reduce congestion as it's where most visitors start off. I find it hard to detail how good the enclosures were because it's pretty unclear for many of them where exactly they end in the dark, but the general rule from my perspective was that the larger the animal, the less good the exhibit space-wise. Civets, pangolins and otters were housed very well for example, while maned wolves, white tigers and leopards less so by the looks. I saw every single species at the zoo except the gaur and devils (I think), and I'm not entirely sure how to interpret this. Either I got lucky, or the exhibits are too small/not enough privacy, or they're designed very cleverly. Probably a mix of all three.
The civet and bat walkthroughs are brilliant, with the added possibility of being showered in guano/bird poo making the latter even more immersive. Gharial exhibit was an exception to the loose rule above, as it was great. Was cool seeing so many porcupines so active too. The hog badgers were pretty uncooperative throughout the evening until one briefly ventured out - quite weird animals but very cool. Binturong exhibit mixed with masked palm civet is surely too small, especially for such a large bint? Conversely the other outdoor one is great. The devil exhibits are great from what I saw, although I didn't see the animals themselves. I really liked all the Australasian bit for that matter, especially the cave area.
What makes it a great experience is the atmosphere though of course. To have wild bats constantly zooming above you, the possibility of colugos and flying squirrels gliding above, the experience of hearing bushes crackling and having no idea what it was - all of this is unparalleled, at least from where I've been. The views over the reservoir from around the rhino viewpoint at East Lodge are amazing. What I really wonder is how it would look during the daytime though.
Overall, Night Safari is an exceptional experience. I think I enjoyed visiting it more than the zoo, but I'm not sure it's intrinsically better for the animals than the zoo. It's in a bit of a weird space where I can't compare it to other places I've been because it's hard to draw any parallels really. Again, would love to hear if anyone disagrees or has any additional info!
Those are fair assessments of both zoos.
I haven't been to either in a while, but I never understand the people who proclaim Singapore Zoo as the best in the world, or "one of the greats". I mean, I understand regular folk who don't go to zoos much saying that, and it has always been considered the best in southeast Asia and it is a good zoo, but if a person actually looks at the enclosures rather than zooming round as quickly as they can so they can move on to the next number zoo on their list, you can see that so many of the enclosures are just really poor. The hooved stock in particular are basically small platforms dressed up with surrounding vegetation so they look jungly, and suddenly they are "amazing".
I think you had a similar view of Night Safari as myself - the enclosures on the walking trail for the smaller mammals are mostly very good, while the enclosures on the tram ride for large mammals are mostly very small. The darkness hides how small some of those enclosures really are (on the tram ride), and in at least some of them (at least when I was there) hot-wires reduced the size even further to keep animals closer to the viewers.
I haven't been to either in a while, but I never understand the people who proclaim Singapore Zoo as the best in the world, or "one of the greats". I mean, I understand regular folk who don't go to zoos much saying that, and it has always been considered the best in southeast Asia and it is a good zoo, but if a person actually looks at the enclosures rather than zooming round as quickly as they can so they can move on to the next number zoo on their list, you can see that so many of the enclosures are just really poor. The hooved stock in particular are basically small platforms dressed up with surrounding vegetation so they look jungly, and suddenly they are "amazing".
I think you had a similar view of Night Safari as myself - the enclosures on the walking trail for the smaller mammals are mostly very good, while the enclosures on the tram ride for large mammals are mostly very small. The darkness hides how small some of those enclosures really are (on the tram ride), and in at least some of them (at least when I was there) hot-wires reduced the size even further to keep animals closer to the viewers.
Thanks for the reviews @amur leopard and you have a good point when you state that "the infrastructure across the two zoos I visited yesterday was far, far beyond any zoo I've visited up to this point, and has to be the most impressive of any zoo(s) in the world".
Almost everything that Mandai Wildlife Reserve does is elite and there's certainly been a lot of infrastructure built in the past 15 years. You obviously loved Singapore Zoo, even with your criticisms, if you think it's a top 5 or top 10 zoo all-time for you. Impressive! The fairly new additions of KidzWorld and Reptopia (which I loved) are terrific and I agree that the primate habitats right across the zoo are fantastic and many are arguably world-class.
I agree that of course there are some flaws, like any zoo, with the elephants being the most egregious, but looking through the gallery one could quibble about the White Rhinos, Pygmy Hippos, maybe the Chimpanzees, a couple of hoofstock exhibits, but not a lot. The awful looking Polar Bear/Wolverine/Tundra complex no longer has those species, and reptiles, amphibians, insects, the few birds, primates, the majority of the carnivores, etc., are all in excellent exhibits. I spent a long 7 hours in the zoo (5 in the morning and 2 more after River Wonders) with @twilighter and he's just as big a fan as I am of the facility. The elephant exhibit is the major blemish in my opinion, but for instance San Diego Zoo has at least a dozen enclosures in one area (the whole row of century-old grottoes and all of 'Urban Jungle') that are outdated and that's more than Singapore Zoo.
As for the Night Safari park, I stated in my recent review that "just like at Chiang Mai, there is subtle use of hotwire, fencing and dry moats in the design of the sometimes long, narrow enclosures, so that the animals are on view as the trams motor by. In the light of day, I wonder if a number of the exhibits are a bit tight on space and perhaps devoid of some enrichment".
I fully agree with you that the Night Safari is an "exceptional experience", but I wonder what it's like to tour in the day? The zoo is so incredibly dark that it's tough to analyze just how large some of the enclosures are.
I'm looking forward to your reviews of River Wonders (not too many zoos have such vast outdoor aquariums) and Bird Paradise (stunning).
Almost everything that Mandai Wildlife Reserve does is elite and there's certainly been a lot of infrastructure built in the past 15 years. You obviously loved Singapore Zoo, even with your criticisms, if you think it's a top 5 or top 10 zoo all-time for you. Impressive! The fairly new additions of KidzWorld and Reptopia (which I loved) are terrific and I agree that the primate habitats right across the zoo are fantastic and many are arguably world-class.
I agree that of course there are some flaws, like any zoo, with the elephants being the most egregious, but looking through the gallery one could quibble about the White Rhinos, Pygmy Hippos, maybe the Chimpanzees, a couple of hoofstock exhibits, but not a lot. The awful looking Polar Bear/Wolverine/Tundra complex no longer has those species, and reptiles, amphibians, insects, the few birds, primates, the majority of the carnivores, etc., are all in excellent exhibits. I spent a long 7 hours in the zoo (5 in the morning and 2 more after River Wonders) with @twilighter and he's just as big a fan as I am of the facility. The elephant exhibit is the major blemish in my opinion, but for instance San Diego Zoo has at least a dozen enclosures in one area (the whole row of century-old grottoes and all of 'Urban Jungle') that are outdated and that's more than Singapore Zoo.
As for the Night Safari park, I stated in my recent review that "just like at Chiang Mai, there is subtle use of hotwire, fencing and dry moats in the design of the sometimes long, narrow enclosures, so that the animals are on view as the trams motor by. In the light of day, I wonder if a number of the exhibits are a bit tight on space and perhaps devoid of some enrichment".
I fully agree with you that the Night Safari is an "exceptional experience", but I wonder what it's like to tour in the day? The zoo is so incredibly dark that it's tough to analyze just how large some of the enclosures are.
I'm looking forward to your reviews of River Wonders (not too many zoos have such vast outdoor aquariums) and Bird Paradise (stunning).
I wasn't observant enough on the tram ride to notice this but I'll have a look if I revisit. If true, definitely not great, and I was wondering why e.g. Sloth bears and Lions were so constantly close but figured it was more of a food thing.
Ah ok so the Animal Playground thing used to be the tundra complex I guess then? Makes sense with all the mock rock. Very glad they're gone, even in an adequate exhibit the climate alone...
I think we generally agree that bits of the zoo are exceptional, I just don't think enough of it is exceptional to hit the top top echelons, but again much of that is subjective. I'd very much like to revisit once the elephant and fingers crossed the leopard exhibits are replaced/gone, and maybe things would feel different. It is clear that Mandai has the money to fix these issues but of course currently it's predominantly going to the new parks being constructed. Looking forward to the Bird Park in particular now.
Thanks for the review. For someone who visits Singapore Zoo very regularly, it's always interesting to read how others see it for the first time. You're mostly right about the 'weird' placement of animals/exhibits; it is mostly the result of upgrading of exhibits at different times. Reptile Kingdom is a very old section of the Zoo, with individual exhibits having been upgraded over the years. Tortoise Shell-ter was a more recent addition which repurposed an old small mammal display. The outdoor exhibits at Reptopia were repurposed from an old ornamental pond while the indoor sections used to be a gallery-style snake house with picture frame glass tanks.
The Australasian section has been reworked several times and looks incoherent now. The Northern Cassowary enclosure is basically a fenced off section of the main Kangaroo enclosure, done opportunistically. The Cassowary can move out of visitors' sight if it chooses.
The Orang Utans are displayed based on compatibility of individual animals instead of along species lines. You may find both species together on the island, in the enclosed section or in the free ranging area at any given time. Of course care is taken to prevent hybridization, with breeding carefully managed.
The odd species mix in Fragile Forest is intentional. The idea is to maximize the variety of species that can be housed safely together (and be relatively safe for the visitors) in the aviary. Restricting the species along geographic lines would greatly constrain the number of species.
A general point to make. I tend to shun zoo rankings as these are ENTIRELY subjective. Some are obsessed with the physical size of exhibits. Others place value on aesthetics over function of exhibits. Yet others prefer zoos that stock obscure species like stamp collections. What Zoochatters often overlook is that we are a minority. If zoos relied only on the patronage of Zoochatters, they would go broke and extinct. Zoos need to appeal to the average person who can't tell the difference between a Leopard and a Jaguar to survive. Singapore Zoo understands this very well and is very practical in its design and execution. It is intentionally made to cater to the masses, for people to see the animals up close and clearly, while not overly-compromising animal welfare. That said, Mandai Wildlife Reserve is experimenting with something different with Rainforest Wild Asia, more akin to what some Zoochatters consider a "good" zoo with generous acreage per animal. The reviews have been mixed. While some visitors appreciated giving the animals more space, many have complained about not being able to see the animals/not seeing much animals. You can't please everyone
You can take a look at some of my photos from November 2016 in the Night Safari gallery. These were taken in the daytime when the park was open for an event. Some of the enclosures are no longer there but you can get an idea of the size of the Asian Lion and Sloth Bear exhibits. The bull Elephant exhibits (which have been expanded since the 2016 photos) have more depth than what is seen from the tram ride. The Elephants stay near the front of the exhibits because of the automatic feeders (those curiously-placed mock boulders and tree stumps). The 2 Malayan Tapir free ranging exhibits are very generously sized (length-wise, they stretch between the sets of cattle grids on the road)
The White Lion, White Tiger, Leopard and Maned Wolf exhibits are on the small side, which seems to be a common trend among the predator exhibits at the Mandai parks to increase visibility of the animals.
Thanks for the review. For someone who visits Singapore Zoo very regularly, it's always interesting to read how others see it for the first time. You're mostly right about the 'weird' placement of animals/exhibits; it is mostly the result of upgrading of exhibits at different times. Reptile Kingdom is a very old section of the Zoo, with individual exhibits having been upgraded over the years. Tortoise Shell-ter was a more recent addition which repurposed an old small mammal display. The outdoor exhibits at Reptopia were repurposed from an old ornamental pond while the indoor sections used to be a gallery-style snake house with picture frame glass tanks.
The Australasian section has been reworked several times and looks incoherent now. The Northern Cassowary enclosure is basically a fenced off section of the main Kangaroo enclosure, done opportunistically. The Cassowary can move out of visitors' sight if it chooses.
The Orang Utans are displayed based on compatibility of individual animals instead of along species lines. You may find both species together on the island, in the enclosed section or in the free ranging area at any given time. Of course care is taken to prevent hybridization, with breeding carefully managed.
The odd species mix in Fragile Forest is intentional. The idea is to maximize the variety of species that can be housed safely together (and be relatively safe for the visitors) in the aviary. Restricting the species along geographic lines would greatly constrain the number of species.
A general point to make. I tend to shun zoo rankings as these are ENTIRELY subjective. Some are obsessed with the physical size of exhibits. Others place value on aesthetics over function of exhibits. Yet others prefer zoos that stock obscure species like stamp collections. What Zoochatters often overlook is that we are a minority. If zoos relied only on the patronage of Zoochatters, they would go broke and extinct. Zoos need to appeal to the average person who can't tell the difference between a Leopard and a Jaguar to survive. Singapore Zoo understands this very well and is very practical in its design and execution. It is intentionally made to cater to the masses, for people to see the animals up close and clearly, while not overly-compromising animal welfare. That said, Mandai Wildlife Reserve is experimenting with something different with Rainforest Wild Asia, more akin to what some Zoochatters consider a "good" zoo with generous acreage per animal. The reviews have been mixed. While some visitors appreciated giving the animals more space, many have complained about not being able to see the animals/not seeing much animals. You can't please everyone
Glad to hear that about Australasia and the Orangs! Makes a lot more sense on the ape front, if they were separate I was really wondering which species had drawn the short straw. And of course I agree about zoo rankings, they're obviously entirely personal and subjective, but I still think it can sometimes be an interesting subject of discussion. Visitor numbers, general success and so on are better indicators of the quality of a zoo in the public eye than my opinion, but I think it's hardly a review if I churn out those stats and offer no comparison with previous experience. But in principle I agree.
Ok I can see that better now, interesting. Glad to hear how it's more of a feeding thing, and about the tapir enclosure. Agreed about the predators on the whole though, it's definitely something I noticed with cheetahs, lions, leopards etc.
On a side note, visited Bird Paradise today. Very impressive stuff, it's definitely a fantastic place for the birds, and was a big fan. I do have one question before my review though. I noticed that many storks/cranes were in fenced off areas within larger aviaries - are they flight restricted?
The Wattled Cranes, Saddlebill Storks and Black-necked Stork are flight restricted. Some arrived in Singapore already pinioned. Attempts to let them roam free in the aviaries were not successful due to their territorial nature.
Highlights of the Night Safari for me (October 2023) were two very active Tasmanian Devils, and the opportunity to hand feed Indian Rhino (wish I’d known about this beforehand, as it had to be pre-booked). A bird highlight elsewhere in a relatively bird-free zoo was Hartlaub’s Ducks. The only native wildlife I remember seeing was the rather un-nerving Long-tailed Macaques, which come over as quite menacing.
The next day was predominantly traipsing around the area East of the river from mall to mall to buy necessities. Singapore (and that part of the city in particular from what I've seen) has almost a second city underground. Malls and MRT stations are in some sort of lattice connected underground, to the extent that you can walk for half an hour without stopping or going in circles without even venturing above ground into the heat. All of these passages are air-conditioned to the point where honestly I'm a little cold. Does make you wonder how much energy this all costs, but the infrastructure is definitely impressive. No clue why so many malls are required though, I'm sure they fill up but they've been fairly sparsely populated most of the time - maybe it's the opposite and the UK has insufficient malls?
The day after was meant to be a write-off in essence because every weather app was predicting a big thunderstorm, with 100% chance of rain and so on. As a result I got up lateish, and then stuck to the area around my accomm or near buildings that I could sheepishly retreat into once things started to get interesting. However by about midday I decided the chances of rain actually materialising anytime soon seemed slim so I decided on a trip to Bukit Timah. Bukit Timah is definitely the most visited of all the nature reserves in Singapore as it is in essence a workout spot. In fairness, it is a little steep in places, but I was disappointed on the bird front. I saw a drongo and some other miscellaneous species I'd mostly seen before. Not the productive visit I'd hoped for. Around this time things started getting a little hairier - the sky was darkening and the first thunder was showing up.
I descended the hill to move away from high ground and reached the base of BT. Here is a little nature reserve called Hindhede, which honestly was far more fruitful and worth it, at least at that time. It also contains a beautiful quarry, and is peppered with a number of little huts in clearings for shelter. This made it pretty much the perfect spot for pottering about while the storm was still around. Unfortunately, I was halfway along the trail when a genuinely huge wild boar showed up just ten or so metres away in the forest. This was at the time probably the largest wild animal I'd ever seen, but the situation would have been made a lot more pleasant were a barrier present. It's pretty humbling to be in the presence of an animal that could probably do a fair bit of damage with nothing in the way. Thankfully this particular behemoth did not have my murder on his mind and turned away eventually.
I stayed around the quarry lake for a little while and had made some more pathetic attempts to see colugo (later I found out that colugo (with a baby) was actually present, just on a slightly different path just outside Hindhede...) which were of course unsuccessful. Did see two species of woodpecker though, plus a couple of other nice species around the area.
The real magic of the day would come later though. I returned from BT via the botanical gardens, which were shaping up to be largely fruitless until I got a flyover from Oriental pied hornbill. I know this species is fairly common in Singapore but in spite of this I found it pretty special - hornbills in my head were one of those animals I'd see lots in zoos but never in the wild. Glad to be wrong.
Then took the train to Gardens by the Bay and made my way across to the Eastern side. On this side is the supposed hotspot for birds that I visited a few days ago and found virtually nothing. This time though, as it wasn't dark for another couple of hours, I could keep going along the (slightly waterlogged) fields. I saw more paddyfield pipits, plus a couple of common birds. But around the corner behind some sort of power plant were a group of ~seven openbill storks. For me this was also pretty cool as openbill storks haven't been showing up in Singapore for too long, yet here they were maybe a kilometer from Marina Bay Sands - also had a bonus purple heron thrown in there too.
Then further along I saw a bunch of egrets, another Changeable hawk eagle and some White headed munias. However as I was wandering around the fields towards the end of the day, now pretty far from anything recognisable, a jet flyover occurred. Fighter jets flying over in the UK aren't terribly common besides in a few select areas, so I was pretty perplexed to say the least. Fighter jets are insanely loud, and my position was inadvertently right beneath where they were doing their ascents, so probably amplified it. Then came a bunch of helicopters with the Singaporean flag, some larger planes and more fighter jets. Over a period of half an hour probably 60 or so planes flew over. I later learned that it was practice for National Day celebrations, and would be happening every Saturday for a little while, so in light of that information set back off towards the Marina.
On the way over, fireworks stopped and started. I climbed to the top of a swirling structure called the Marina barrage, where apparently half of Singapore had also decided to camp out. It was a lovely view, and people were sat around in groups flying kites and playing rather cheesy songs about Singapore. Still was a very pleasant evening epitomised by the fireworks over the Marina of course. Had a little walk around the Marina area after the fireworks and all sorts of performances were going in the harbour area. Finished off the day with an entire fish in black bean sauce, plus some really well seasoned vegetables. Overall, much more eventful than I originally assumed given the forecasts!
The day after was meant to be a write-off in essence because every weather app was predicting a big thunderstorm, with 100% chance of rain and so on. As a result I got up lateish, and then stuck to the area around my accomm or near buildings that I could sheepishly retreat into once things started to get interesting. However by about midday I decided the chances of rain actually materialising anytime soon seemed slim so I decided on a trip to Bukit Timah. Bukit Timah is definitely the most visited of all the nature reserves in Singapore as it is in essence a workout spot. In fairness, it is a little steep in places, but I was disappointed on the bird front. I saw a drongo and some other miscellaneous species I'd mostly seen before. Not the productive visit I'd hoped for. Around this time things started getting a little hairier - the sky was darkening and the first thunder was showing up.
I descended the hill to move away from high ground and reached the base of BT. Here is a little nature reserve called Hindhede, which honestly was far more fruitful and worth it, at least at that time. It also contains a beautiful quarry, and is peppered with a number of little huts in clearings for shelter. This made it pretty much the perfect spot for pottering about while the storm was still around. Unfortunately, I was halfway along the trail when a genuinely huge wild boar showed up just ten or so metres away in the forest. This was at the time probably the largest wild animal I'd ever seen, but the situation would have been made a lot more pleasant were a barrier present. It's pretty humbling to be in the presence of an animal that could probably do a fair bit of damage with nothing in the way. Thankfully this particular behemoth did not have my murder on his mind and turned away eventually.
I stayed around the quarry lake for a little while and had made some more pathetic attempts to see colugo (later I found out that colugo (with a baby) was actually present, just on a slightly different path just outside Hindhede...) which were of course unsuccessful. Did see two species of woodpecker though, plus a couple of other nice species around the area.
The real magic of the day would come later though. I returned from BT via the botanical gardens, which were shaping up to be largely fruitless until I got a flyover from Oriental pied hornbill. I know this species is fairly common in Singapore but in spite of this I found it pretty special - hornbills in my head were one of those animals I'd see lots in zoos but never in the wild. Glad to be wrong.
Then took the train to Gardens by the Bay and made my way across to the Eastern side. On this side is the supposed hotspot for birds that I visited a few days ago and found virtually nothing. This time though, as it wasn't dark for another couple of hours, I could keep going along the (slightly waterlogged) fields. I saw more paddyfield pipits, plus a couple of common birds. But around the corner behind some sort of power plant were a group of ~seven openbill storks. For me this was also pretty cool as openbill storks haven't been showing up in Singapore for too long, yet here they were maybe a kilometer from Marina Bay Sands - also had a bonus purple heron thrown in there too.
Then further along I saw a bunch of egrets, another Changeable hawk eagle and some White headed munias. However as I was wandering around the fields towards the end of the day, now pretty far from anything recognisable, a jet flyover occurred. Fighter jets flying over in the UK aren't terribly common besides in a few select areas, so I was pretty perplexed to say the least. Fighter jets are insanely loud, and my position was inadvertently right beneath where they were doing their ascents, so probably amplified it. Then came a bunch of helicopters with the Singaporean flag, some larger planes and more fighter jets. Over a period of half an hour probably 60 or so planes flew over. I later learned that it was practice for National Day celebrations, and would be happening every Saturday for a little while, so in light of that information set back off towards the Marina.
On the way over, fireworks stopped and started. I climbed to the top of a swirling structure called the Marina barrage, where apparently half of Singapore had also decided to camp out. It was a lovely view, and people were sat around in groups flying kites and playing rather cheesy songs about Singapore. Still was a very pleasant evening epitomised by the fireworks over the Marina of course. Had a little walk around the Marina area after the fireworks and all sorts of performances were going in the harbour area. Finished off the day with an entire fish in black bean sauce, plus some really well seasoned vegetables. Overall, much more eventful than I originally assumed given the forecasts!
The next day was my last before my work started, so decided to make it count and see as much as I could. I got up early to reach Sungei Buloh by around 8:20am (although in retrospect I really should have gotten up earlier as most of the serious birders were leaving by that time...), where I would meet a friend from uni. We spent the next hour or so making our way around the reserve (the migratory birds loop). I'd have stayed longer perhaps were I without company but I was also pretty keen to go to Bird Paradise afterwards and any further birding might have been a bit of a waiting game.
Having said this, on the way in I saw fruit bats having from the ceiling of the entrance hut, plus further down the line a huge Saltie from a viewpoint over the mudflats. From here it was pretty much possible to see most of the birds I'd end up seeing across the entire reserve to be honest. I'd hoped for Black and red broadbill but that did not materialise, not that I tried particularly hard either in fairness. But what I did see were both Painted and Milky storks, plus Great billed herons and a multitude of other ardeids. While circling back around the mangroves, we saw a huge family of otters make their way across the mudflats impressively quickly. I wonder how toxic the relationship between the otters and crocs is. Can't be terribly friendly, as smaller crocs are around too. I'm guessing there's a casualties on both sides.
We then made our way over to Bird Paradise.
Bird Paradise
Bird Paradise is quite a lot smaller in size than either of the two parks I'd visited before but it felt huge. Walking in and seeing even the smaller walkthrough aviaries is really quite impressive. The scale of the project is huge, and each aviary covers a very substantial area. It's quite clear than very few birds, if any, at this park, are hard done by.
Even so, a review is in order. First stop is the Winged Sanctuary, the only area of the park with individual aviaries. It's mostly impressive, with a largely linear winding path upwards. The hornbill variety on display is pretty mind-boggling, but Philippine eagle, Macleay's fig parrot, Santa Cruz ground dove, Negros bleeding heart... Not just the species, the aviaries are fairly impressive for the most part too, well-planted and mostly spacious. Having said this, there is a bit of a mesh glare issue in the morning, although I'm not sure to what extent that could have been resolved - maybe orienting the aviaries along an East West axis so that the longer sides of the oval are facing North/South? Not sure what the solution would be - either way a slight triviality, and I'm guessing not as much of an issue on a cloudier day.
Beyond that was the penguin area. This is a pretty massive building, and while the exhibit is also spacious and impressive, it doesn't really seem justify that sort of structural footprint. In fairness it also contains a small restaurant, but a huge amount of floorspace was largely empty or filled with educational material. Probably a good thing to be honest, as normally zoo buildings have to be very sparing with space - was nice to see so much signage. The two underwater column things are a lovely touch and interesting engineering-wise, I wonder how complex it is on the loading front. Either way, strong stuff although none of the penguins actually happened to be in the water when I passed through - hoping I'll get the full effect on a later visit.
Then came the walkthrough aviaries. These are astounding really. I've seen a bunch of aviaries that are pretty massive and even some that make the (pretty frequent) claim of being the largest in ___ but these were a cut above pretty much any of those. The vegetation is pretty much flawless throughout, the walkways are typically well thought through and accessible, with pretty much every part of each aviary being somewhat visible from a walkway, and some incredible water (or other) features. My opinion of these aviaries is almost as positive as it can get, but I have a couple of minor things I'd still like to mention. The number of species visible in each was highly variable both between and within aviaries, as well as time of day. This of course makes sense as some areas will be more feeder dense or so on, but I know the person I was visiting with was slightly disappointed with a couple of the aviaries due to how few birds we actually saw. This might also have something to do with the weather on the day in fairness, bringing me to the next point. Many of the walkways are quite exposed, so visiting around the middle of day, on a particularly hot and sunny day, was a bit of an assault on the senses. There's not too much that can probably be done to mitigate this, and I'm sure on a cooler day I would have appreciated the higher walkways more, but it was a bit much at times. We left a little prematurely because of this. One last thing is the flight-restricted birds, but if some of these stork/crane species are to remain at the park I don't see much of an alternative for now to be honest. Definitely liked some aviaries more than others - Wings of Asia and Heart of Africa were both exceptional, as was Amazonian Jewels, but I wasn't a huge fan of Crimson Wetlands or the Australian one though. All slight nitpicking really but overall my impression was that these aviaries were probably the best housing for the vast majority of the species there that I'd ever seen, and I suspect the best I will for a very long time.
I only went to one of the bird shows, but to be honest the Wings of the World one I did see was not quite as good as I was expecting. Just to be clear it was still a good bird show but for the calibre of park, I thought it would be more spectacular (thinking Beauval). Will make sure to give the other one a chance though at a later date.
Overall, Bird Paradise is probably the best quality bird park I've ever been to all things factored in. Pretty much every aviary is outstanding, the design is for the most part exceptional and the species list is also not to be scoffed at. Comparing it to Walsrode is a bit of an impossible task - both are clearly the best two bird parks I've ever been to and probably in the world, but they have entirely different approaches to displaying birds. On the whole, BP is far better for the birds I suspect, but Walsrode is probably one of the most 'pleasant' zoo visits I've ever had and has its own unique charm that wasn't quite present in BP. I'd probably still but BP over it, but again it's hard to compare and they're both undoubtedly stellar.
Having said this, on the way in I saw fruit bats having from the ceiling of the entrance hut, plus further down the line a huge Saltie from a viewpoint over the mudflats. From here it was pretty much possible to see most of the birds I'd end up seeing across the entire reserve to be honest. I'd hoped for Black and red broadbill but that did not materialise, not that I tried particularly hard either in fairness. But what I did see were both Painted and Milky storks, plus Great billed herons and a multitude of other ardeids. While circling back around the mangroves, we saw a huge family of otters make their way across the mudflats impressively quickly. I wonder how toxic the relationship between the otters and crocs is. Can't be terribly friendly, as smaller crocs are around too. I'm guessing there's a casualties on both sides.
We then made our way over to Bird Paradise.
Bird Paradise
Bird Paradise is quite a lot smaller in size than either of the two parks I'd visited before but it felt huge. Walking in and seeing even the smaller walkthrough aviaries is really quite impressive. The scale of the project is huge, and each aviary covers a very substantial area. It's quite clear than very few birds, if any, at this park, are hard done by.
Even so, a review is in order. First stop is the Winged Sanctuary, the only area of the park with individual aviaries. It's mostly impressive, with a largely linear winding path upwards. The hornbill variety on display is pretty mind-boggling, but Philippine eagle, Macleay's fig parrot, Santa Cruz ground dove, Negros bleeding heart... Not just the species, the aviaries are fairly impressive for the most part too, well-planted and mostly spacious. Having said this, there is a bit of a mesh glare issue in the morning, although I'm not sure to what extent that could have been resolved - maybe orienting the aviaries along an East West axis so that the longer sides of the oval are facing North/South? Not sure what the solution would be - either way a slight triviality, and I'm guessing not as much of an issue on a cloudier day.
Beyond that was the penguin area. This is a pretty massive building, and while the exhibit is also spacious and impressive, it doesn't really seem justify that sort of structural footprint. In fairness it also contains a small restaurant, but a huge amount of floorspace was largely empty or filled with educational material. Probably a good thing to be honest, as normally zoo buildings have to be very sparing with space - was nice to see so much signage. The two underwater column things are a lovely touch and interesting engineering-wise, I wonder how complex it is on the loading front. Either way, strong stuff although none of the penguins actually happened to be in the water when I passed through - hoping I'll get the full effect on a later visit.
Then came the walkthrough aviaries. These are astounding really. I've seen a bunch of aviaries that are pretty massive and even some that make the (pretty frequent) claim of being the largest in ___ but these were a cut above pretty much any of those. The vegetation is pretty much flawless throughout, the walkways are typically well thought through and accessible, with pretty much every part of each aviary being somewhat visible from a walkway, and some incredible water (or other) features. My opinion of these aviaries is almost as positive as it can get, but I have a couple of minor things I'd still like to mention. The number of species visible in each was highly variable both between and within aviaries, as well as time of day. This of course makes sense as some areas will be more feeder dense or so on, but I know the person I was visiting with was slightly disappointed with a couple of the aviaries due to how few birds we actually saw. This might also have something to do with the weather on the day in fairness, bringing me to the next point. Many of the walkways are quite exposed, so visiting around the middle of day, on a particularly hot and sunny day, was a bit of an assault on the senses. There's not too much that can probably be done to mitigate this, and I'm sure on a cooler day I would have appreciated the higher walkways more, but it was a bit much at times. We left a little prematurely because of this. One last thing is the flight-restricted birds, but if some of these stork/crane species are to remain at the park I don't see much of an alternative for now to be honest. Definitely liked some aviaries more than others - Wings of Asia and Heart of Africa were both exceptional, as was Amazonian Jewels, but I wasn't a huge fan of Crimson Wetlands or the Australian one though. All slight nitpicking really but overall my impression was that these aviaries were probably the best housing for the vast majority of the species there that I'd ever seen, and I suspect the best I will for a very long time.
I only went to one of the bird shows, but to be honest the Wings of the World one I did see was not quite as good as I was expecting. Just to be clear it was still a good bird show but for the calibre of park, I thought it would be more spectacular (thinking Beauval). Will make sure to give the other one a chance though at a later date.
Overall, Bird Paradise is probably the best quality bird park I've ever been to all things factored in. Pretty much every aviary is outstanding, the design is for the most part exceptional and the species list is also not to be scoffed at. Comparing it to Walsrode is a bit of an impossible task - both are clearly the best two bird parks I've ever been to and probably in the world, but they have entirely different approaches to displaying birds. On the whole, BP is far better for the birds I suspect, but Walsrode is probably one of the most 'pleasant' zoo visits I've ever had and has its own unique charm that wasn't quite present in BP. I'd probably still but BP over it, but again it's hard to compare and they're both undoubtedly stellar.
Thanks for your review and I fully agree that the scale of the project is indeed huge, with birds literally having acres of space in some of the walk-through aviaries.
It's great that even with your nitpicking here and there, you realize that the housing for the bird species is perhaps never bettered in the history of zoos. What other place has 8 enormous walk-through aviaries that are jaw-dropping, one after the other? Only Bird Paradise. If one wishes to see birds in smaller, breeding-sized enclosures then the 140 off-show aviaries at Bird Paradise would likely be reminiscent of some of Walsrode's tiny exhibits and it would be neat if those were opened up as behind-the-scenes, paid attractions to generate more money for the zoo.
Comparing Bird Paradise and Walsrode is an interesting debate, as they are clearly the two best bird parks in the world. I do have several zoo nerd friends who have nostalgia for the German zoo, as they are thankful that it even still exists as not many people visit each year (circa 300,000) and at times it's been threatened with closure. Bird nerds who want to be up close and personal and wish to clearly see every species in a zoo will choose Walsrode and I understand that mentality. How can you see everything at Bird Paradise when there's so much room for the birds?
But for @twilighter and myself and many more non-bird nerds, for us Bird Paradise blows Walsrode away with its WOW moments and modern aviaries. I would guess that any muggle would choose Bird Paradise given the option. I was full of praise for Walsrode when I reviewed it in 2019, but Singapore's Bird Paradise is a whole level above in terms of quality. By comparison, a lot of those old Walsrode aviaries seem tiny if not downright puny in comparison to the gargantuan walk-through aviaries at Bird Paradise. Looking at some of the hornbill aviaries in the gallery, the Walsrode birds certainly get the short end of the stick. Bird Paradise has more than 20 hornbill species and every single one has better accommodation than the ones at Walsrode.
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