River Safari in 2011/2012, Singapore

This is the recently launched Boat Ride at Singapore Zoo. It was first conceived as a people-mover system, but also has live commentary aboard featuring native wildlife found around the Zoo\'s surrounding forests (like fish eagles, moniter lizards, kingfishers, herons, etc).

In late-2011/2012, a new River Safari park will be introduced. It is sited in between the existing Zoo and Night Safari (taking up existing Zoo/Night Safari space - the Night Safari will expand into adjacent reserve land) and will cover around 12 hectares according to press reports. It will feature freshwater ecosystems and the animals (not just fish) and plants that thrive in them.

The only animal quoted in news reports that will be part of River Safari is the manatee. My guess is that other large riverine species (eg. hippo, river hog) will make up a good part of the collection in addition to fish.

The existing Boat Ride may be used as a people-mover system for visitors to access the new park, which also borders the reservoir.

The River Safari will be managed by the same organization that runs Singapore Zoo, Night Safari and Jurong Bird Park.

Between the Singapore Zoo, the Night Safari, the Jurong Bird Park and now the upcoming River Safari I think that Singapore will bump off either San Diego or Berlin as THE premier destination for zoo lovers.

San Diego and Berlin are in a class of their own with outstanding collections. Singapore lacks many "must-have" species like gorillas, pandas, okapi and aye-aye, and there will never be a facility here which can come close to the scale of SD Wild Animal Park.

But for a small country, there will be a great concentration of animal parks come 2011/2012 when supposedly the world's biggest oceanarium (20 million gallons of exhibit space) opens as well. This facility is not related to the Zoo/Night Safari/Bird Park. Whale sharks were supposed to be part of the collection but have been dropped after public disapproval.

Has Wildlife Reserves Singapore published any new information about the upcoming River Safari?

Ituri said:

Has Wildlife Reserves Singapore published any new information about the upcoming River Safari?

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No new info has been published since the first announcement in Feb 2009.

I'm sure WRS is still tweaking the plans. Some Night Safari exhibits have to be relocated so that has complicated the River Safari development too.

This boat ride will soon be relocated to the River Safari and be branded as a "River Cruise"; according to plans there will be some animal exhibits built along the shores of the cruise route, though no details are available yet. This cruise is meant to complement the Amazon River Quest boat ride, which operates on a man-made simulated river. The River Quest ride is undergoing testing and should open in December.

Zooish said:

This boat ride will soon be relocated to the River Safari and be branded as a "River Cruise"; according to plans there will be some animal exhibits built along the shores of the cruise route, though no details are available yet. This cruise is meant to complement the Amazon River Quest boat ride, which operates on a man-made simulated river. The River Quest ride is undergoing testing and should open in December.

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Any guesses as to animal exhibits that they might build for the new boat ride in River Safari?

DavidBrown said:

Any guesses as to animal exhibits that they might build for the new boat ride in River Safari?

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Would have to be large ungulates I presume, as the boats will operate a distance from shore and smaller animals would not be visible. The boat route will pass the Night Safari site, and some of the existing exhibits for giraffes and elephants for example already border the water. It could be a case of simply reconfiguring these exhibits to be viewable from the boat.