River Wonders Questions about river safari ???

[Kathir]

There have stated that river safari singapore will be consisting of 500 species and 500 specimens.Is that included the fish species ? If yes means how many species of freshwater fishes will be on display ?

 

[samstown]

i recently visited the river safari and I am not sure that there were so many species on display though. it certainly seems less than 500 to me . not that i was counting of course

 

[Zooish]

@samstown: River Safari isn't open yet and most of the enclosures haven't been stocked. Did you get a preview tour?

In any case, the park has revised the number of species to 300, most of which will be small freshwater fish.

 

[samstown]

@zooish, oh dear, then i am not sure what I visited, because i was under the impression that the pandas were housed in the river safari area when i visited them. Are they not? In that case, ,my apologies for causing confusion. No wonder I didn't see so many species.

 

[Zooish]

@samstown: You did visit the River Safari, but only a small section of it

The Panda exhibit is part of River Safari but was opened ahead of the rest of the park, which covers 12 hectares in total. The whole park will hopefully open before the end of the year if we're really lucky...

 

[Chlidonias]

I wonder how many people visit the pandas and think that is the entire River Safari, and then won't return when it is fully open.

 

[zooboy28]

I wonder how many people visit the pandas and think that is the entire River Safari, and then won't return when it is fully open.

Surely they would be promoting the opening of the entire River Safari very heavily, especially within the "panda precinct". There is a risk that, even if people know that the whole park is opening, they will not bother visiting, as they will have already seen the main attraction.

 

[samstown]

I agree, I for one thought that was just it, i didn't know that it wasn't fully opened yet. Hmm, now i wished i had waited but i guess i will definitely go again though now that i know

 

[Zooish]

Most people think River Safari is a new precinct within the Zoo rather than a standalone attraction. I'm sure they will ramp up marketing once they actually have an opening date.

In retrospect, WRS probably made the right decision to open the panda exhibit first. Given the continued delay in River Safari's opening, they would be bleeding lots of money (in utilities and husbandry costs) if the panda exhibit hadn't begun collecting admission fees.

 

[Dejiki]

The whole park will hopefully open before the end of the year if we're really lucky...

They seemed so confident on opening before March 2013. I recall seeing "Friends of River Safari" annual passes on sale on WRS website (which were pulled in Late January).

What is really going on? And is a 2014 opening really the most realistic expectation now?

 

[zooboy28]

They seemed so confident on opening before March 2013. I recall seeing "Friends of River Safari" annual passes on sale on WRS website (which were pulled in Late January).

What is really going on? And is a 2014 opening really the most realistic expectation now?

I really hope a 2014 opening is not at all realistic, as a mid- (pr maybe late-) 2013 opening should definitely be possible. Clearly many of the key components for River Safari are in place - are they just waiting for the Amazon boat ride to be completed or are other sections still unfinished?

 

[Zooish]

The only thing holding back the opening of River Safari is the Amazon boat ride. They discovered design flaws during ride testing in Jan 13 and modifications have to be made to the boats and possibly parts of the ride system. It now depends on how quickly the ride manufacturer (Intamin I believe) can correct all the flaws, so no opening date is available.

 

[BlitztheOkapi]

Surely they would be promoting the opening of the entire River Safari very heavily, especially within the "panda precinct". There is a risk that, even if people know that the whole park is opening, they will not bother visiting, as they will have already seen the main attraction.

The pandas ARE doing the main advertising. In fact, I think they added the "Yangtze River" section because of the pandas, to make it more diverse in species

 

[Zooish]

The pandas ARE doing the main advertising. In fact, I think they added the "Yangtze River" section because of the pandas, to make it more diverse in species

Pandas were not part of the original plans for River Safari. The Yangtze River section had been planned, but pandas were only added in very late into the design stage of the park. The polar bears were the original "star attractions" planned for River Safari - Frozen Tundra was supposed to be part of River Safari, but was reconfigured to be part of the Zoo instead as River Safari had gotten the pandas as the anchor attraction instead.