River Wonders River Safari details revealed
- Thread starter Zooish
- Start date
Latest: River Safari's opening has been pushed back to the 2nd half of 2012 (likely September) due to delays in construction.
The Pandas originally due to arrive in Singapore at the end of this year will only arrive in the 1st quarter of 2012.
The park has also announced that it will be home to 17 species of Chelonians, including Narrow-headed Softshell Turtle (Chitra sp.), Chinese Big-headed Turtle (Platystanon megacephelum) and Chinese Striped-necked Turtle (Ocadia sinensis).
WILDLIFE RESERVES SINGAPORE HOSTS REGIONAL WORKSHOP ON TURTLE CONSERVATION Wildlife Times
The Pandas originally due to arrive in Singapore at the end of this year will only arrive in the 1st quarter of 2012.
The park has also announced that it will be home to 17 species of Chelonians, including Narrow-headed Softshell Turtle (Chitra sp.), Chinese Big-headed Turtle (Platystanon megacephelum) and Chinese Striped-necked Turtle (Ocadia sinensis).
WILDLIFE RESERVES SINGAPORE HOSTS REGIONAL WORKSHOP ON TURTLE CONSERVATION Wildlife Times
The River Safari looks very interesting and worth a visit when finished.
Anyone know where they are from in Thailand? Wild captured, pond raised, captive bred or something else? I know the two rare giant catfish (Pangasianodon gigas and Pangasius sanitwongsei) and the rare giant carp (Catlocarpio siamensis) from Mekong now are bred and raised in ponds and that may safeguard them in case they go extinct in the wild but I've been unable to find anything about possible captive raising/breeding of the giant freshwater stingray. I guess it hasn't happened but you never know.
Pdf about the four giants Mekong fish including some about the planned dams that probably will cause the extinction (at least in the wild) of one or more of them
http://assets.panda.org/downloads/new_river_of_giants_report_14_may_2010_web_version.pdf
Anyone know where they are from in Thailand? Wild captured, pond raised, captive bred or something else? I know the two rare giant catfish (Pangasianodon gigas and Pangasius sanitwongsei) and the rare giant carp (Catlocarpio siamensis) from Mekong now are bred and raised in ponds and that may safeguard them in case they go extinct in the wild but I've been unable to find anything about possible captive raising/breeding of the giant freshwater stingray. I guess it hasn't happened but you never know.
Pdf about the four giants Mekong fish including some about the planned dams that probably will cause the extinction (at least in the wild) of one or more of them
http://assets.panda.org/downloads/new_river_of_giants_report_14_may_2010_web_version.pdf
Thanks for sharing.
It would be nice if Singapore Zoo could raise their profile including the endangered Chinese turtles to go on show at River Safari when it opens in 2012. Perhaps it may even kickstart a backlash against the proposed damming schemes (damning more like in environmental terms
).There you go, you got my attention
Here's an interesting species on the list, do you have any idea where these animals are coming from? Both the EEP as the SSP could do with some new blood in the next few years
At least some of the otters are coming from the US.
The stingrays were obtained from a commercial breeder in Thailand called Thai Qian Hu, but I can't confirm if they were captive bred. What i can say with certainty though is that this breeder has an excellent record breeding endangered fish such as arrowana and arapaima, and it has been experimenting with breeding techniques for S.American freshwater stingrays in recent years.
And thanks for the article. The Mekong is a much-overlooked biodiversity hotspot.
Thanks for sharing.
It would be nice if Singapore Zoo could raise their profile including the endangered Chinese turtles to go on show at River Safari when it opens in 2012. Perhaps it may even kickstart a backlash against the proposed damming schemes (damning more like in environmental terms
The Mekong catfish and stingrays have been highlighted as "star" species for River Safari (but bound to be eclipsed by the Pandas of course), so they should feature strongly in the park's education/conservation materials.
As for the dams, it will be a tough battle given the Indochinese countries' drive for economic development and hunger for energy...
Gerenuk, do you have more information?
River Safari will be acquiring a pair from a German Zoo (Hamburg i believe).
Thanks for answer Zooish. I've been looking more around and it seems the stingray still hasn't been bred (at least not in quantities that could help its situation) but sometimes adult pregnant stingrays have given birth shortly after being captured.
(today arrowana and arapaima are bred in quite high quantities at several facilities.)
I do hope the Mekong section of River Safari will bring much needed attention to the plight of this river and its fish. If they could add some attention to the Asian turtles like mentioned by Kifaru Bwana it would be very good too. They already have Chitra chitra on their homepage. It is under the Ganges section but perhaps they use old taxonomy where Chitra indica is a race of Chitra chitra.
(today arrowana and arapaima are bred in quite high quantities at several facilities.)
I do hope the Mekong section of River Safari will bring much needed attention to the plight of this river and its fish. If they could add some attention to the Asian turtles like mentioned by Kifaru Bwana it would be very good too. They already have Chitra chitra on their homepage. It is under the Ganges section but perhaps they use old taxonomy where Chitra indica is a race of Chitra chitra.
Sorry for highjacking this thread. Skip ahead if you don't care about fish farming.
@zoomaniac
They're not really 'institutions' (at least not in the way I understand the word) but commercial enterprises for supplying the fish marked. Most are in southeast Asia, especially West Malaysia, Singapore and on Java in Indonesia. Arapaima also in South America, especially Brazil and Peru. Scleropages leichardti in Australia.
For breeding arapaima and arowana most use big outdoor ponds but the arowana can also be bred in big concrete tanks (there has also been breeding of arowanas in big aquariums like at Bristol Zoo but this is very rare). Among arowanas Scleropages leichardti, S. jardinii, S. formosus (including its variants that many now believe are separate species: S. aureus, S. legendrei and S. macrocephalus) and Osteoglossum bicirrhosum are bred in fish farms but I don't know if there are farms that breed the African Heterotis niloticus because the demand for those is smaller. I have conflicting information about O. ferreirai and don't know if it raised in farms. It's also fish farms that breed many other species that have proven nearly impossible to breed under normal conditions in aquariums, e.g. red-tailed black shark. A species now extinct in the wild but easily available in the aquarium trade because of the fish farms. Many more common aquarium fish are also produced in huge quantities in farms, like freshwater anglefish and the deformed flowerhorn and parrot cichlids. For some species they also use hormones to help get them in the mood.
The arapaima are mainly bred for human consumption (in 2005 it was estimated that about 15% of the 50-60 tons of arapaima that was consumed per month in Manaus in Brazil was from fish farms Farming the world's largest freshwater fish) and to be put into lakes in southeast Asia where people pay to be allowed to catch the fish. If you google arapaima+fishing many results are fishing trips to Thailand (one of many Arapaima fishing Thailand). The Asian arowana are bred for the aquarium trade because according to Chinese belief that fish will bring good luck to the person owning it. Two of the more famous places for both arapaima and arowana are Qian Hu (the company mentioned by Zooish earlier. I believe they first started breeding arowana in the late 1990's and arapaima in 2003) that have departments in several countries and Max Koi Farm in Singapore. There are many more but most only maintain and breed one of the species. Google search for..
arapaima/pirarucu/arowana + farming/fish farm/aquaculture
..and you get literally thousand of results. There are also some videos on youtube. Most of the ponds aren't pretty but they work. With the Asian arowana they're now also breeding new color variants that can't be found in the wild (e.g. hybrid between red and green arowana) and if you have £58,000 you can even get a two-headed version. An insane price for what I think is animal cruelty but apparently some believe it will bring even more luck to the owner than a normal one Siamese (Double Headed) Arowana
If you go to the Buy & Import in the last link you can find a list of some of the more famous Asian arowana breeders (because of CITES the only legal import of arowanas to Europe and North America are captive bred Importing Asian Arowana). Tragically the commercial breeding hasn't stopped the overexploitation of the wild populations.
@zoomaniac
They're not really 'institutions' (at least not in the way I understand the word) but commercial enterprises for supplying the fish marked. Most are in southeast Asia, especially West Malaysia, Singapore and on Java in Indonesia. Arapaima also in South America, especially Brazil and Peru. Scleropages leichardti in Australia.
For breeding arapaima and arowana most use big outdoor ponds but the arowana can also be bred in big concrete tanks (there has also been breeding of arowanas in big aquariums like at Bristol Zoo but this is very rare). Among arowanas Scleropages leichardti, S. jardinii, S. formosus (including its variants that many now believe are separate species: S. aureus, S. legendrei and S. macrocephalus) and Osteoglossum bicirrhosum are bred in fish farms but I don't know if there are farms that breed the African Heterotis niloticus because the demand for those is smaller. I have conflicting information about O. ferreirai and don't know if it raised in farms. It's also fish farms that breed many other species that have proven nearly impossible to breed under normal conditions in aquariums, e.g. red-tailed black shark. A species now extinct in the wild but easily available in the aquarium trade because of the fish farms. Many more common aquarium fish are also produced in huge quantities in farms, like freshwater anglefish and the deformed flowerhorn and parrot cichlids. For some species they also use hormones to help get them in the mood.
The arapaima are mainly bred for human consumption (in 2005 it was estimated that about 15% of the 50-60 tons of arapaima that was consumed per month in Manaus in Brazil was from fish farms Farming the world's largest freshwater fish) and to be put into lakes in southeast Asia where people pay to be allowed to catch the fish. If you google arapaima+fishing many results are fishing trips to Thailand (one of many Arapaima fishing Thailand). The Asian arowana are bred for the aquarium trade because according to Chinese belief that fish will bring good luck to the person owning it. Two of the more famous places for both arapaima and arowana are Qian Hu (the company mentioned by Zooish earlier. I believe they first started breeding arowana in the late 1990's and arapaima in 2003) that have departments in several countries and Max Koi Farm in Singapore. There are many more but most only maintain and breed one of the species. Google search for..
arapaima/pirarucu/arowana + farming/fish farm/aquaculture
..and you get literally thousand of results. There are also some videos on youtube. Most of the ponds aren't pretty but they work. With the Asian arowana they're now also breeding new color variants that can't be found in the wild (e.g. hybrid between red and green arowana) and if you have £58,000 you can even get a two-headed version. An insane price for what I think is animal cruelty but apparently some believe it will bring even more luck to the owner than a normal one Siamese (Double Headed) Arowana
If you go to the Buy & Import in the last link you can find a list of some of the more famous Asian arowana breeders (because of CITES the only legal import of arowanas to Europe and North America are captive bred Importing Asian Arowana). Tragically the commercial breeding hasn't stopped the overexploitation of the wild populations.
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are wolverines definitely still a part of this, do you know? I have a friend who is very excited about the wolverines!Zooish said:
in post #57 (page 4) Zooish says "If i'm not mistaken PJA architects created Naracoorte Cave and are involved in River Safari"Kathir said:
well Zooish deserves the thanks, I merely copied his post
well Zooish deserves the thanks, I merely copied his post
You deserve thanks for copying the post then
Based on what I've heard, wolverines are confirmed. Now its a matter of figuring out when Frozen Tundra will open; principal construction hasn't started yet!
From what I understand a consortium is designing the park. Firms associated include PJA architects, BIOS LCC and MWH Global (wet infrastructure specialist).
On your other question, yes the 500 species includes fish. I have no idea how many species will be fish, but presumably it will be the majority. I'm guessing that mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians will make up about 100 species.
@Kathir: you're most welcome
The Pandas arriving in Singapore next year have been named "Kai Kai" and "Jia Jia":
Pandas coming to S'pore named Kai Kai and Jia Jia - Channel NewsAsia
The Pandas arriving in Singapore next year have been named "Kai Kai" and "Jia Jia":
Pandas coming to S'pore named Kai Kai and Jia Jia - Channel NewsAsia