Wildlife Experience in Singapore Zoo

I guess most of us at least have once experience visiting zoo. The very first time I been to the zoo was during my primary school , one day trip to the National Zoo. When I was young, my impression to the zoo was boring, a bit smelly and nothing to see (possibly I was too short). During the school trip, what impressed me was not the animals, but the KFC fast food restaurant inside the zoo. Hastily random walk a while, I went inside the restaurant to enjoy the delicious fried chicken meal, and after then walked back to the entrance to wait for time to go back.

After a interval of twenty years, I visited a zoo again, but this time I had went for Singapore national Zoo. Well, at first I was not quite interested to go, but since had token long  hours of train from Malaysia to Singapore, no harm to have a look on it.

 The Singapore Zoo, formerly known as the Singapore Zoological Gardens and commonly known locally as the Mandai Zoo, occupies 28 hectares (69 acres) on the margins of Upper Seletar Reservoir within Singapore's heavily forested central catchment area. The zoo was built at a cost of S$9m granted by the government of Singapore and opened on 27 June 1973.  (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singapore_Zoo)

Singapore zoo is among the most famous and excellent zoo in the world, which make it received a lots of accreditation and accolades.

Coincidentally the day we visited the Singapore Zoo was school holiday, so we saw lots of students wearing school uniforms everywhere and some family who taking their children to visit the Zoo. From the first step I step into the zoo, it really started changing my impression on how a zoo look like.

Before we reach the ticket counter, there were some “animals” waiting for us.:


Rights into the zoo now. The first step into the zoo, it give a feeling of comfortable, feel like really came into a forest, because there are plants everywhere.


It is large inside, with different types and themes: Australian Outback, Wild Africa, Cat Country, Primate Kingdom and etc. What was great was there will be some of the zoo’s staff using broadcasters to introduce and explain some animals and their hobbits to the visitors from the time to time.  In specified period of time, there will be some special shows and feeding animals performances. Let us have a look on some selected special photos :

A scary False Gharial

If not mistaken, I think this is Siamang, with white face coarse tail.

Babirusa , one kind of pig species.

Famous White Tiger

Pygmy Hippo that yawning and open its mouth widely.I feel wanted to yawn like this hippo when I saw this picture ^O^

Australia Grey Kangaroo，they are cute!

Cute, what a lovely couple.

I guess this elephant should be quite old, see its skin and hairs!

A group of penguins that had just finished a show.

Komodo Dragon eat a lot, a Komodo Dragon with weight of 46kg can eat up to 41kg of wild boar, which equal to 90% of its weight. We as human normally daily’s eating volume is only 3% of our body weight, so I guess we should call this Komodo dragons as a “Big Eaters” . Well, I think this Komodo Dragon was quite thoughtful to the visitors, as its pose was not much changes although I went and pass by few times, it still not moving. Maybe it wanted visitors to take a better photograph of it?
In this Fragile Forest，we can have closer contacts with these animals, is kind of fun:
What a little “ride roughshod”, please take note this is the pavement for human!!

The Flying Foxes hanging on the trees.

Another gang who love to “ride roughshod” --- Ring-tailed Lemur. The male ring-tailed lemurs would use their unique tails to attract females attentions. This kind of ring-tailed lemurs can only be found in Madagascar.

Hei brother, don’t you think the way you sit is a little bit rude here?

Squirrel Monkey – do not underestimate this little thing, its action can be very agile, is really difficult to catch a photo of this little squirrel monkey.

Lions are resting leisurely

Most looking forward was the Polar Bear show. Polar bear has strong sense of smell which is the most sensitive among all other type of bears, where it can sniff out traces of seal from 64km away. Besides that, polar bear’s height can up to 3m high, which is twice of my height!!

Time for feeding.

A group of zebra looking for foods.

We had spend 4 hours in the zoo, although tired but I really learned a lot from this trip, and was my right decision to visit the Zoo Singapore. Too bad we didn’t have time to go for the Night Safari, maybe next time if there is any opportunity, surely I will try on this fun night adventure.

Singapore Zoo
80 Mandai Lake Road Singapore 729826
Tel: (65) 6269 3411
www.zoo.com.sg

Opening Hour: 8:30am - 06:00pm

Getting Here: Take MRT to Ang Mo Kio station - walk to Ang Mo Kio bus interchange - take Bus No: 138