My Holiday » Singapore Zoo

My Holiday
01-02-2008

Has anyone been to Singapore or Sabah?

We will be going and would like to know what people thought.

What were the zoos and birdparks like?
How easy is it to see wild animals?

Any other tips would be appreciated!

Thanks,

Jonathan

SE Asia
01-02-2008

I have been to Singapore and Sabah

As you are a keen bird fan , your highlight will probably be Jurong Bird Park
It will be impossible for you to absorb it all in one day -- I am not really a BIG bird fan , but it kept me happily interested for about 7 hours ......

When I was in Sabah ( 17 years ago ) you could hear alot more wildlife than you could see . Back then the infrastructure was still very underdeveloped -- it took 6 hours for 4 wheel drive to get from Ranau to Sandakan as the "road" was diabolical , so I had to make do with Sepilok . I had a lucky day there -- about a dozen orangs came out for a feed , and were within a couple of metres from us

Please send me a PM if you want to know more information about other stuff in Singapore / Sabah

01-02-2008

how easy the animals are to see depends on what you're looking for. In general, primates and squirrels are pretty easy, pigs and deer and so forth relatively easy around camp areas where they are used to people; other mammals are often tricky (especially as most of them are nocturnal). In Sabah there are various operators that do night tours after cats, lorises etc (check out the links via mammal watching around the world ).

Birds, again, depends on what kind of bird. Some are easy while some are very hard. Birding in the tropics isn't necessarily the way you imagine it to be. Yes there are tons of birds out there, but they do have the annoying habit of preferring to be up in the tops of trees where you can't see them. Often you can hear them but not see them, which is frustrating. As a first-timer in Asia you certainly won't see as much as someone more experienced, but you will still see a lot and everything will be amazing to you. Check out birdtours.co.uk - The Bird Watching Trip and Tour Report collection for trip reports on Sabah.

What are your travel plans? As in, when are you going, how many days in Singapore, Sabah, etc

02-02-2008

in Singapore, while you may be too busy with the zoos and bird park to visit any of the less manicured places, I would highly recommend you do try the Botanic Gardens. They open at 5am (though the sun doesn't come up till about 7) and you can easily fit in a couple of hours there in the morning before the zoos open, or in the evening. Doing this will give you a head start on Asian birding without taking away from zoo-time, and you can see how you go with spotting and identifying all the common species there. There is also a "rainforest" area in the Gardens which will give you a feel for what its like birding in a real forest.

Even if you don't go over to Pulau Ubin, a trip to Changi Village just to see the Goffin's cockatoos and moustached parrots would be good for you. There are also lesser sulphur-crested cockatoos in Singapore, although their numbers are declining and they are getting harder to find (Sentosa Island has them although I've only seen Goffin's there; the big sprawling expanse that is the Bukit Brown cemetery is also supposed to be a good spot for them). Little corellas have more recently become established but there aren't many so you probably won't see any. Long-tailed parrots are native, and can be easily found in the Botanic Gardens (but hard to get good views of because they are quite flighty).

If you did get some time a walk up Bukit Timah would give you an idea of what hill-climbing in the tropics will be like (hint: hot and sweaty!), and because there's only one tree shrew in Singapore (Tupaia glis) as opposed to the ten in Borneo, at least you'll know what you're looking at!

02-02-2008

I'm impressed Chlidonias. You did some serious birding in Singapore!

The Botanic Gardens are excellent, a trip there is a must if you love nature. And its free (except the orchid garden which has a token admission fee).
Easy to spot birds are sunbirds, magpie robins, bee-eaters, parakeets and various pigeon species. Around the lakes, look for herons, egrets and bitterns.

Changi Village's cockatoos are usually not hard to spot. If you're lucky, the resident Oriental Pied Hornbills can be seen there too.

Hard to spot much in Bukit Timah (except the macaques) because the forest is just too thick. I'd suggest MacRitchie Reservoir instead, with the Treetops Walk bridge; its a long hike (2 - 3 hours) to get to the 250m-long, 25m-high bridge, but it offers expansive views of the surrounding forest.

03-02-2008

birds that you're almost guaranteed to see at the Botanic Gardens include tree sparrows, spot-necked dove, pink-necked green pigeon, Javan mynah, white-breasted waterhen, black-crowned night heron, long-tailed parakeet, black-naped oriole, lesser whistling ducks, olive-backed sunbird, yellow-vented bulbul, magpie-robin, common tailorbird, Pacific swallow, various swifts and swiftlets, scarlet-backed flowerpeckers, white-throated kingfisher, golden-bellied gerygone