Singapore Zoo Singapore Zoo News 2024

In lighter hearted news, the zoo's male pig-nosed turtle trends on social media. He's a rather inquisitive individual, and on my visits he kept on swimming up to visitors

Pig-nosed turtle at S'pore Zoo that follows visitors around in its exhibit isn't actually lonely

 

I managed to make a rather quick visit to the zoo last Tuesday and have some news to report. As usual, the herps in Reptopia have been moved again. The herp curator sure is busy !

Species changes

• The nursery line-up has changed quite a bit. The large-eyed pit viper has been removed and was replaced by Sakishima grass lizards. Glad to see that this species is back on exhibit! The Roti Island snake-necked turtle hatchling from last year has also been put on exhibit. Very tiny!
• For the first tank, apart from new plantings, the Australian lizards (Blue-tongued skink and Shingleback skink) are back on exhibit. While the tortoise is off-exhibit and the chameleon in another tank, the ornate mastigures have moved to the tank that formerly hosted the shinglebacks.
• The inlet-tank formerly housing rough knob-tailed gecko is now holding blue spiny-tailed lizards
• Caiman lizards have been removed from the Amazon tank and have moved to a smaller tank beside the emerald tree monitors. As a result, the tank feels very empty without them.
• A veiled chameleon is now in the small tank that last housed a paradise flying snake (I believe)
• As reported by @DannySG, 3 smallish Argentine black-and-white tegus have replaced the blood python.
• The Asian giant tortoises in the outdoor yard have been replaced by red-footed tortoises. The giant tortoises are now housed in the yard formerly holding radiated tortoises, which have since been moved to Tortoise Shell-ter, replacing the leopard tortoises.
• A reticulated python(s?) named Bubbles is now housed with the Burmese python. A mix from the old snake house!

In other news, signage for nyala was up by the RRH paddock, indicating that the species might be housed there at a later time.

Animal highlights

• Not much to report, but I saw the female muntjac that day! Usually a no show for me.
• It was great to see the hunting dog pack romp around their exhibit. Babies always make an exhibit so much better, not least babies of animals which are naturally active!
• Lastly, I managed to see the male babirusa rooting for food. Must have been the rain...

 

Actually there are more changes to Reptopia. Here's the current roster of exhibits (excluding the hatchery, and starting from the Komodo Dragon entrance):

Ornate Uromastyx (bubble tank)

Blue-tongued Skink, Shingleback Skink (open top tank)

Rhinoceros Iguana, Blue Spiny Lizard (inset tank)

Western Diamondback Rattlesnake, Red-knee Tarantula (inset tank)

Philippine Sailfin Lizard, Fly River Turtle (former Caiman Lizard tank)

Emerald Boa, Blue Poison Dart Frog

Veiled Chameleon

West African Gaboon Viper

Black-and-whitw Tegu

Beaded Lizard, Socotra Blue Baboon Tarantula (inset tank), Bell's Forest Dragon (inset tank 2)

Golden Poison Dart Frog, Black-legged Poison Dart Frog

Emerald Tree Monitor, Rote Island Snake-necked Turtle

Caiman Lizard

Crocodile Monitor

King Cobra

Retuculated Python, Burmese Python, Gold-ringed Cat Snake

Big-headed Turtle, Crocodile Lizard, White's Tree Frog, Vietnamese Mossy Frog, Paddle-Tailed Newt (paludariums)

Outdoors:
Crocodile Monitor

Red-footed Tortoise

Chinese Alligator, Black Pond Turtle

Asian Brown Tortoise

Walk through exhibit remains closed.

 

this looks much, much less than the original roster, which kinda saddens me. dyk what they're doing to the aviary that's causing it to be closed for months?

 

Great to see the tegus but disappointing that a lot of animals (Fiji banded iguana, Gila monster, mata mata, Moellendorf's rat snake, ornate tree snake) have been moved off-display and there's double up exhibits (crocodile monitor, Fly River turtle, Philippine sailfin lizard, rhinoceros iguana) unless those individuals have been moved here and different species are taking up their enclosures. The geographic theming has also been discarded with the tegus and beaded lizards in former Asian tanks, all the Madagascan species including the panther chameleon which is literally Reptopia's logo are gone and it feels less cohesive.

As of now, the aviary has a decent sized flock of grey parrots, still seems to be undergoing some renovations.

Last thing I'll bring up is are Mandai's beaded lizards Heloderma horridum or H. exasperatum? They're signed as horridum but are called exasperatum in an official Mandai document and Zootierliste

 

I think the aviary needs repairs. There are no animals in there now.

The Sailfin Lizard and Fly River Turtle were moved over from the Pygmy Hippo exhibit.

The Beaded Lizards are Heloderma exasperatum.

 

Indigo the Linne's Two-toed Sloth gave birth to a new female pup on 8/1/24. her name is Hope

this is the Zoo's 2nd sloth birth, the first being Luca on 18/9/23

 

Where does it say the pup is female?

 

oh, i just double checked the source and it didnt mention the gender. i mustve assumed it was female bc of its name

sry for being careless

 

A couple more updates from RepTopia: Gila Monsters are now with the Western Diamondback Rattlesnakes; the Vietnamese Pond Turtles from the Pygmy Hippo exhibit have also been moved to the enclosure with the Sailfin Lizard and Fly River Turtle. (There are no more reptiles at the Pygmy Hippo exhibit.)

Also, part of an old attraction at the Zoo is being refurbished as a temporary animal holding for hoofstock. If you know, you know.

 

Which species occupy the 3 tanks in the pygmy hippo exhibit now? Last I visited, jaguar cichlids from the caiman lizard tank were in the former male anaconda tank

Glad to see the okapi plans materialising! Would they import from America, Europe or Japan, the only other place in Asia with okapis? Besides okapis and sifakas, are there any other plans for major new species for Rainforest Wild, assuming most of Asia’s species are already in their collection?

 

Japan’s Okapi population is declining, and it is unlikely that Japan will export any when it’s own population is reducing.

 

Japan's okapi are only Zoorasia and 1 individual in Tokyo Ueno. In the past Kanazawa also held okapi.

BTW: Asia wise you are forgetting Al Bustan UAE. They maintain a breeding group of okapi.

 

Actually, the one in Ueno died a couple months ago.

 

TBH: the Japan population is ageing with little or no reproduction (really wonder why and what is going on there). I even thought that Kanazawa may even now no longer have okapi either... Maybe you or @PossumRoach may know more there.

 

You beat me to it. I visited Ueno in November 2023 and the signage was removed and the enclosure to the left of the giraffes was empty.

 

Would probably be Europe... the North American population isn't in the best position itself to export, and as has been mentioned the Japanese population has dwindled to just a few individuals now.

 

Vantara Greens Zoological Rescue And Rehabilitation Kingdom in India just obtained 1.2 from Al Bustan last year.

 

I have my reservations in regards to this collection built up from scratch with no history nor experience whatsoever of wild animal and zoo management.

It seems to me a rich man's gone mad hobby ... A play thing to have all these rare species. I will keep track of this collection with some trepidation. In India sometimes social standing, money and resources take the fore up and above over the highest standards of animal management and zoo animal and vet care. I will follow the Greens Zoo with some interest from now.

My reservations are fuelled by the fact that recent imports into India of African wildlife with which the local zoos have little or no experience have not always been to the highest standards and how maintaining imported cheetah for any length of time in the local zoos has been a challenge with unacceptably high levels of deaths in the new imports in a fairly short space of time.

 

I completely agree with you on this! It is quite worrying to me, but I can say that he has built up a team of well-experienced individuals, from the veterinary team to the keepers. Only time will tell.