Rivers of the World - Mississippi River

The first exhibit for this zone features a pair of American Beavers (nicknamed Justin and Selena - if you get the pun), which share their exhibit with Wood Ducks, Bluegill, Black Crappie and Golden Shiner.

Is this the first exhibit visitors see upon entering the park? This area looks quite well themed. Are the beavers a new species to Singapore? Where did they come from?

Is the whole zoo basically just exhibits along a single path? Any options for route variation? Are there any open spaces or lawns or anything like that?

Yes, if you choose to start via Rivers of the World. At least for now with smaller crowds the park isn't strict about having visitors go in one direction. Much effort has gone into theming for the park, with each zone being fairly distinct.

Beavers are a new species to Singapore. I have no clue where they came from.

It is a single path, essentially a large loop. The path widens along some zones to offer views of the reservoir, and there are open plazas at the pandas and Wild Amazonia. No lawns though.

I see you got your answer (part of it at least)

Yeah, if they reply again I will update here, there are 18 European zoos (10 countries) holding American Beavers (according to zootierliste), so if they at least say the country that will narrow it down a fair bit.

Well they did update again, which I certainly appreciate (many zoos don't bother), but just to say that they "can't reveal the zoological institution", which I guess is up to them.

Indeed, they can be a bit 'cloak and dagger' over certain things, but animal transfers, at least between reputable institutions, certainly shouldn't be mysterious, and are often well-publicised.

A further question relating to the beavers is are they related? Coming from the same zoo suggests that they may be siblings.

10 out of 10 on the rating scale! Didn't Cincy almost have a rivers of the world exhibit? I think there was a fire and the building became Manatee Springs. Gharials were going to be one of the animals. I wish America had something like this.