electric blue gecko is a nice one! Horned lizard and caiman lizard are also not too shabby. Interesting that all the species in publicity are exotic ones.
Perhaps entirely intentional, as the Southeast Asian herptile collection will supposedly be presented at the new Rainforest Park. Or maybe its just because those exotic species have nice colours!
... or are simply more interesting for Singaporians then the "common" local herpetofauna like cobras, reticulated pythons, water monitors and asian turtles that can be found in the backyard ...
A Red-shanked Douc was born on 24 April (sex unknown at present). To answer a question from earlier in this thread, the Geoffroy's Spider Monkeys came from Switzerland (Basel Zoo).
Two female Asian Elephants will be arriving from India soon. In exchange Singapore will send 1.1 White Rhino to Mysura Mysuru Zoo to get guests from Singapore and Chennai Zoos - Star of Mysore
Singapore will be sending a 5 year old make and 1.5 year old female, I guess offspring they wish to offload given limited off-exhibit space required to prevent inbreeding? Do they need more elephants? Will these be displayed at the Zoo or Night Safari?
I hope an expansion of the Zoo exhibit is planned for the future, especially as species leave the Zoo for the Rainforest Park. The elephants used to get walked through part of the Zoo to the bathing pool and ride area, but I don't think that happens any more, which reduces their available space. I can imagine Singapore could create a much nicer exhibit than the current exhibit as well, which feels smaller as it is largely circled by the path. I'm not sure on the size of the Night Safari exhibits, but at least the cows there get some time in the other exhibit near River Safari during the day.
Interesting news, I didn't think WRS needed more elephants. It already has 11, 2 of which are males. Of the females, 1 is E.m.maximus, and 2 are E.m.sumatranus; the rest are E.m.indicus. The new elephants will likely go to Night Safari. Besides the enclosures seen from the tram, there is another enclosure which can only be seen from the River Safari Cruise. There was a plan to consolidate all the elephants at the Zoo and Night Safari into one herd at a single location. Perhaps that might happen at the new Rainforest Park South section.
Are you suggesting that elephants would no longer be displayed at either Zoo or Night Safari in that case (or perhaps shuffled between Rainforest Park and Night Safari daily)?
Possibly no more elephants at the Zoo. For Rainforest Park South (the section that sits on current Night Safari land), there is a plan to integrate the exhibits with the Night Safari's tram ride - so the exhibits can be viewed both in the day and at night.
First look at RepTopia courtesy of the lighting contractor's Instagram account: Instagram post by Metalmek • May 22, 2017 at 2:42am UTC Quite a change from the old snake house. RepTopia will be divided into 4 zones - Indo-Pacific, African Jungle, Neotropics and Deserts of the World. It opens to the public this Saturday.
That looks way different and much more modern than the Snake House, and I am very keen to hear the full species list once it has been visited! The lack of natives is surprising, but presumably this is due to the eventual display of these species in the Rainforest Park.
Sorry, judging from the pictures(!) I'm not that happy. A lot of mock rock and artificial plants (although nicely designed) that could have been used for (additional) animal exhibits. By the way (I'm not a herpeto expert): Is it necessary to create a building with clima controlled conditions for tropical reptiles even in Singapore?
Those are live plants actually! A number of species are non native and will need some level of climate control. I suspect the air conditioning is mostly for visitor comfort though.
Sorry for the confusion: I did not mean the small green plants, I was thinking at the trees surrounded by strangler fig roots. (Or are they really real? - if so, then I beg your pardon of course). Thank you for explanation for phrase 2. Yes, I remember that air condition at Singapore Zoo could sometimes be very welcome...
