A lot of news coverage at the moment about the unhealthy smog levels in Singapore due to land clearing by burning in Indonesia. How bad is it really and how is it affecting the animals in Singapore Zoo, Jurong, etc, as well as visitor numbers?
Last week was pretty bad, with the air pollutants index staying in the hazardous (potentially fatal for people with respiratory conditions) range for a few days straight. Localised winds changed over the weekend, sending the haze (as the smog is officially termed here) up north towards Malaysia. The air quality is back to healthy levels in Singapore, for now. WRS responded to press queries that its animals have not reacted adversely to the haze, but it was monitoring the animals closely. No special arrangements have been made to the way the animals are housed at the 4 parks in response to the haze, except the provision of additional drinking water. The 4 parks saw a dip in visitors last week as people avoided the outdoors, but officials declined to reveal actual figures. The parks would cancel its shows and feeding sessions if the haze reaches hazardous levels, but it is more to protect the staff and visitors. This haze situation looks likely to last for a few weeks / months as the dry spell continues in the region and the fires (caused by intentional burning of oil palm plantations to clear and fertilize the land) persist on Sumatra.
Thanks for that Zooish, I'm hoping to come back down again next month sometime but was concerned by this. I'll just have to keep my eye on the reports and the weather.
You can refer to this haze advisory website by the National Environment Agency of Singapore: National Environment Agency Updated to add: We just had an intense thunderstorm after almost 2 weeks of 'drought' and marble-sized HAIL fell in parts of the island. The weather is going nuts here!