Sojourn to Singapore

On the way back from New Zealand I had planned to make a quick stop in "The home of all the rules", better known as Singapore. In total I had 6 days to explore the natural attractions of the island, including all the five major zoological institutions. I will focus in this thread on my impressions of the five zoos, starting with Singapore Zoo.

Singapore Zoo

The Singapore Zoo has been a topic of heated discussions here and has been described by many as one of the top zoos on the planet. TripAdvisor lists the zoo as one of the top zoos on the planet and such a ranking would normally be enough to doubt its greatness. Singapore's main claim to fame is that it is a rainforest zoo and that is where it disappoints, not only is the planting often used to mask shortcomings in enclosures, but I found the botanical department pretty disappointing given the possibilities. At first look the zoo is lush and green and it has the rainforesty look, but in reality a large number of the trees belong to just a few exotic species and the planting is of a lower level than in quite some European zoos. Especially when comparing the zoo to the Singapore Botanic Gardens it looks as if there is no plan on how to use the vegetation to enhance the experience except from making it look lush... Does this mean that Singapore Zoo is an ugly zoo, far from it, but there would be much potential to improve. That said this is probably the best zoo for spotting wild animals I have visited. Although I missed the Colugo here, I did see two Squirrel species, Long-tailed macaque and a lot of birds including Grey-headed fish eagle, Stork-billed kingfisher and Racquet-tailed drongo. A highlight were the many gliding lizards displaying and gliding throughout the zoo.

The biggest debate on Singapore is on how good the enclosures actually are and the first impressions are very good, with a very attractive and spacious cage for Proboscis monkey, Pied hornbill and Indian muntjak. On the other side of the entrance is one of the lushest and largest Siamang islands I have ever seen and the huge pool is inhabited by False gharials. A personal highlight here were my first Greater mousedeer. If you turn left after these enclosures the impression changes dramatically with a smallish Malayan tapir yard, a tiny Babirusa exhibit, an equally small Warthog enclosure with more moat than land space and two Pygmy hippo enclosures with a large pool, but hardly any land and no natural substrate. A positive note here are the spacious and nicely landscaped enclosures for several turtle species, something repeated throughout the zoo. The Singapore Zoo actually has one of the best turtle/tortoise collections I have ever seen in a zoo and all species are in spacious and often attractive enclosures. The reptile house, called Reptopia is also one of the best reptile houses I have seen.

Fortunately the mammal enclosures in the Pygmy hippo corner are the worst in the whole zoo and most mammal enclosures range from relatively ok to pretty good, though there is nothing really outstanding. A highlight would have been to see the "free-ranging" Sumatran orangutan, but I only saw them in their cage. The primate collection in the zoo is very large, but apart from the Proboscis monkeys and Red-shanked doucs is actually pretty standard by European standards. New developments like Reptopia and the new Fossa enclosure make you feel pretty confident that the zoo has seen its shortcomings and that it is able to build nice looking good enclosures for attractive species. But then you reach the Frozen Tundra complex.... The last Polar bear is now deceased and though he was a huge attraction I am glad they are not bringing Polar bears back. The two side exhibits are even worse, the Japanese raccoon dogs actually have quite a spacious enclosure, but with 0 natural light and little natural substrate. The Wolverine enclosure is just appalling, it is way to dark, small and boring for an animal that is kept in many European zoos in large wooded paddocks. In such wooded paddocks they are great display animals, but the Singapore ones didn't even show up. Their enclosure would have already been outdated in the 80ies, so I cannot imagine why someone would go to such great lengths to import such a species to Singapore and then put it in such a concrete airconditioned pit.

Overall I did like the Singapore Zoo though and a highlight was the Fragile Forest walkthrough. In this walkthrough was a mix of species from all continents, but it contained attractive mammals like Flying foxes, Lesser mousedeer, Finlayson's & Prevost squirrel, Ruffed lemur and Two-toed sloth and in addition there was quite a number of pigeon species and some parrots and ducks. It is a bit of an odd bunch, but though it is a spacious walkthrough you can get up close to most species.

If you are a reptile fan, the Singapore Zoo is very good indeed, in addition it contains most of the ABC mammals, as well as some nerd specialities, this all makes for a rather attractive line-up. Though enclosure-wise it is sometimes lacking, the human enclosures, especially the bathrooms are very good indeed. When comparing to European zoos, Singapore would comfortably fit in, but it would be far from the best. Enclosure wise it is far behind the top of Europe and in terms of collection it also cannot keep up with the larger European zoos. It does however offer an experience that is different from its European counterparts and that has all to do with it being in the tropics. Unfortunately that lush environment can't hide its shortcomings and I wouldn't call Singapore Zoo one of the top zoos on the planet. It is however certainly a zoo you should have visited at some point in your life.


next: River Safari

 

Are these Draco lizards? These are a species that I really want to see in the wild and I did not know that wild ones could be seen at the Singapore Zoo.

Thanks for your review, and I look forward to reading about the rest of your journey.

 

Do you do the three Mandai park in one day or two?

 

It's empty. The whole thing is walled off with a memorial to Inuka, and a timeline of his life in Singapore.

 

Yes they are indeed Draco lizards. They are quite easy to see, but they are rather small, so bring your binoculars

I did them in two days. Because of my jetlag I started the day rather early and by 6 am I was on my way to the Botanic Gardens, before going to the zoo at 09:30. I spent most of the day in the Zoo and River Safari and I guessed I would have more energy if I didn't try to squeeze in Night Safari. That said, without a jetlag you could comfortably do all three zoos in a day, given that you are fine with the heat and humidity.

 

River Safari

The River Safari is located right next to the zoo and is the newest of four the WRS attractions. River Safari consists of two parts, the first part Rivers of the World is a series of tanks and enclosures from Asian, African, Australia and N-American rivers. The second part consists of the infamous Amazon River Quest ride and more Amazonian exhibits.

It is shocking that perhaps the best enclosure of them all here is the first: a nicely planted enclosure with a spacious pool called "River Wonders". It contains a mix of small fish, Golden-headed lion tamarin and some pigeons and it is attractive an thoughtful. What follows is a random series of aquariums and enclosures themed around different rivers of the world. The species line-up is attractive with Giant salamanders, Elephant trunk snakes, Giant freshwater stingrays, Gharials and more. But as a whole it feels completely soulless. It is hard to compare River Safari with conventional zoos given the theming around freshwater. What probably comes closest are aquariums like Sea Life and especially Aquatis in Lausanne, Switzerland, another new freshwater aquarium. What is clearly present in Aquatis (and many other aquariums) is a clear flow, something of a storyline to follow that connects the different zones. This flow is completely missing in River Safari and the overarching theme seems to be bigger is better, which might indeed work for many visitors but not for me. It was very nice to see Giant Mekong catfish and Giant freshwater stingrays and the large tanks are pretty good. But it just feels completely unconnected to the previous and the next exhibits.

The second section is dominated by the Amazon River Quest, a boat ride that takes you past a lot of interesting South American mammals, including Red howler monkeys, Bearded saki, Giant anteater and Jaguars. The boat ride could be really good, but it isn't... For starters it really goes far too quick, though I did see every species, it often was not more than a passing glimpse. This feeling was shared by others in the boat "Oh Mann, das geht doch viel zu schnell!". What is even worse is that many enclosures are absolutely appalling. The Jaguar enclosure is possibly the worst I have seen for this species in a long time and hardly gives more space than the Alfred Brehm house. Similar problems exist for most other enclosures, most notably for the Maned wolf, Peccary, Tapir and the larger primates.... I know visibility is an issue, but having bigger enclosures and a slower ride would be much more enjoyable and better for the animals. What was also surprising was how badly all the moats, fences and off-show housing was hidden from view, even after several years the planting could not mask how small and artificial the whole area was.

What follows is a good Squirrel monkey walkthrough, with loads of entertaining Agouti on the ground and a spacious Giant otter pool with an active family of 4. I have read complaints of the land part being very small, but it seemed to be of an ok size and this exhibit was far better than most enclosures I have seen in Europe for this species. The Manatee tank should have been the highlight of it all, but as the focus was just on bigger is better, it did not reach its full potential. The 2 million liter tank is basically deep and somewhat square, with just a few fake trees as decoration. It is certainly impressive to see 10 Manatees, numerous Arapaima and other S-American fish, but size is just not everything. The tank lacks structure and feels very grey, the impression doesn't get better when you make it to the top of the enclosure, which has all the charm of an airport hangar with ugly murals.

Overall I would not visit River Safari again, I am glad I have visited and the species line-up certainly has potential, but overall this zoo is full of missed chances and it feels like a soulless place, where bigger is better seems the only real motto. More attention to detail and animal welfare could have made this zoo so much better, but that would mean significantly downsizing the mammal collection and bringing many more small fish, reptile and amphibian species in...

 

Thanks. Going there in July but I am absolutely fine about the heat and humidity because Hong Kong has a similiar climate as Singapore.

 

Really enjoyed both of your reviews, Singapore is a place I really want to get to some day, and so I've found both reviews extremely interesting. I'm very excited to see what you have to say about the Night Zoo, it seems like a great concept but I'm not sure how well it can be executed.

 

Jurong Bird Park

The zoo I had been looking forward to see most was Jurong and the fact that it will be relocating in a few years was one of the many motivations to get to Singapore this year. By Singapore standards the bird park is far far away from the city centre, but the public transport system of MRT and busses is very good and cheap, so getting there was easy.

As there is really only one other zoo which can compete with Jurong in terms of scale and collection, throughout the park I was making comparisons with Walsrode. I first went to Wings of Asia, which is the Paradieshalle of Jurong, a large freefligiht aviary combined with two rows of smaller cages which are full of rarities. Wings of Asia is however superior, especially when it comes to enclosure quality and the species line-up is pretty spectacular as well with Green broadbill, Santa Cruz ground dove, Crested jay, 2 species of leafbird and many others. Wings of Asia alone already has more bird species than many zoos and it had been a long while since I had so many new species on such a small area.

The highlight of Jurong is the Waterfall aviary, which is the largest aviary I have seen. The area covered is maybe not as huge as it seems at first sight, but with a height of close to forty meters, the dimensions are impressive. There are over 60 bird species from all around the world present, many which do not fit in a rainforest theme, but who cares when you have Rollers, Storks and Hornbills in free flight. As always in such large freeflights a few species dominate, most notably Zebra and Spotted doves. But with some patience I managed to find rarities like Bristlebill, Mockingbird and from a European perspective: Koel and Dollarbird. Just Wings of Asia and the Waterfall aviary would make for a very good birdpark where you could easily spend two hours, but there is more to be explored.

Another highlight are the Bird-of-Paradise aviary, which are visible from two levels in large aviaries. Lesser and Raggiana's were easy to find and all aviaries only seemed to contain males in breeding plumage, with females in smaller off-show aviaries. Finding Red bird-of-paradise was more tricky in the dense vegetation, but as it was calling from time to time, he could be located. Opposite the BoP complex are the Toucan and Hornbill aviaries, which are the largest of their kind that I have seen. This area was a bit disappointing though, as it contained less species than I thought it would and multiple species were present in 2 or 3 aviaries each. Bushy-crested hornbill were the only real rarity and the complex looked somewhat run-down. The Parrot complex felt a bit similarly, though here the collection was indeed really good still, with especially a high variety of Macaw species, with Spix, Lear's and Red-bellied macaws as obvious highlights. Many aviaries here were on the small side, which is almost the only place in the zoo where that can be said, apart from the "Heliconia walk".

With Lory Loft and Jungle Jewels Jurong has two more beautiful large walkthrough aviaries and both are full of highlights, though it seems a pity that every walkthrough aviary, except Wings of Asia, seems to have a random mix of species from all over the world without any connection.

Overall Jurong has a lot to like, but it is not a perfect zoo. The most disappointing was the Penguin house, which looks like a large enclosure, until you realize it has big mirrors on either side, tripling its size. Except from small King penguin and Humboldt penguin groups, the other species in the house are represented by only very few individuals... The Heliconia Walk was also somewhat disappointing as the aviaries were small and very dark. Overall this is what I found to be missing in Jurong, but is something that Walsrode does well: smaller aviaries dotted around the zoo. Jurong is all about the bigger complexes, but that also means that the whole right half of the zoo is devoted to 6 pelican species, 4 flamingo species, a playground and not much else.

Overall Jurong is a really good birdpark and comparing it with Walsrode is pretty tricky. Walsrode certainly has the better collection, though Jurong is also pretty good in this regard. Enclosurewise Jurong has far fewer but much more impressive aviaries than Walsrode, but therefore less of a surprise element, as you just walk from complex to complex. Walsrode also has the better botanical department, but that might also have something to do with the fact that Jurong will be relocated soon anyway... Objectively Jurong might be the better bird park of the two, especially aviarywise, but I liked Walsrode more. This might mainly be due to a surprise element which is mostly lacking in Jurong, except for Birds of Asia, but is present all over the place in Walsrode. I certainly hope that the bird collection will be retained at the new site and with the coming addition of Philippine eagles there is enough to look forward to on the short term.

 

Thanks very much for typing up reviews of some of Singapore's major zoological attractions, and I appreciate your critical eye for tiny details. I know many people who have spent a few days in Singapore and come away from that part of the world declaring it to be a 'zoo paradise'...filled with the best zoos on the planet. There are some zoo nerds that have a more discerning eye, willing to be critical of enclosures that are too small or areas that are downright awful ('Frozen Tundra' at Singapore Zoo). I'd love to visit Singapore one day to see the delights of the zoo world, although I think that won't be for many years, and so I truly love reading all about the zoos from afar.

 

S.E.A. Aquarium

The S.E.A. Aquarium is the only of the five major Singapore collections not owned by WRS and it is located on one of the most horrible spots of Singapore: Sentosa Island. This Island claims to be the place of fun, but it is one large ugly tourist trap. Nonetheless, most tourists seem to like it, but I don't like tourists in general, so I fled away from the island the moment I was done with the Aquarium.

I visited the aquarium in the Easter weekend, which is the worst time of year to visit any zoo, but I was impressed by how well the aquarium could handle the large crowds. Sure for the small tanks there was a bit of a queue, but for the main tanks there was enough space for anyone. This is something other major aquariums can't say (looking at you Lisbon).

The first two tanks are some of the largest in the whole aquarium and both have an obligatory tunnel through them. The first tank is the Shipwreck tank, which is nicely designed, large viewing opportunities and not particularly overstocked, but with highlights like Ornate eagle ray and Bumphead parrotfish. The second tank is the Shark tank, which claims to contain a 100 sharks. Fortunately this seems to be an overestimate, but even with 50 sharks it was way overstocked. In Burgers' Zoo they have played around with currents to give each of their sharks a gliding path to take rest and reduce stress, this is completely impossible in Singapore and though the numbers are impressive I wonder what the death toll is.... In species terms a number of White-tipped sharks was the highlight, the Sawfish was unfortunately not present anymore... I was also surprised with how badly the theming was executed, with bare concrete walls in plain sight and when walking through the tunnel you could read the keepers whiteboard, which deflates any illusion of being somewhere else. Clever lightning and better design would have made it a much better looking tank...

After these two large tanks it is basically a straight walk to the open ocean tank. In between there is a large number of smaller tanks, which include Sea dragons (Weedy only) and Elephant fish, a whole array of reef species and one random freshwater tank with Vampire fish from the Amazon. There seems to be absolutely no theme or journey and each tank stood completely apart from the next. I wonder how it is to design an aquarium which has absolutely no clue of what it wants to have except from having a mega tank and a large number of sharks... I know Sea Life aquariums don't exactly draw praise on Zoochat, but (except the London one) generally follow a clear path and there is an idea behind the order of tanks and what is in it. This sense of direction is completely lacking in Singapore. This is also seen when looking at the species line-up in the open ocean tank. There are about 10 different species of Stingray kept, including sister species, there is no reason to have so many stingrays of different species except for just wanting to fill up your tank with whatever is available. This leaves the open ocean tank as a very impressive tank in terms of size and seeing three Manta rays is certainly impressive too. But the tank as a whole is completely overstocked and seems to be filled with the idea of just impressing people with bigger and more fish. It certainly is am overwhelming sight and there is too much to look at.

The way back to the entrance brings you past more randomly placed aquariums without any cohesive plan. Highlights here are several Jellyfish species and my first Cuttlefish. It also gives a peak into a large pool for Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins. Between the random assortment of tropical saltwater aquariums is also a larger tank with Alligator gars and Paddlefish. Before you pass through a tunnel of the first tank, the Shipwreck tank. What is annoying is that throughout most of the aquarium they only have automatic screens which show the signage. Despite that most species seem to be signed, you have to wait forever to see what you are looking at, especially as all the corals are named as well. As the open ocean tank has multiple touch screens, one wonders why they couldn't have done that for all their tanks...

Overall I was somewhat disappointed by this aquarium, there seemed to be a complete lack of a sense of direction, theming or collection management. The only thing that stood out was that is seemed made to impress and that bigger is better. This is a something I saw in multiple places in Singapore. It seems to work for many casual visitors but it doesn't make a world-class aquarium. In a way this aquarium might be designed perfectly for mass-tourism where you just have to impress the masses and make sure that they can get loads of shareable pictures with their selfie-sticks.

 

I thought it initially focused completely on South East Asian waters, but now there are Californian, Red Sea and other random tanks in between.

 

Night Safari

The final major zoo of Singapore is also the most unique one, the Night Safari. With a tropical climate and 12 hours of darkness throughout the year this is one of the very few locations where a night zoo could work.

I arrived at the zoo at 7:15 pm, which was opening time and 7 minutes after the sun went down. As everybody who had entered opted to go to the tram ride first, I took the walking paths. This proved to be a perfect decision as I saw multiple Colugo hanging and even gliding above the Fishing cat trail during dusk. There are in total four connected trail the first two focus on SE Asian species, the third predominantly on African and the fourth on Australian species. I especially liked the Asian parts a lot. The collection extremely good with Sunda pangolin (semi-active), Small-toothed palm civet, Tarsier, Red-and-white giiant flying squirrel, Hog badger and more really good. The main focus are small nocturnal mammals, but several local owl species are also kept, including Spotted wood owl. There are only a few random species here, mainly birds like Spoonbill, Masked lapwing and Great cormorant. Enclosurewise this section was also quite impressive, not only were all enclosures well structured and nicely planted, they were often relatively spacious as well. This is something that can't be always said in Singapore. For many enclosure lightning was used smartly, so it is almost impossible to assess where the real enclosure boundary is. The obvious highlight would be the Giant flying squirrel walkthrough. Unfortunately only one squirrel is kept there currently, which was hard to find and both Lesser and Spotted chevrotain are currently behind the scenes awaiting introduction. Is this area flawless, certainly not, the Asian golden cat and Bengal cat enclosures seemed too small....

The other walking trails are of a lesser quality. The African species part looked much older and lightning was not at such a high level. Enclosurewise the Serval enclosure was way too small and many others were also pretty boring and smallish, though not smaller than in many other zoos. I was surprised to see no less than 16 Babirusa in 2 enclosures, which is almost the size of the whole European population. The Australian section is the newest and smallest section of them all. There are spacious enclosures for Brush-tailed possum and Sugar glider, a fancy looking cave with mostly pet-shop reptiles and invertebrates and a small Barn owl aviary. A Wallaby walkthrough feels very random in a Night Zoo and I am not sure how well that fits here.

Overall I really liked the walking trails, not specifically because of the enclosures or the species line-up, though that certainly helped, but because of the athmosphere. The lightning was mostly very smart and as Singapore is in the tropics there is a natural night chorus of insects. It is also amazing how different it is to see a Leopard at night, compared at one during the day. The cat immediately becomes a different animal when seeing it enter a lighted clearing in a jungle cage. It is also a thrilling experience to hear a Hyena laughing at 10 meters distance when walking on a dark trail. You know it is in an enclosure that you can't see, but the experience feels wild and is very exciting. I really like doing nightwalks in the tropics looking for wild animals and that experience is replicated pretty well here, as the zoo is full of surprises.

The second part of the zoo consists of the tram ride, something that got quite some bad reviews here on zoochat as well, but I didn't think it was that bad. From the tram ride one sees pretty much only hoofstock and larger carnivores and not all species seem suited for this. The Himalayan tahr, Markhor and Bharal are all not made for such a tropical climate and their enclosures were partly too small. I wonder how hard it is to replace them with Goral and Serow species that are smaller and better adapted to the tropics. Flamingoes feel completely out of place as well... The hoofstock enclosures were mostly fine, if not a bit boring, but as a European it is nice to see large herds of Hog deer, Barasingha, Sambar, Browl-antlered deer and Axis deer. The Elephant enclosures were of an average size, but with hardly any enrichment and the two bulls have the same problem as bulls all over Europe, that they are confined to the smallest Elephant enclosure. The carnivore enclosures were of a more varying quality, they all showed their age, but where the Wolves and Hyena had some space, the Bear enclosures especially were too small and boring with no real enrichment, which resulted in pacing Sloth and Asiatic black bears. In terms of lightning many enclosures along the tram ride seemed to bright, which is probably a trade-off between welfare and visibility. Most animals did not particularly seem to bother, but in the Tapir case it was a bit too much I think and the Tapir hid away in what was almost the only dark corner in the enclosure...

Overall I really liked the Night Safari, it is a completely different experience from any other zoo visit, which certainly helps, but the execution was mostly good and the species line-up is great for a small mammal lover as me. Enclosure-wise the Night Safari suffers a bit from the Singaporean disease in being somewhat small, though size-wise even the smallest enclosures compared favourably with the River Quest in the River Safari. I spent a good four hours here and I would certainly revisit again.

Together with Jurong the Night Safari really stood out for me, though the zoo also wasn't bad. The Aquarium and River Safari would not lure me back anytime soon though. The question that remains is whether Singapore is the zoo capital of the world. With five completely different zoos, they do have a fair shot, but in terms of absolute quality there is quite some potential to improve. How does that compare with Tokyo, Berlin and San Diego? I am not sure, the variety in Singapore is probably higher than in Berlin and San Diego, but I guess lower than in Tokyo. But enclosure quality wise there is a lot to improve on, which is also the case in the aforementioned cities. I don't think we will ever answer such a question, but it is very clear that Singapore is a must-visit for any zoo-enthusiast and that it is so diverse with so many interesting enclosures and animals that you'ld be hard pressed not to have a good time here.

 

I couldn't agree with you more and I've only bothered to visit once. My feeling is that the entire complex is a showcase for the giant pandas and very little thought has gone into it's overall design

 

Do you have any difficulties taking photos in Night Safari? I really want to get some photos of those rare species (Pangolin,flying squirrel, hog badger etc.) but I'm afraid it is too dark to take photos.

 

Pangolin, Hog badger, Palm civet and Tarsier should be possible with a lot of patience, flash photography is obviously forbidden. The Flying squirrel is next to impossible if it decides to stick to the bush as it did during my visit. If it decides to go to the feeder trees you might stand a chance. Overall animals seemed most active during and just after dusk.

 

I did not visit the maritime museum, but entered via the back entrance, in the aquarium I found zero reference to Zheng He or his route, so that approach seems to have been discontinued completely...