I wonder if anyone else has seen this video that came up in my recommended. I'm sure it will be of interest to some. It focuses on the transfer of the birds from Jurong to the new Bird park and is the first of a series I believe. A lot of it is just life at Jurong but there are some mentions of the move. I believe it will be more prominent in future episode as the opening looms nearer.
I think essentially the main points to take away from this video are: The Height of the aviaries: 8 stories! If you want to compare this height to something else, go to 44:40 in the video where they show part of the building site compared with the columns the mesh canopy will be draped over. Some of the African birds will be kept in Lory Loft in order to test the mixed species exhibit they are planning for the new bird park. The only confusing thing about this is that they suggested it would be fairly strictly divided into geographical areas yet species from different continents are still being mixed. Neither the majority of the hornbills nor the Philippine eagles seem like they are going to leave the park when the new one is finished. They seem especially keen to house their hornbills. The building site is huge for the new bird park If you are going to watch any of the video, watch the meeting from 38:32 to 39:08. Here they outline briefly who is going where.
This was obviously filmed quite a long time ago. They are only discussing moving birds about within Jurong. I'm not sure what you mean by the first paragraph, unless you mean mixing African birds with the lorikeets but this has nothing to do with the new park - they are simply trialling mixing the African birds together and with people, and they are using Lory Loft to do it. Where are you getting that from?
Did you watch the whole thing? They are not just discussing movements within Jurong. The series is called The Great Migration for a reason. I know that the meeting was primarily discussing the movement of birds within Jurong and that it was filmed either early or late last year, but it still gives us valuable insight in what they intend to do. They explicitly said they were trialling mixes for the new bird park, mixing the lories with Red-billed hornbills and Superb starlings among others. The woman in the meeting was even handling a sheet entitled 'Future species location (after all transfers)'. They discussed how moving all the hornbills in particular but also all the lories would be extremely difficult, giving the example of the African pied hornbill. They also introduced the Philippine eagles at length in a documentary series about the movement of birds from Jurong to the new park, which can only suggest that they are going to talk about them later in the context of the transfer. They don't just spend 5 minutes introducing a pair of birds for the hell of it. I also get the feeling that given the park was beginning to take shape in early 2019, they are further along than we might think given the opening date. So no, they are talking about the new park. I don't know, perhaps you didn't watch the whole thing? If you did watch the whole thing, then we must agree to disagree and wait for the new bird park to open to see who was right.
The meeting in that particular clip was solely about moving birds between aviaries within Jurong. They were discussing needing to be careful with hornbills because they are predators of smaller birds, and the clip was about testing mixes of African birds. That they are doing it in Lory Loft does not indicate they are mixing the African birds with lorikeets at the new park. The Philippine Eagles' arrival was a major news item for Jurong. How does a piece on their arrival indicate "Neither the majority of the hornbills nor the Philippine eagles seem like they are going to leave the park when the new one is finished"? You've just pulled that out of thin air.
To add on to what @Chlidonias has already very patiently explained: 1. The size and height of the aviaries will vary. The rendering in the video shows only the largest aviary in the new park, which will be 9 stories high. 2. What was shown in the video was the transition period when the African birds were being moved into the existing Lory Loft while the lories were still present. All the lories and non-African species have since been moved out of Lory Loft (now renamed African Treetops) into another aviary. 3. No birds will remain at the current Jurong site after it closes. It will be completely demolished. The discussions in the video that you keep referring to were solely about the movement of African hornbills into Lory Loft only. 4. The new bird park site is smaller than the current one (17 hectares compared with the current 20 hectates). 5. Again, that discussion was solely about moving of birds within the current Jurong site. They discussed which African hornbill species would be suitable to be moved to Lory Loft. They are not discussing the movement of birds to the new park.
WOW! After watching the video suggested. Here in the U.S. there are very few zoo's with bird houses. Denver Zoo just closed their bird building a year ago. Seeing the size of exhibit for your new bird park, and the devotion to bird species is spectacular. Also housing the Philippine Eagle what more could one ask. And also closer to the existing zoo's too!
As far as I can tell, the Mandai redevelopment will proceed as planned despite the uncertainties and economic impact caused by the coronavirus. Construction has resumed for the new Bird Park, while work has just started on Rainforest Park North, public boardwalk, East Arrival Node, indoor nature attraction and resort. The only missing piece now is Rainforest Park South which requires a bit more coordination to build as it cannibalises existing Night Safari land. Works to relocate the affected sections of Night Safari have commenced albeit slowly. The current timeline for everything to be up and running is 2024.
Mandai Park Holdings/Wildlife Reserves Singapore have released their annual report for the period of April 2019 to March 2020. Link to the report below. Some of the key highlights: - The animal collection stood at 15,684 specimens representing 952 species - WRS participated in 104 managed species programmes - Supported 53 global conservation projects in Asia, Solomon Islands (Sant Cruz ground dove), Australia (Tasmanian devil) and Madagascar (fossa) - Supported 6 conservation projects in Singapore, including for the native Raffles' Banded Langur (Presbytis femoralis), which was recently promoted to full species and assessed to be critically endangered. There's also a nice aerial photo of the new Bird Park's largest aviary under construction on page 23. https://www.wrs.com.sg/content/dam/wrs/documents/yearbooks/mandai-park-holdings-yearbook-1920.pdf
Thanks for the confirmation! It's quite exciting to see the new Bird Park's massive aviaries taking shape when driving along Mandai Lake Road.
Came across this short video on Youtube showing how the mesh for the new Bird Park's aviaries is pieced together. It really is hard slog for the rope access workers and you can see why it is taking so long to build the new park.
I chanced upon the new bird park's layout plan. Here's the names and themes of the 8 walk through aviaries in descending order of size (they should be more or less final): 1. Heart of Africa - largest aviary at about 1.7 hectares; themed after the Central African forests 2. Crimson Wetlands - South American themed and featuring birds with bright plumage like flamingos, ibis and macaws 3. Wings of Asia - themed after Asian rice terraces 4. Mysterious Papua - featuring birds of Papua New Guinea 5. Australian Outback - themed after the dry forests of Australia 6. Lory Loft - houses mainly lories/lorikeets and compatible Indo-Pacific species; these last 3 aviaries are all about 0.25 hectares in size 7. Songs of the Forest - themed after Southeast Asian rainforests 8. Amazonian Jewels - featuring birds of the Neotropical rainforests There is also an indoor 3 storey penguin exhibit called Penguin Cove that will house up to 100 Sub-Antarctic penguins (King, Gentoo, Rockhopper). Another section called Winged Sanctuary comprises about 40 smaller conventional aviaries of various sizes that will represent micro-habitats.
Measuring the waterfall aviary on google earth, it seems to be just under 4 acres (1.6 hectares), so the new aviary will be rather similar sized (if they don't overestimate the size too...)
It seems like the official name of the expanded Mandai precinct will be "Mandai Wildlife Reserve". I understand that the existing River Safari will also be renamed. The changes should happen before the end of the year.
