As I was about to leave for Singapore — my itinerary dominated by the Singapore Zoo, Jurong Bird Park, and Night Safari — my sister, a wildlife buff, muttered grumpily, “Click loads of photos.” She was jealous. I simply smiled.
The first centre of attraction was the Night Safari. I saw antelopes, Asian elephants, fishing cats, Malayan tigers, lions and hippopotamuses, all illuminated by the moonlight, as I rode past them in an open buggy. The guide peppered us with information on the animals’ habitats and mixed in some conservation messages in too.
The Creatures of the Night Wildlife Show, a programme within the Night Safari enclosure, was one of the high-points of the trip. I sat in an open air auditorium; a few meters away wild cats, jaguars, jackals and a python get up to amazing antics under the guidance of the trainer. What could be more entertaining?
My knowledge of the avian world is limited. But with a total of 4,600 birds and 380 species, I was looking forward to my visit to the Jurong Bird Park. The park houses the world’s largest walk-in aviary at 3,000 sq mt.
Once there, I sat down to a leisurely breakfast of chicken sausage, hot coffee and French toast, with a scarlet macaw for company. From cracking walnuts to picking on fortune cards, the multi-hued bird kept its audience entertained.
One of the highlights at Jurong was feeding nectar to the gregarious lorikeets at a 9-storey-high aviary. And I realised to my dismay that the tiny birds can be quite shrill. In fact, one got a bit too friendly and parked its self on my head.
The park also houses the world’s only monorail ride that runs through an aviary. It provides for a splendid aerial view of hornbills, toucans, penguins, macaws, flamingos, all resting in their artificially created habitats.Eagles, hawks and falcons hovered ten inches above my head as they crisscrossed through hula hoops, in a special bird show.
As I sipped on black coffee at the Ah-Meng restaurant, a few feet away, a playful family of orang-utans casually strolled down a rope and settled on a wooden plank. The mischievous simians seemed to savour their food, all the while providing many wonderful photo ops.
As I walked out of the zoo, it began to pour. Visitors slipped into flimsy raincoats. Animals dashed to their shelters.The rains didn’t last long. The sunny-gloomy weather in this tropical island country is a de rigueur. And the animals at the zoo are just as accustomed to it, as their visitors.
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