Singapore. » Singapore Zoo

09-04-2006

i'll have to check ut i'm pretty sure at least one of australian tapirs comes from singapore!

humidity might very well be the problem zooish.

25-04-2006

The new Orang Utan free-range area has been opened for about 2 weeks now and it seems to be working very well.

Basically it is a 6,000square metre area with about 10 mature trees, mostly rain trees (samanea saman), up to 24 metres in height. The trees are connected by artificial vines made of durable steel cables, as well as a large rope hammock which encourages nest building behaviour. The trunks of the trees are ringed by hot wire so the orangs can't descend to ground level and won't have direct contact with visitors either.

Every morning a group of 5 or 6 consisting of females with babies, juveniles and sub-adults are released into the free-range area and allowed to stay till 5.30pm. A keeper will keep watch over them throughout the day to make sure they don't get into trouble. In bad weather, they will be moved back to their dens because no shelter is provided in the free-range area.

Its great for the orangs, now they have more than double the space they used to have and they get to climb on live trees. Before, the 25 orangs we have had to be displayed in the main exhibit in shifts.

25-04-2006

thats sounds great zooish.

with the exception of elephants, no other species exhibited in zoos has such uninspiring enclosures than orangutans. for a creature that usually lives high in a canopy of green - a few concrete/steel or wooden poles a few metres off the ground just doesn't seem right.

i am well aware of the problems (the biggest being that they destroy live trees) of keeping orangs in natural-looking exhibits, and many zoos are at least creating great enriching arboreal habtats these days. but i always feel it just comes down to a lack of imagination when they fail to make it look like the orangs are in a real rainforest.

the singapore exhibit sounds like it might be exactly what i want to see!

keep us posted on how the raintrees (they are very large south american ficus-like trees are they not?) hold up with the constant stress.

do the hotwires also limit orang access to say the upper or outer branches?

25-04-2006

Raintrees are south american trees with wide spreading crowns, resembling african acacias. The complex spreading branches make excellent natural climbing frames.

The area was chosen because the trees there are very robust, with thick crowns and i doubt the orangs will leave a devastating impact, but we'll wait and see how they hold up. We do provide them with fresh browse for bedding in the hammock which somewhat reduces their desire to destroy the live trees. The small number of orangs (not more than 6) in the relatively large area also helps.

The hot wires are only on the trunks, so the orangs can climb as high as they want. The trees beyond the free-range area have been pruned to prevent the orangs from climbing out of the area.

25-04-2006

i imagine that if a live tree is draped with lots of arificial vines, it also takes off alot of pressure from the more delicate branches. many zoos seem to use artificial vines, as opposed to ropes. do you know what the innner and outer materials are made from?

26-04-2006

The artificial vines actually comprise of 3 layers: The core is pliable steel cable. Then a layer of fibre mesh is covered over the steel. On the surface its coated with non-toxic latex/rubber and zoo-poo (yup, processed herbivore dung and compost, to give it a rough texture).

This is how we make our vines. We have an in-house team that makes them since we use A LOT of them. Not sure if other zoos use the same method though.

26-04-2006

and obviously it's a method (albeit a weird one that uses faeces!) that works. many other zoos have complained that orangs in particular destroy sythetic vines. australian zoos always use thick rope. which is nice and soft on the orangs hands, but once again doesn't do much for the natural look.

i am an artist and have done a bit of props and effects work for film in the past. i should go into manufacturing faux rock, vines and trees - maybe i could make some money since nobody else in auststralia seems to be doing it!!!

26-04-2006

If you get a chance, have a look at a documentary called congo in the bronx. It shows the zoo staff making artificial vines. It also shows the gorillas biting off chunks that they could swallow. They then go back and make stronger artificial vines that the gorillas can't bite through but still look natural. They also mix natural products to thier vines to give them a realistic look, but I don't think they use dung.

26-04-2006

i haven't seen that doco (i'll try and find it) but i have visited the website of the company that made that artificial rainforest. they seemed to make the most realistic looking dead trees i have ever seen using resin and things. whilst nothing beats the real thing, they can really finish of that jungle effect. i like the i like the eroded mudbank with ferns they created it looked totally convincing in the photos and is such a nice change from yet another rock wall.

28-04-2006

Well, zoo-poo is cheap i guess! Plus its organic. The texture's nice too, makes the vine easy to grip. Btw, we process zoo-poo using rhino, elephant and hippo dung, which is mixed with compost. We use it extensively around the park to keep the plants lush.

This is the first time we are using artificial vines for the orangs. Partly because only the smaller females and young are using the free-range area. The big adult males will probably be too much for the vines to handle.

All the while we've used metal chains, which isn't very aesthetic unfortunately, but its very durable. Recently we've also started using old fire hoses, which has a nice elasticity to it. The same is being done for the chimpanzees.
Its a great pity we can't have gorillas though.

btw, patrick what's the company that did landscaping for bronx zoo's congo?

28-04-2006

i no tht many oz zoos use the fire hoses for large pimates, they are real good for them, i will also look up the company for the congo in bronx if pat isnt sure, i have a whole file in my filing cabinet devoted to tht exhibit

28-04-2006

i can't remeber the company name but i think i followed a link on the bronx zoos website. the wildlife conservation society do great stuff (they own all of NYC's zoos) and are doing the sort of thing i was saying ALL zoos needed to do if they wanted to exist (and more importantly animals) into the future.

why can't singapore have gorillas?

29-04-2006

Here goes the story...

In the 1980s, we brought in 4 male gorillas from Europe and exhibited them in a lush outdoor habitat. But within a year, all 4 gorillas succumbed to a mysterious illness and died one by one.

A post mortem was done and it was discovered that a rare soil disease - melioidosis - was the cause. Melioidosis is a disease caused by the bacteria known as Burkholderia pseudomallei. The bacteria are found below the soil surface during the dry season. After heavy rainfall, the bacteria can be found in surface water and mud. Transmission of the disease occurs most commonly during direct contact with soil or surface waters contaminated with Burkholderia pseudomallei. This disease is also fatal to humans with a fatality rate of about 25%. To date there is no known cure or vaccine for the disease. Victims of the disease are given antibiotic treatment and relapse rate is high.

In 1990, we loaned another pair of male gorillas from the Netherlands, but this time they were housed indoors in a concrete-floored enclosure, with no direct contact to soil. Unfortunately, one of them died from the same disease a few months after later. It was suspected that the disease bacteria was carried into the indoor habitat along with fine soil particles that were blown into the enclosure via a mesh ventilation window.

The other male was immediately put on antibiotic treatment while preparations were made for his repatriation back to netherlands. Within a month from the death of his companion, the other male was sent back home, thankfully he survived.

We drew a lot of international flak from this saga, gorillas being an endangered species afterall, and 5 died while in our care. Wild gorillas would naturally have immunity to the disease, but all gorillas in captivity today are mostly descended from European stock, where years of captive breeding in temperate regions have caused the zoo gorillas to lose their immunity.

It was a painful lesson which we learned the hard way.

29-04-2006

Hi Zooish, I did reed about this also happening at the San Diego wild animal park a few years ago, that also was worse after any rain they had, thats interesting that the same thing has happened in two zoos so far apart.

30-04-2006

Well, the soil disease is found in many areas including Northern Australia, Thailand, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, the Indian subcontinent, Africa, Central and South America, Papua New Guinea and even New Zealand!!! I got this info from Singapore's ministry of health website.

Seems like no cases were reported in North America, but seeing that temperate new zealand has seen cases of it, the chances of it occuring in warm san diego are likely. But its not as rampant as in SE Asia i guess.

San Diego seems climatically similar to Singapore. Another shared incident is the growth of algae in the hollow hair shafts of our polar bears. San Diego experienced it many years ago, we experienced about 2 years ago.