Singapore. » Singapore Zoo

30-04-2006

if you say that wild primates have immunity to the disease it would make sense that singapores orangutans who i assume are mostly descended from animals that have stayed within the southeast asian region would be immune. however it is interesting that this disease doesn't seem to effect the zoos chimpanzees. clearly in the case of gorillas it was particuarly lethal - killing them from airborn particles almost as soon as they arrived in singapore. it was suggested that in australia malayan tapir's blindness could be in part caused by bacteria in our soil that the malayan tapir are particuarly susceptable - but not horses, rhino or brazilian tapir.

its strange how one particular species (but not close relatives) can be so bady afflicted by such a ailment.

thats a shame for singapore - no doubt singapore would have done a fantastic job of caring for them...

04-05-2006

Yup, its odd that our pioneer group of chimpanzees were not affected by the disease considering many of them originated from Europe. They're even more gentically similar to us, so they probably are susceptible to the disease as well.

And the chimps have been occupying, even till today, the outdoor gorilla habitat after the gorillas died.

Rainforest Zoo
25-05-2006

The Singapore Zoo has officially rebranded itself as a "rainforest zoo", with a new logo, and new tagline - 'Rainforest . Animals . Life'. This is probably as close as we'll get to becoming a themed zoo.

The primary focus of the zoo's collection will now be on Southeast Asian animals. However, there are of course exhibits which do not reflect the rainforest theme such as the Australian Outback, Great Rift Valley of Ethiopia and Wild Africa which feature savanna/desert habitats. As discussed earlier in another thread, to have mega-fauna like giraffes, lions and kangaroos absent from a zoo's collection will be problematic.

25-05-2006

though i totally understand the argument that people will not (at least initaially) be excepting of a zoo with no lions or giraffes, i am not entrely convinced that it wouldn't work - especially if the zoo in question has a neighbouring sister savannah themed zoo.

i mean okapi are essentially a forest giraffe.
plenty of smaller kangaroo species (such as parma wallabies) inhabit rainforests. there are even rainforest rhino (though addmittedly very few zoos can expect to ever get their hands on these).
do we really need to see cheetah and lions [i]as well[I/] as tigers and leopards?

i guess we do.

although the "immersion" exhibit has become very popular, many zoos (particuarly in the northern hemisphere) are still choosing to open exhibits based of "a type" of animals with outrageously tacky names such as "big cat canyon", "jungle trails" or "primate world".

australian zoos seem very much into dividing up their zoos based entirely on not just different habitat types, by geographically different habitat types as well. personally i like it best. but i don't think we will ever see giraffes leave our city zoos. instead i think they will end up with small "showcase" exhibiting a taste of what you might see if you head out to the open-range zoo.

26-05-2006

Up till last June, the Singapore Zoo had no giraffes for eleven years, they had all been moved next door to the Night Safari where most of the large hoofstock are. So for the entire eleven years, visitors had been writing/emailing the zoo asking why there were no giraffes in the zoo. Singaporeans are notoriously fussy nitpickers (including myself!).

So last year, a lot of money was spent bringing in 3, year-old giraffes from Israel and Holland. That finally satisfied the crowd.

It seems that even though the giraffes were right next door, many visitors weren't willing to make the extra trip.

Free-ranging Orangutans update
04-06-2006

After more than a month into the free-ranging program, all is fine and its worked out very well. The trees are holding up thankfully, very little damage has been done.

The orangs have gotten very comfortable with their new area so much so that they sometimes refuse to return to their night quarters. There was once when one of them stayed out on the trees throughout the night and the keepers had to stay behind and keep watch over her (really admire the keepers' dedication towards the animals). She finally came down in the afternoon of the following day out of hunger.

At the night safari we're having trouble with our adult bull elephant who is being displayed again, five years after he seriously injured his keeper. His mean streak hasn't diffused and he has a habit of throwing projectiles (twigs, pebbles, wood chips, balls of dirt..) at trams passing by his habitat. And he is deadly accurate too.

But to not display him would be a big waste because he is a magnificent beast; at 30 years old, he stands 3m tall at the shoulder, weighing almost 4 tonnes and sports a pair of 4-foot long tusks that are symmetrically crossed.
Bull elephants are a rare sight in zoos these days.

04-06-2006

WOW He sounds wonderful, is he breeding and do you have any pics of him?.Thanks

05-06-2006

Yes he is breeding. He has sired 3 offspring to date. The first offspring unfortunately did not survive. The second, a male, is now 7 years old and is in Cologne Zoo, Germany, on breeding loan. The third, also male, is 5 years old and is still at the night safari.

His fourth offspring is due early next year!

And here's a link to his pic: http://www.nightsafari.com.sg/about/NEWS/chawang1.jpg

05-06-2006

Thanks for that, he looks wonderful hope be sires more babies, how many cows are they breeding to him?.

05-06-2006

wow he is fantastic does his offspring look like him

06-06-2006

He has a harem of 3 females. There's also the option of introducing another 2 cows which are from a seperate herd at the day zoo.

I don't have any pics of his 2 sons, but i found the pic of his second son on Cologne Zoo's website. He's the one named Sang Raja which means 'Royal King'.
Hope he grows up to be a magnificent tusker like his dad.

Here's the link: http://www.zoo-koeln.de/index.php?id=90

I really miss Raja, I played with him when he was younger, well it was mostly him shoving me around but it was fun nonetheless.

09-06-2006

Your right he is a nice looking boy, I bet he will grow up just like his dad. Thanks

28-06-2006

A brand new species of Poisonous snake has just been found in the jungles of Borneo by a team from the WWF while doing a survery on reptiles, the new snake can change it's colour in a short time and has been called the Chameleon snake, few animals in the world can do this, wonder what else is going to turn up?.

28-06-2006

There have been 361 new animal species found in Borneo in the last ten years, WOW, I wonder what next is to be found.

28-06-2006

Hopefully a new Peafowl Theres one in Java so there should be one there, maybe the same size as a Congo Peafowl, but i am really hoping for more lory's