Singapore Zoo and Night Safari part 1

Yesterday started out with a faithful trip down to the Santosa Island interchange, It had been raining here every day since we had arrived and the forecast for yesterday was for some sun so we had wanted to go to Universal Studios. Also we figured since it was a Monday we had figured there would be more room to play at the park as well. Unfortunately as we arrived to buy our tickets for the mono-rail to the island; we saw the sign telling us that tickets to Universal studios had been sold out already. I found this frustrating as the park had been opened for only an hour by the time we had gotten to the interchange.

That is not really where our story began; our story began on the MRT (subway system). You see the subway system is very exact here and you need to pay attention to where you hit as your destinations each one has an exact fare. I had figured since I was off by only one stop it would be no big deal but I was wrong. As we alighted the train- side note they actually do use the correct verb (alight – not get off) here – at the wrong station our cards would not let us get out. We had to go to the counter and pay for an additional 20 cents a person. Another annoyance about the subway system is that you cannot buy week passes you have to buy either day passes our multi-year passes. It is not a difference in price for the ticket it is just that each trip requires that you pay S$1 for a card and then you have to return that card to the machine. Of course when you get a new card you are paying that S$1 deposit. Since we get the S$1 back with each card I am pretty sure this is one of the cheapest subway systems I have ridden. It is hard to compare it to New York City as we have not lived there for 10 years.

Well there we were at the Sentosa Island interchange not able to go to Universal Studios and with subway tickets already purchased for our trip back to our departing station. Well thinking on our feet we saw it was going to be a clear day so we decided to do the Singapore Zoo and Night Safari. The first challenge was actually figuring out where to go on the subway system. It turns out to get to the Singapore Zoo you need to take the subway part of the way and then you take a buss the rest of the way. It is always interesting taking public transportation in new countries as you can compare them to those of yours at home. Also I have to say that the comparison between the subway (very clean and modern) and the bus system (pretty old and worn out- not dirty but not clean by any stretch) is worth noting as well.  The bus ride was nice winding through neighborhoods and through a national reserve / reservoir. The landscape was very lush and somewhat mountainous. Of note on the trip were two things first were the signs warning of illegal access to the national reserve / reservoir- it was a picture of a guy in green (looked like a plant monster with a M16) holding up a white guy. Also of note was that we did see some wild monkeys on the sidewalk, this was nice as we got to see some wildlife before we actually got into the park.

Speaking of the park the first animal exhibit was just past the gate a group of small monkeys with white faces. It was a good exhibit as there were no walls on it; it was just a couple of trees strung together with a walkway between the two tree groves. The monkeys would just flit back and forth between the trees. They had a couple of babies that were very small and very cute.

On to the otters!!! These are simply the cuties but slinkiest critters I ever did see. They seemed to play to your presence and act up for the camera getting into groups and even looking straight into the camera. We continued to walk past the primate exhibits but they were mostly asleep.

The coolest thing about the Singapore zoo was the token and paid feeding of the animals. For the animals that are a bit dangerous they have token feedings during the day. I assume they are token feedings because they do not really give the animals enough for a day’s meal but mostly they are a kind of a way to keep the animals active and entertain them as well.  Heck it was pretty entraining for me as well.  They even have suggested walks so that you can see the feedings as they occur but we focused on only a few of them of interest to us.  Well the first animal feeding we stumbled on quite by accident. We were walking past the Splash Safari and noticed a lie up at the Manatee area. It turned out that for $5 you could hand feed the Manatees. I went in with Andrew and Ashley and took some shots of them feeding the Manatees. After taking some pictures I fed them myself. It was interesting as the Manatees would put their snouts out of the water on the ledge waiting for you to feed them. Another interesting thing was that the Manatees’ whiskers were quite short and think around the month, kind of scary if you did not know that they were vegetarians. It was a lot of fun feeding them and they were very fun to pet and play with.

The next feeding was the White Tigers. The Tigers knew what time feedings were as they stared to pace around the enclosure in anticipation of the food to come. The keepers did a good job of trying to make it more active for the animals by not just throwing  in the food but trying to get them to do a bit of chasing of the food and making them do a bit of exercise for the food. It was good to see the animals getting into the game of it all and you could see them lunging for the chicken that was thrown in. I think it would have been better if they would have used live chickens for the tigers to chase down but I know it is a family zoo. Still I think it would be cool to have a “18 and above” event where once in a while the animals got to actually act like they did in the wild and hunt down some food – even if it were a token kill like a chicken or in the case of the San Francisco Zoo an annoying tourist or two.

The next feeding we saw was the Jaguar feeding. I have to say that as beautiful as the animals were they seemed less into the feeding than the tigers. They seemed a bit too cooped up too. I was surprised to hear that the Leopards, Jaguars, Cougars and Pumas have all to be in enclosed exhibits as they are such good climbers and jumpers that they could get out otherwise. BUT that being said it seemed a bit sad that their exhibit was so small in comparison to the tigers given that they are not that much smaller than the tiger. The feeding itself was not too much to talk about except for the amount of time the Jaguars spent in the water looking for the food thrown by the keeper. It was nice to see them diving and looking for the food underwater.

Finally we went toe the see the Polar Bear Feeding. This feeding was much like the rest except that they did feed the Polar Bears watermelon. The two bears were mother and son bears, which I thought was strange, as in the wild I doubt that a male cub would spend 20 years with its mother. And what if the mother went into heat??? I guess they give her the pill?? The mother bear was not as interested in the token meal as the son bear. He was having a blast playing in the water and playing it up for the food that was thrown in diving and splashing to get the food as it hit the water.

Well after a long day we decided to go back home as all of us were very tired. We loaded ourselves on the public bus and headed back into town. When we got into town we decided to stop at the local mall to get some dinner. Well after dinner we all felt refreshed and decided to go back to do the Night Safari. Also we were worried about the timing of everything and the end of our vacation here coming up so we did not want to miss the Night Safari, so off we went back onto the buss to take us back to the Singapore Zoo and Night Safari. As you can see the Night Safari is located right next to the Singapore Zoo.

We were waiting in line for the Tram and as it was a long wait and it was still a bit light out we decided to do the walking trails before we took the tram.  Off to the Fishing Cat walking tour! The walking tour turned out to be a great start to the night we got to see the mouse deer ( very small and cute) Fishing Cats ( I want to take one home it is not much bigger than a house cat)  and Asian Otter ( I have said it before these animals really take to getting their photos taken they ham it up for the camera getting in cute poses with their family so you can get a photo.

Well I will have to finish this off later as we just got tickets to Singapore’s Universal Studio- It turns out you have to make reservations as there are only a limited number of tickets available on any given day!! So we are off yet again on a voyage.