Singapore Zoo is home to a plethora of exotic animals as well as many that are relatively abundant in the wild. I am fortunate to catch the tail end of a tour of feeding time, including white tigers. As cats you wouldn’t expect them to be very fond of going for a swim, but they are not reluctant to do it as long as big joints of beef are being thrown into the stream in their enclosure.
Of course it is not as satisfying as seeing these animals in the wild, but with white tigers and, to some extent, manatees and orangutans, it is impossible to do so. I don’t suppose I will be seeing too many polar bears or penguins in the wild either. Unfortunately, we will miss out on Borneo and won’t be going to Sumatra, so it is nice to see the orangutans playing as the sunset nears. The dominant male’s favourite activity seems to be ripping apart the roofs of the elevated platforms and then chucking the remnants down at the underlings who respond by trying to build hard wood nests on the ground. There is quite a lot of teasing and showboating by the congress (a group of orangutans) and the president and it’s fun to watch.
I should also give a mention to the baboon troop. I once heard Stephen Fry (polymath English ‘treasure’) say that nature is always more beautiful than anything man-made. He has obviously never seen a baboon’s arse.
I also see an Elephant show where the keepers get them to do tricks like balancing on a tree trunk before picking it up and putting in the steam at the front of the show arena, but I am no longer surprised at the intelligence of these animals.
The polar bears here, I have to say, just look bored.
I hang around for the sun to set to visit the night zoo, which has an oft repeated claim to be Singapore’s number one tourist experience. This is supposed to be to enable visitor’s to see the more nocturnal animals, but I am tired and find it much like going about a zoo where you can’t see much, and many of the animals such as the leopards don’t seem to do anything more or less than what they do in the daytime. In fact, nocturnal animals in a zoo don’t seem to do much in general. Why would they, if they are guaranteed a feeding, like the feckless on benefits, ha!
Spending so little time in Singapore, to complete my pizza tour of the world I have to have a slice from the pizza stall at the zoo. It’s not at all bad in considering, but a lack of menu choice left me with a slice of chicken tikka pizza, which I have always thought of as one of many corruptions of the art. 7/10.
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| a mightily big croc |
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| fire throwing dancers at the zoo |
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