We headed to the Mandai Wildlife Reserve‘s Singapore Zoo via taxi and arrived slightly after opening time. It much cooler earlier in the day and with less crowds. It turns out some of the enclosures were still being cleaned and not all the animals were out yet so we had to backtrack a bit at the end of our visit. We ended up seeing many animals, including a large selection of monkeys and apes. They also had various big cats and many of the usual zoo animals.
After lunch, we visited their adjacent River Wonders park. This was a bit like an outdoor aquarium, with the addition of pandas and monkeys.
There is an elevated walkway just beyond the entrance to the Singapore Zoo. Looking down, we saw False Gharial, a type of crocodile.
We also saw our first primate, an ape.
Moving along, we passed by a Babirusa that was resting.
Unfortunately, the tigers were not out yet in their enclosure. However, it is surrounded by a moat. This large lizard was eating what looks like chicken! It might be a Malayan Water Monitor, a lizard that resides naturally here in Singapore.
We continued to enter the Australasia area at the edge of the zoo. All animals that are pretty common in Australia. We moved through quickly.
We then crossed the main park path to end up by a huge Hamadryas Baboon enclosure. There were maybe two dozen or more baboons of various ages. The little ones were quite playful while some of the older ones were busy grooming each other.
These Nubian Ibexes were hanging out in the same enclosure, though none of the baboons seemed to approach this area.
Continuing onward, more primates. They were mostly lounging around or moving around individually rather than interacting with each other like the baboons.
We then walked by the elephants. It was feeding time when we arrived.
This might be a Komodo Dragon?
We passed by these two pelicans.
The zoo had various tortoises both small and huge!
There were also various lizards.
More primates!
We then passed through a butterfly aviary. A few were fluttering about but most were busy feeding.
The butterfly aviary was directly adjacent to another aviary with various flying animals including bats, specifically Flying Foxes. Most of them were eating fruit.
We also saw a few of these little odd animals.
There was an interesting looking squirrel that was content to stay in this one spot the whole time we saw it.
There were a few Victoria Crowned Pigeon, a species we first saw at the Jurong Bird Park which is closing tomorrow and moving to be adjacent to the Zoo and the other Mandai Wildlife Reserve parks.
There was also a lemur of some sort.
And we saw this bird eating. It would pick up a little bit of food at the end of its long bill, raise it up, and then open its bill so the food would drop into its mouth. We saw a somewhat similar species at the Jurong Bird Park as well.
Finally, a big cat! This leopard was lying down but then got up to yawn and stretch. No matter their size, cats are cats!
Two lions were next door. The male was lying down in a spot that was harder to see. The female was a bit easier to observe. She got up momentarily but then went back to sleep again.
The giraffes were across the path from the lions.
We came across this vulture, another bird that we saw first at the Jurong Bird Park.
Then, we saw zebras! It was feeding time so they were busy eating.
The African Painted Dogs had a large enclosure to roam about in. There were quite a few of them! The older ones seemed to be resting but the younger ones were roaming around and occasionally playing with each other.
The zoo had a few White Rhinoceros. The Javan Mynas seemed to be picking off bugs from the rhinos.
A peacock!
And some more pelicans.
We passed by some more primates, monkeys this time around.
We returned to the tiger enclosure. The zoo has Malayan Tigers, both regular and white ones. We were expecting the white ones as the schedule displayed indicated white on public holidays but the regular ones were there according to the regular Monday schedule. At least they were there now though! Like many of the other animals, they were resting.
After eating lunch, we headed next door to the River Wonders park. We saw this odd bird, a Trumpeter Hornbill.
The next section of River Wonders had various glass encased aquarium enclosures that weren’t really good for photography. So we skip on ahead to what might be a False Gharial, like we saw at the start of our zoo visit.
And then, the pandas! Because pandas and rivers go together? We saw just one panda that was lying down on a rock. There are two more including a baby but we didn’t see them.
It also has a lazy river boat ride which kids seem to love. Otherwise it moves a bit too quickly so you can’t really take a good look at the animals that it passes by. Just a quick glimpse and some pre-recorded narration. This monkey is the only thing I managed to get a decent photograph of.
After the ride, we walked through a squirrel monkey enclosure where we saw many of them moving around in the trees. One of them was eating some unknown red fruit.
And some otters!
Overall, River Wonders is a bit odd. It is mostly like an aquarium with some other animals thrown in, particularly the pandas. Out of the four Mandai Wildlife Reserve parks, it is the most skippable. Unless you want to see pandas.