Singapore 2007

We had the chance to visit Singapore and visit Steve's Uncle Bill and his family. Our son met Uncle Bill for the first time. Uncle Bill is married to Aunty Margaret (whose origins are Chinese Malay) and along with her children we have a lovely English/Singaporean family of cousins and aunts and uncles!

Uncle Bill, Steve & Tom

Edward (Tai Swee Meng) & Florence

Tom & Brian

We visited the Singapore Zoo which is an amazing open concept zoo. The animals are kept in landscaped enclosures, separated from visitors by dry or wet moats which are mostly hidden from view by vegetation or positioning. Dangerous animals such as the big cats which can climb very well are housed in beautifully landscaped glass-fronted enclosures.

The gardens are beautiful and there is a very large lake in the middle of the park.

Giraffe topiary at the Singapore Zoo.

Jaguar, Singapore Zoo.

A leopard and jaguar share many similarities – both are alike in coloration, coat pattern and strength. Physically, jaguars are more heavily built. You can identify a jaguar by the extra spot or spots within the centre of each rosette.

A couple of very cute meerkat youngsters at the Zoo.

The Zoo has a large social group of 25 orang utans and are the only ones who have done so on such a large scale. Highly intelligent, orang utans have to be kept occupied or they get very bored. Singapore Zoo has 33 orang utans to date some being sent to zoos around the world as part of the worldwide exchange programme to facilitate breeding of this highly endangered ape.

Orang utans are arboreal mammals and most of their time is spent sleeping, eating, nesting and travelling in the trees. Their diet consists of fruits, leaves, seeds, bark and insects of the rainforest. There are 2 species, the Bornean and the Sumatran orang utan. Both species live in the SE-Asia's rainforests. Their habitat is increasingly being threatened and destroyed by logging and forest fires and most disturbingly, poaching for the illegal pet trade where the only way to get a baby is to kill the mother. The population of Bornean orang utans is estimated at 55,000 and it is listed as an endangered species. The Sumatran orang utan, is critically endangered with figures quoted for a population of only 7,500 animals left in the wild.

The Orang utan 'men of the forest'.

A white Bengal Tiger grooming his friend.

If you ever want to have a good laugh, just stand and watch these otters near feeding time. They don't miss a thing.

Some of the monkeys at Singapore Zoo just roam freely around the park. They are very well behaved and so are the tourists.

We also visited the Jurong Bird Park, a 20.2 hectare open-concept park. It is the largest in the Asia Pacific with more than 8,000 birds from 600 species. The Park specialises in birds from Southeast Asia and has 4 four walk-in aviaries, with the tallest man-made waterfall for visitors to enjoy a closeup view of free-flying birds from Africa.

A vulture showing his style at the bird show.

The bird show is very entertaining and features birds of prey to educate visitors about the habits and 'quirky' and intelligent natures of some these birds.

Beautfiul plumage on the hawk owls.

Australian lorikeets and parrots at the Bird Park.

Pink Flamingos at Jurong

There are lots of waterfalls and ponds as you walk through the bird park, giving the birds it a very natural habitat to live in. They fly in and out through the forest gardens where there are feeding trays and then stop to drink or have a little bath at the water features. The landscaped gardens feature exotic plants such as heliconias and water lillies.

The Giant Saratoga fish at Jurong.