RIVER SAFARI, River Safari

The River Safari, a river-themed zoo with a fascinating aquarium.

The River Safari is spread over 12 hectares, between the Singapore Zoo and the Night Safari. It is the first – and only - attraction of its kind in Asia, offering the chance to admire water attractions, as well as enjoy boat trips along the river and themed rides.

The park, inaugurated in its entirety on February 28, 2014, features a reconstruction of 10 river ecosystems, including those of the Nile, the Yangtze, the Mississippi and the Amazon. It is inhabited by 5,000 animals of 300 different species, including a large number in danger of extinction. Visitors can observe extremely rare species such as anacondas, electric eels, freshwater stingrays, West Indian manatees, Mekong giant catfish, griffon vultures, red pandas, golden pheasants, jaguars, squirrel monkeys, giant otters and Chinese alligators.

Don’t miss the spectacular Amazon flooded forest exhibit, a 2,000-cubic-meter tank that is home to the manatees and numerous fish from South America. You can see inside the tank through a glass panel 22 meters long and 4 meters high. Both the volume of the tank and the size of the glass panel hold the world record for a freshwater aquarium.

The main attraction of the River Safari, however, are the two adorable giant pandas, one male and one female, which you can see in the Giant Panda Forest, inside an air-conditioned enclosure built specially for them. The temperature of the enclosure changes with the seasons, emulating the pandas’ natural habitat. The pair are called Kai Kai and Jia Jia, and they have thousands of fans in the city. Their names were chosen by the winners of a competition held among the people of Singapore in 2010, two years before the two pandas arrived from China.

Let me leave you with an interesting fact: a particular type of bamboo is grown on an 8,000-meter plantation inside the zoo. Can you guess what for? That’s right: to feed the two pandas their favorite food.