Most people often make the mistake of presuming Singapore is a city only with skyscrapers and artificial beauty. But Singapore is also a wonderful place to see many wildlife animals and birds.
There are four main wildlife parks – Singapore Zoo, River Wonders, Night Safari, and Bird Paradise (formerly Jurong Bird Park). All four parks are managed by Mandai Wildlife Group.
The Singapore wildlife parks are different from most of the zoos around the world in the sense that these parks have massive open enclosures with the environment created to mimic the natural habitat for the animals.
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Singapore Zoo
Singapore Zoo is ranked as one of the top zoos in the world. The zoo is massive and has animals from all over the world.
The zoo is divided into 14 zones having 4200 animals and 50 animal species like Kangaroo, African Penguin, Colobus Monkey, Komodo Dragon, Giraffe etc.
As you are exploring the different zones, do not miss to attend the animal shows. As of 2023, the zoo runs three shows namely Splash Safari – featuring sea lions; Rainforest Fights Back – featuring lemurs, snakes, and other rainforest animals; Animal Friends – featuring cats and dogs. Each show is run twice daily, so no need to worry if you miss the show once.
Singapore Zoo also offers unlimited complimentary tram rides within the zoo. There are four tram stations and you can hop on and hop off at any station as many times as you need. The zoo is massive and exploration becomes a lot less tiring with the tram ride.
Opening Hours – 8:30 AM to 6 PM
Suggested Duration – Half Day
Ticket Cost – SGD 48 or ~INR 2880 (Adult), SGD 33 or ~INR 1980 (Child).
River Wonders
River Wonders is a river-themed zoo and aquarium in Singapore. It has over 11000 land and aquatic animals of 260 species.
The most popular animal in River Wonders is White Panda. A couple of White Pandas, one male and one female, were brought from China. The male panda is called Kai Kai and the female panda is called Jia Jia. They gave birth to a male panda called Le Le in 2021. If you are lucky, you can see them lazing around and eating bamboo sticks.
Amazon River Quest, a 10-minute boat ride, is a highlight of River Wonders Park. The boat ride features wildlife animals from the Amazon River. The admission ticket includes a single boat ride. You can go for a boat ride again for just SGD 5 (~INR 300).
River Wonders features a solitary show – Once Upon A River. The show is held thrice daily and visitors need to make prior booking to attend the show. The show features a snake, pelican, rodent and other river animals. We were allowed to snap photos with the pelican and rodent. This was the only show in all the wildlife parks which allowed a photo session with animals.
The park is small and all the zones can be covered in a couple of hours by foot.
Opening Hours – 10 AM to 7 PM
Suggested Duration – 2 to 3 hours
Ticket Cost – SGD 40 or ~INR 2400 (Adult), SGD 28 or ~INR 1680 (Child).
Night Safari
Night Safari is the world’s first nocturnal zoo. Like Singapore Zoo, animals in Night Safari live in open and spacious enclosures.
You can explore the park through many walking trails. If you don’t feel like walking, you can take a guided tram tour to see the animal’s nocturnal behaviour. You can take as many tram tours as you want.
Night Safari holds Creatures Of The Night show that features an owl, otters, fox and other nocturnal animals. The show is held twice daily and requires prior slot booking.
We were least impressed with Night Safari among all the Singapore wildlife parks. We took the tram tour twice but could hardly see animals at night. We were tired from all the walking in Singapore Zoo and River Wonders earlier in the day and didn’t have the energy to go on all the walking trails without hop-on and hop-off tram services. Had there been a tram hop-on and hop-off service instead of a one full tram tour, we could have explored a couple of walking trails and observed the animals more closely. That might have led to a better experience.
Opening Hours – 6:30 PM to 12 AM
Suggested Duration – 2 to 3 hours
Ticket Cost – SGD 55 or ~INR 3300 (Adult), SGD 38 or ~INR 2280 (Child).
Bird Paradise (formerly called Jurong Bird Park)
Singapore bird park is moved to Mandai in 2023 and renamed as Bird Paradise. Now, all four Singapore wildlife parks are located in the same place in Mandai, thus forming an integrated nature and wildlife reserve known as Mandai Wildlife Reserve.
The earlier bird park was located in Jurong and called Jurong Bird Park.
Bird Paradise is the world’s largest bird park. It houses more than 5000 birds of 400 species. Two bird shows each 20-minutes long are held daily – Wings of the World and Predator on Wings.
Opening Hours – 9 AM to 6 PM
Suggested Duration – Half day
Ticket Cost – SGD 48 or ~INR 2880 (Adult), SGD 33 or ~INR 1980 (Child).
Which Singapore Wildlife Park To Visit
We visited all four parks. During our visit, the bird park was still in Jurong. We had visited all three parks in Mandai in a day and that made the day very hectic and tiring. Jurong Bird Park was visited separately for half a day.
We loved Singapore Zoo and Jurong Bird Park and they are must-visit according to us. Both the parks are massive and have thousands of birds and animals. The animal and bird shows were also fantastic. Each park requires at least half a day to explore all the different zones and attend animal or bird shows.
River Wonders is part zoo and part aquarium. Most of the marine life can also be seen at S.E.A Aquarium at Sentosa. White Pandas and Once Upon a River was the highlight of our visit. We couldn’t experience Amazon River Quest as it was closed for maintenance. If you are hard-pressed for time, you can skip River Wonders.
Klook.comAs mentioned earlier, Night Safari was a disappointment for us. Maybe exploring the park through walking trails leads to a better experience. But if you are not interested in walking, then it is better to skip Night Safari.
If you have kept aside a full day for Wildlife Park, our recommendation is to visit Singapore Zoo and Bird Paradise in a day. Now, the bird park is also in Mandai so it is easy to plan both on the same day.
If you have only half a day, you can visit either Singapore Zoo or Bird Paradise. Both are wonderful but we like Singapore Zoo slightly better.
If you want to visit all the parks, then keep aside at least 1.5 days. You can visit Bird Paradise and Night Safari in one day and Singapore Zoo and River Wonders the next day.
How To Reach Singapore Wildlife Parks
Singapore Wildlife Parks are located far from Singapore’s major attractions. The fastest and most convenient way to reach is by taxi but it will also be the most expensive.
The most economical way to reach Mandai Wildlife Reserve is by public transport. Mandai Wildlife Reserve has its bus stop (Singapore Zoo Coach Bay) and can be reached directly by bus. If you go by MRT, you will have to take connecting bus from MRT stations to reach the wildlife park.
We had opted for the bus route to reach Singapore Zoo from our hotel, Hotel Classic By Venue. We had to interchange bus only once at the Ang Mo Kio bus terminal. The total journey time was about 1.5 hours but was comfortable and involved minimal walking.
Address – 80 Mandai Lake Road, Singapore 729826
Official website – https://www.mandai.com/en/mandai.html
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